Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER RETIRED
“Anthony Bellini owns a care facility?”
Luca looked at Daniel as though he hadn't heard correctly.
Daniel placed the delivery receipt on the coffee table.
“Through one of his holding companies. Lakeshore Haven, outside Chicago.”
I stood beside Nathan's sofa, still holding the little blue notebook.
The name meant nothing to me.
But I understood what it meant to Luca.
Margaret Ellis hadn't simply disappeared.
Someone connected to Vanessa's father knew exactly where she had been.
“Why didn't anyone tell me?” Luca asked.
Daniel lowered his eyes.
“I never received instructions to investigate her whereabouts. Dominic handled the old household records.”
Luca rubbed his forehead.
For the first time, he seemed to recognize how much control he'd surrendered after Caroline died.
Not because he was weak.
Because he'd been grieving.
And certain people had used that grief.
Nathan looked up.
“Daddy, is Miss Margaret sick?”
“We don't know yet, buddy.”
“Can we help her?”
Luca knelt beside him.
“We're going to try.”
The doctor returned shortly afterward.
Nathan's X-ray showed no fracture, though his hand needed rest and follow-up care.
Luca listened to every instruction.
Then he turned to me.
“Emily, can we speak privately for a moment?”
I followed him into the adjoining hallway.
The house was unusually quiet.
Most of the guests had gone.
Vanessa remained in the library with her father and Dominic, while Daniel arranged for everyone involved to give their accounts to the police.
Luca stopped beside a portrait of Caroline.
It had been returned from storage less than an hour earlier.
She was smiling in the photograph.
One hand rested on the piano.
“Emily,” Luca began, “I owe you an apology.”
I looked down.
“Sir, you didn't know what was happening.”
“That's the problem.”
He stared at the portrait.
“This is my home. Nathan is my son. You worked here every day, and somehow I allowed someone to make both of you afraid.”
I didn't know what to say.
He continued.
“I heard Vanessa criticize your work before. I assumed she was demanding because she was planning a wedding.”
“She was demanding, sir.”
“That's not the same as what she did tonight.”
“No.”
Luca nodded.
“You won't lose your job for protecting Nathan. And your medical treatment will be covered.”
My eyes filled unexpectedly.
“Thank you.”
He hesitated.
“Daniel told me your mother has medical bills.”
I stiffened.
“I don't want special treatment.”
“Neither do I.”
He gave a tired, almost sad smile.
“I want to pay you what you're owed and make sure you've been treated fairly. Nothing more complicated than that.”
I nodded.
It was a small conversation.
But after ten months of being called useless, foolish, and replaceable, hearing someone acknowledge my work felt almost overwhelming.
The next morning, Luca went to Lakeshore Haven with Daniel.
I remained at the mansion with Nathan.
We spent an hour restoring Caroline's photographs to the sitting room.
Nathan chose the order.
His mother teaching music.
His mother holding him as a baby.
His mother laughing beside the maple tree.
Then he found a photograph of Caroline and Luca on their wedding day.
“Daddy looked happy,” he said.
I smiled.
“He did.”
Nathan studied it.
“Can people be happy again?”
I sat beside him.
“Yes, sweetheart. Sometimes it takes a while.”
He thought about that.
“Can you be happy here?”
I looked at the little boy.
“I think I can.”
He smiled.
For the first time since the engagement dinner, it reached his eyes.
Luca returned in the early afternoon.
His expression told me something had gone wrong.
Nathan was resting upstairs when he found me in the kitchen.
“Emily, I need to ask you something about the old recorder.”
“Of course.”
“Did you see Vanessa remove a memory card?”
I shook my head.
“I saw the casing open. Several screws were missing.”
“Patrick says the silver recorder used removable storage. The physical recorder wasn't the only place Caroline's messages existed.”
“Then there may be more?”
“Possibly.”
He looked toward the stairs.
“Margaret Ellis is at Lakeshore Haven.”
My heart lifted.
“She's alive?”
“Yes.”
“Did you speak with her?”
Luca's face darkened.
“Briefly.”
He explained that Margaret, now seventy-one, had been admitted after a stroke. She had some difficulty speaking and walking but understood everything around her.
The facility's records described Anthony Bellini as the person responsible for arranging her care.
“Is she there willingly?”
“That's what I'm trying to determine.”
Luca sat heavily at the kitchen table.
“She recognized my name. When I mentioned Caroline, she began crying.”
“What did she say?”
“Three words.”
He looked at me.
“'I kept it.'”
I held my breath.
“The ledger?”
“I think so.”
“But where?”
“She tried to tell me. Then Anthony's facility administrator ended our visit, claiming she was exhausted.”
I frowned.
“That seems convenient.”
“It does.”
He took a folded piece of paper from his pocket.
“Margaret managed to give me this while the administrator was arranging her wheelchair.”
It was a photograph.
Old.
Faded.
A young Caroline stood beside Margaret in a garden.
Between them was a wooden music box.
I recognized it immediately.
“That's in the music room.”
Luca looked up.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. It's on the top shelf near the window.”
He stood so quickly his chair scraped the floor.
We walked together.
The music room smelled faintly of furniture polish and old paper.
Caroline's piano stood in the center.
The cabinet containing the recordings was open.
Several empty spaces marked where Vanessa had removed belongings.
On the shelf sat the wooden music box.
Luca carefully lifted it down.
A small brass plate bore Caroline's initials.
He opened the lid.
A familiar lullaby began playing.
Nathan's bedtime song.
Inside were velvet compartments.
Most were empty.
But beneath the center compartment was a hidden catch.
Luca pressed it.
The lining lifted.
Underneath lay an envelope.
He opened it.
Inside was a handwritten letter from Caroline.
Luca, if you find this, please don't mistake silence for trust. I tried to tell you what I discovered, but I was afraid you wouldn't believe me.
Luca stopped reading.
His hands trembled.
I stepped back to give him privacy.
But he continued aloud.
Your father created the North Harbor Trust to protect Nathan and the families who depended on the company. Dominic changed it. Anthony helped him. I found proof that money intended for scholarships and pensions was diverted.
Luca's face drained of color.
The letter continued.
I gave Margaret the original ledger. She promised to protect it. But there is something else you need to know.
He turned the page.
His breathing changed.
Vanessa came to see me because she was afraid of her father. She didn't come to threaten me the first time. She came to warn me.
I stared at Luca.
“Vanessa tried to help Caroline?”
He nodded slowly.
Then read the final paragraph.
Dominic discovered she'd spoken to me. After that, everything changed. He told Vanessa what would happen to her mother if she refused to cooperate.
Luca lowered the paper.
“Her mother?”
I remembered something Vanessa had once said.
That her mother had died years earlier.
Luca read Caroline's final sentence.
Luca, before you blame Vanessa for everything, find out what happened to her mother.
Then a familiar voice came from the doorway.
“You weren't supposed to find that letter.”
We turned.
Vanessa stood beneath the archway.
She looked exhausted.
Her engagement ring was gone.
And in her hands was a small framed photograph of an elderly woman.
“My mother isn't dead, Luca.”
May you like
Tears ran down her face.
“She's at Lakeshore Haven. And my father told me he'd stop paying for her care if I didn't marry you.”
