Chapter 2 - THE SUITCASE HIS BROTHER WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO CARRY
“Put that suitcase down, Michael, or I swear you will never come near my daughter again.”
Adrian Romano's voice was so quiet that Hannah Miller barely recognized it.
His younger brother stood in the doorway of Margaret's locked bedroom, gripping Sophie's pink overnight suitcase.
On Michael's phone, Bianca's message was still glowing.
DID YOU GET SOPHIE OUT? ADRIAN MUST NOT FIND OUT WHO REALLY SIGNED HIS WIFE'S DEATH CERTIFICATE.
Adrian read it twice.
Then he looked at his brother.
“Explain that.”
Michael swallowed.
“It's not what you think.”
“Then you have ten seconds to tell me what it is.”
Margaret tried to rise from her chair, but her legs trembled.
Hannah hurried to retrieve the walker that Bianca had deliberately placed beyond the elderly woman's reach.
“Don't let him take Sophie,” Margaret whispered.
Michael's face tightened.
“I wasn't going to hurt her.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Where were you taking my daughter?”
Michael glanced toward the hallway.
“To a safe place.”
“Where?”
“A school.”
Hannah felt her stomach drop.
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Oh, Michael.”
Adrian held out his hand.
“The suitcase.”
Michael hesitated.
Then he surrendered it.
Adrian placed it on the bed and unzipped the front compartment.
Inside were Sophie's pajamas, her favorite stuffed rabbit, three pairs of socks, and a folded blue cardigan.
Underneath lay an envelope.
Adrian opened it.
A printed itinerary showed two airline tickets to Burlington, Vermont.
One passenger was Michael Romano.
The other was Sophie Romano.
Departure: 6:45 that evening.
Adrian stared at the paper.
“You were going to put my nine-year-old daughter on an airplane without telling me?”
“Bianca said you would never agree.”
“Bianca doesn't decide where my daughter lives.”
Michael looked miserable.
“She told me the arrangement was temporary. A specialized residential program. Sophie would receive proper instruction, and you could concentrate on the wedding and the business.”
“Proper instruction?”
Adrian's voice sharpened.
“My daughter already attends a school she loves.”
Michael said nothing.
Hannah remembered something Sophie had signed three days earlier.
Bianca says my hands make Daddy sad.
At the time, Hannah had reassured her.
Now the memory made her sick.
Adrian turned toward Margaret.
“Mom, what does this have to do with Elena's death certificate?”
Elena Romano had been dead for five years.
Adrian had buried his wife after a devastating car accident outside Boston.
He had spent those years believing the accident was the cruelest thing that had ever happened to his family.
Michael's expression changed.
For the first time, he looked genuinely frightened.
“Adrian, that was five years ago.”
“Then it should be easy to discuss.”
Michael lowered his voice.
“There are things about that night you don't understand.”
Adrian took another step.
“Then help me understand them.”
But Michael backed away.
“I can't.”
Margaret began crying.
“Your wife trusted you both.”
The words struck harder than an accusation.
Adrian looked at the woman who had raised him, then at the brother who would barely meet his eyes.
“Rafael!”
His security chief appeared immediately.
“Sir?”
“Keep Michael here. No phones. No visitors. And find Sophie.”
“She's with Mrs. Donnelly in the family sitting room.”
“Bring her to me.”
Michael suddenly caught Adrian's sleeve.
“Brother, listen. Bianca isn't the only person involved.”
Adrian looked down at his hand.
“Then you'd better decide whose side you're on.”
Michael released him.
Five minutes later, Sophie rushed into the room.
Her eyes found the open suitcase.
She stopped.
Her small hands began moving.
Am I leaving?
Adrian knelt.
No.
She looked unconvinced.
Bianca said you don't want me home.
The words devastated him.
Adrian struggled to remember how to express everything he wanted to say.
His hands moved awkwardly.
That is not true.
Sophie stared at him.
Then she signed something faster.
Adrian couldn't follow.
He looked helplessly toward Hannah.
Hannah crouched beside them.
“She's asking why Bianca told her that Grandma was sick because Sophie made too much noise.”
Margaret covered her mouth.
Sophie was deaf.
She rarely made noise without realizing it.
Yet Bianca had convinced her that even her presence hurt the people she loved.
Adrian pulled his daughter into his arms.
“You belong here,” he whispered.
Hannah gently touched his shoulder.
“She needs to see your hands, sir.”
Adrian released Sophie enough to face her.
Then he signed, carefully.
You are my daughter. This is your home. Always.
Sophie began crying.
She threw her arms around his neck.
For several moments, nobody spoke.
Then Adrian stood.
“Rafael, get my mother's doctor. Call the police and report her confinement. Preserve every security recording from the last month.”
“And the wedding, sir?”
Adrian looked at Sophie's frightened face.
“There is no wedding.”
Downstairs, the ballroom still glittered beneath three enormous chandeliers.
Eighty guests waited beside flower arrangements that had cost more than Hannah earned in a year.
Bianca stood near the champagne tower.
When Adrian entered with Sophie holding one hand and Hannah walking beside Margaret's wheelchair, Bianca smiled.
“There you are, darling. I told everyone this was a misunderstanding.”
Adrian stopped in the center of the room.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the wedding is canceled.”
A shocked murmur spread through the crowd.
Bianca's smile disappeared.
“Adrian!”
“My mother was locked in an upstairs bedroom. My daughter was being sent away without my permission.”
“That's a ridiculous exaggeration!”
Adrian held up the airline itinerary.
“Would you like to explain this?”
Bianca's eyes darted toward Michael, who had followed under Rafael's supervision.
Michael looked away.
For one second, genuine hurt crossed Bianca's face.
Then she straightened.
“I was trying to protect this family.”
“From what?”
“From a child who has been encouraged to invent terrible things!”
Hannah felt Sophie's fingers tighten around hers.
Adrian's expression hardened.
“You will not speak about my daughter that way again.”
Bianca pointed at Hannah.
“She's the reason for all this! She filled that girl's head with nonsense because she wants your money!”
Hannah went pale.
Her mother's dialysis appointment was the following morning.
She needed this job.
But Sophie was watching.
And Hannah could not bear the thought of teaching that little girl that silence was safer than the truth.
“I didn't teach Sophie what to say,” Hannah answered. “I listened when she said it.”
Bianca raised her hand.
Adrian caught her wrist before she could strike Hannah again.
“Enough.”
He released her and removed the engagement ring from his pocket.
He placed it on the nearest table.
Beside a vase of white roses.
“Collect your personal belongings under supervision. You are no longer welcome in this house.”
Bianca stared at the ring.
“You think you're making a noble decision?”
“No. I'm making a decision I should have made weeks ago.”
Her eyes filled with tears, but her voice remained bitter.
“When you learn what your precious family did to Elena, don't come looking for me.”
She walked away.
Adrian didn't follow.
By the time the guests departed, Margaret had been examined by her doctor.
She was dehydrated, exhausted, and frightened, but stable.
Michael remained in the library with Rafael.
Sophie refused to let Hannah leave her side.
Near midnight, Adrian returned to Margaret's room.
His mother was sitting up, holding an old photograph.
“There's something I should have shown you years ago,” she said.
Adrian took the picture.
It showed Elena standing outside a Boston hospital.
She was wearing a pale blue coat.
Beside her stood a younger woman in a burgundy jacket.
The woman wore a hospital identification badge.
Adrian recognized her immediately.
Bianca.
He turned the photograph over.
Written in Elena's handwriting was a date.
August 14, 2021.
The day Elena died.
Adrian slowly lifted his eyes.
“Mom, Bianca told me she never met Elena.”
Margaret's hands shook.
“She lied.”
Adrian looked again at the photograph.
Then he noticed something that made his blood run cold.
Bianca wasn't simply standing beside his wife.
She was holding Elena's medical folder.
May you like
And across the folder, in thick red letters, someone had written:
DO NOT RELEASE TO THE ROMANO FAMILY.
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