Chapter 4 - THE DAUGHTER THEY HIRED TO DESTROY
“Vanessa put me inside your house because she knew I was Anna's daughter.”
I said the words slowly, looking directly at Luca.
He stood beside Catherine's kitchen table, holding the employment letter as though it might burn his fingers.
“I didn't know,” he said.
“Maybe not. But somebody in your house knew exactly who I was.”
Catherine reached for my hand.
“Emily, you don't have to go back there.”
I looked at the overdue medical bills scattered across her table.
For eleven months, I had cleaned marble floors, carried breakfast trays, and worked double shifts because I believed my mother's treatment depended on it.
Now I understood something far worse.
Vanessa hadn't simply hired a housekeeper.
She had placed Anna Moretti's daughter within reach.
“Why?” I whispered.
Luca turned the letter over.
“That's what we're going to find out.”
I looked at him.
“No more keeping things from me.”
He met my eyes.
“Agreed.”
“Even if it makes your family look bad.”
“Especially then.”
For the first time that night, I believed him.
Luca took photographs of the coat, the receipt, and the employment letter before we left Catherine's apartment.
He asked Catherine to keep the originals somewhere safe.
Then he sat beside her.
“Mrs. Carter, I owe your family an apology.”
She shook her head.
“You didn't know about Emily.”
“I knew my father could be cruel. I convinced myself that meant I had to be harder than him to survive.”
Catherine studied him.
“Then don't make the same mistake he made.”
“What mistake?”
“Thinking protecting your family means deciding what they're allowed to know.”
Luca lowered his eyes.
I saw the words reach him.
Before leaving, I hugged Catherine tightly.
“Are you angry with me?” she whispered.
I pulled back.
“For what?”
“For not telling you.”
I couldn't pretend it didn't hurt.
“Yes,” I admitted. “A little.”
Her face crumpled.
“But I still love you, Mom.”
She began crying.
I held her until she stopped.
Some truths didn't repair themselves in a single conversation.
But I wasn't going to let one secret erase twenty-five years of love.
At the hospital, Isabella was awake.
Her left ankle had been placed in a protective boot, and three small stitches closed the cut above her eyebrow.
The doctors were monitoring her overnight.
When she saw me, her eyes filled with tears.
“Emily.”
I hurried to her bedside.
“I'm here.”
She reached toward the silver bracelet on my wrist.
I'd put it on before leaving Catherine's apartment.
Isabella touched the heart-shaped charm.
“Anna's,” she whispered.
I nodded.
“She sent it to me.”
Isabella began crying.
Luca stepped closer.
“Mom, we know Emily is Anna's daughter.”
His mother closed her eyes.
For several seconds, she didn't speak.
Then she whispered, “I... knew.”
The words struck me harder than I'd expected.
“You knew?”
She nodded.
“For... months.”
I stepped backward.
“You watched me work in your house every day, knowing I was your granddaughter?”
Isabella's expression broke.
“Sorry.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
She struggled to speak.
Luca reached for her hand.
“Mom, don't force yourself.”
But Isabella shook her head.
“Richard... warned.”
Luca stiffened.
“What did he say?”
She swallowed.
“Emily... loses... home.”
I frowned.
“My home?”
Isabella looked toward my bracelet.
“Catherine.”
I understood.
Richard had used the people I loved to silence her.
Isabella's fingers tightened around mine.
“Not... safe.”
The old woman who had been refusing to leave her bedroom wasn't afraid of dying.
She was afraid of losing the people she had finally found.
I leaned down.
“You should have told me.”
A tear slipped down her cheek.
“I... tried.”
I remembered all those afternoons when Isabella asked me to sit beside her.
How she'd asked about my childhood.
My favorite birthday.
Whether Catherine had been kind.
At the time, I thought she was lonely.
Now I understood she'd been learning about the granddaughter she'd lost.
Daniel entered the room carrying a tablet.
“Boss, I recovered the hallway footage.”
Luca turned.
“Show me.”
Daniel hesitated.
“There's a problem.”
The recording from the camera facing the staircase had stopped at 7:41 p.m.
It resumed eleven minutes later.
By then, Isabella was already on the floor.
“Someone disabled it,” Luca said.
Daniel nodded.
“But the service corridor camera was still running.”
He opened another recording.
The screen showed a narrow hallway behind the grand staircase.
At 7:39, Vanessa appeared carrying a pair of black orthopedic shoes.
Isabella's shoes.
She stopped beside a storage cabinet and examined them.
Then she pulled something from one shoe.
A small folded packet.
My stomach tightened.
“That's why Isabella said Vanessa took the wrong ones,” I whispered.
Luca looked at me.
“What?”
“Your mother had hidden the key in her slippers because Vanessa was searching her regular shoes.”
Daniel continued the video.
A man entered the corridor.
Tall.
Gray-haired.
Wearing a charcoal overcoat.
Luca's expression darkened.
“Richard.”
Vanessa's father.
Richard Bellini took the folded packet.
He opened it, read something, and shook his head.
Vanessa appeared to argue with him.
Then Richard pointed toward the staircase.
The recording had no sound.
A moment later, both disappeared from view.
“That's not enough to prove what happened,” Daniel said.
Luca nodded.
“But it proves Richard was here.”
I stared at the screen.
“Where did he go afterward?”
Daniel moved to another camera.
Richard left through the garden entrance at 7:52.
He carried the same packet.
“Can you identify what was inside?” Luca asked.
“Not from this angle.”
I leaned closer.
“Wait.”
Daniel paused the recording.
At the bottom of Richard's overcoat was a small wet stain.
Dark blue.
I recognized it immediately.
“That looks like ink.”
Luca frowned.
“From what?”
“Your mother's fountain pen.”
I remembered cleaning Isabella's writing desk two days earlier.
Her favorite blue ink bottle had been missing.
At the time, I assumed she'd misplaced it.
“Mrs. Moretti was trying to write something,” I said. “She kept asking for paper, but Miss Bellini told me she'd become frustrated with handwriting.”
Isabella made a distressed sound.
I turned.
“Your pen?”
She nodded.
“Drawer.”
“Which drawer?”
Her lips trembled.
“Emily... room.”
I stared at her.
“My room?”
She nodded again.
Luca looked toward Daniel.
“Have someone check Emily's bedroom. Don't disturb anything until it's photographed.”
But Isabella began shaking her head.
“No... no.”
I leaned closer.
“What is it?”
She reached for my bracelet.
“Not... safe.”
Luca frowned.
“Mom, Emily's room is inside the house. Daniel can secure it.”
Isabella closed her eyes.
Then she spoke more clearly than she'd managed all evening.
“That's where they put it.”
I felt a terrible chill.
“Put what?”
Her hand trembled against mine.
“The money.”
Twenty minutes later, Daniel's team entered my small bedroom in the staff wing.
Luca and I watched through a secure video connection from the hospital.
My bed was neatly made.
My books sat beside the lamp.
The little framed picture of Catherine and Thomas was still on my dresser.
Everything looked normal.
Then Daniel opened my closet.
Behind my winter coats sat a black leather briefcase.
I'd never seen it before.
He photographed it, then opened it while wearing gloves.
Inside were bundles of cash.
A company access badge.
And a bank transfer form bearing my name.
One hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
My knees weakened.
“I've never seen any of that.”
Luca reached for my arm.
“I believe you.”
Daniel examined the badge.
“Boss, this was reported missing from the Bellini legal office last week.”
Luca swore beneath his breath.
I looked at him.
“They're going to say I stole it.”
He didn't answer.
Because we both understood.
Vanessa had hired me, kept me financially dependent, and spent months turning Luca against me.
Now the missing money had appeared in my bedroom.
Daniel lifted the transfer form.
“There's something else.”
He turned it toward the camera.
At the bottom was a receipt dated that morning.
The supposed payment description read:
Compensation for delivery of confidential Moretti family records.
Luca stared at it.
“They're making it look like Emily sold our documents.”
But Daniel wasn't finished.
He reached beneath the cash and removed a small velvet pouch.
Inside was a gold necklace with a round pendant.
Luca stopped breathing.
“Where did you get that?”
Daniel looked confused.
“It was in the briefcase.”
Luca moved closer to the screen.
“My father gave that necklace to Anna when she turned eighteen.”
He swallowed.
“She was wearing it the last day I saw her.”
I stared at the pendant.
Something was scratched into the back.
Daniel tilted it toward the camera.
Five small words.
If she disappears, blame Emily.
For a terrible moment, nobody spoke.
Then Daniel looked up.
“Boss, there's one more thing you need to see.”
He turned the briefcase around.
Attached to the inside lid was a printed photograph.
It showed Anna Moretti entering Rose's bakery.
The date was yesterday.
And behind Anna, partially hidden by the bakery window, stood a man wearing a dark coat.
A man I recognized.
Because he had been sitting in the hospital waiting room when we arrived.
May you like
Daniel's voice became urgent.
“Luca, that man is still at the hospital.”
