Lucca Marino—Ten Years Ago

Contains spoilers

Overview

Ten years earlier, teenage Lucca infiltrates a wealthy engagement party in disguise and steals select jewelry from the hosts’ suite. Back home, Lucca cares for her cancer-stricken mother and reflects on the craft-room skills that taught her to transform. The flashback reveals her method—flower-shop access, separate identities, and dismantling jewels—to finance survival.

Summary

Lucca Marino slips through a cracked window into the Albrittons’ home during a crowded engagement party, already dressed to masquerade as a guest. After a brief collision with the intoxicated Mrs. Whittington, Lucca stages a distraction using a noise device, then moves down the hall as if to make a phone call.

Inside the dark master suite’s bath, Lucca dons gloves and locates a heart-shaped jewelry box. She selects a sapphire ring, emerald earrings, and an amethyst-and-diamond necklace, stashing them in her clutch. Lucca exits calmly through the party, snags a lobster roll, returns to the guest room, changes back into leggings and hoodie, and escapes out the window.

Back at the trailer, Lucca greets her ailing mother, brings a cinnamon roll, and folds an origami swan while they talk about work, college hopes, and their dream house. Lucca soothes her mother to sleep, hiding the fear of her declining health.

In the sewing room, Lucca recalls how her mother’s dressmaking and costume work taught the power of transformation. After illness ended her mother’s business, Lucca took a flower-shop job, learned the party circuits, unlatched windows during deliveries, and returned during events to avoid suspicion by striking only after jewelry choices were made.

Lucca maintains separate identities, pries stones from settings, melts gold, and sells pieces across state lines. The risk yields essential cash for medication and treatment. She finishes dismantling the haul, tends to her mother’s meds, and prepares for another wedding job the next night.

Who Appears

  • Lucca Marino
    Seventeen-year-old thief; infiltrates an engagement party in disguise to steal jewelry for her mother’s care.
  • Mama
    Lucca’s ailing mother; loving seamstress whose craft skills inspire Lucca’s transformations and motivate the crimes.
  • Mrs. Albritton
    Wealthy hostess; keeps jewelry in a heart-shaped box that Lucca targets during the party.
  • Mrs. Whittington
    Intoxicated guest who bumps into Lucca, inadvertently helping confirm Lucca’s convincing disguise.
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