Chapter 7 - THE FIANCÉE WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
“Victoria knows what happened to my mother.”
Lorenzo stood over the open filing cabinet.
The cassette case lay in his palm.
For years, he had treated his mother's death as the final tragedy in a terrible summer.
First Sophie.
Then his mother.
Four months later, his father had become a different man—colder, angrier, and increasingly dependent on Salvatore.
Now Lorenzo was beginning to understand that the tragedies might not have been separate.
Emma read Victoria's note again.
“She wanted you to find this.”
Lorenzo turned.
“What?”
“She replaced the lock but left the original case and a message addressed to you. That isn't how someone acts when they're simply hiding evidence.”
Daniel nodded.
“It may have been a warning.”
“Or a trap,” Lorenzo said.
Emma looked at the empty case.
“Perhaps both.”
They found Victoria at the Sinclair family's former house on Bellevue Avenue.
It was a narrow historic property surrounded by high hedges.
Victoria stood in the front garden wearing a gray wool coat.
She looked nothing like the glamorous woman who had presided over the banquet.
Her hair was loose.
She wore no jewelry.
When she saw Emma, her expression hardened.
“Why is she here?”
“Because you're going to treat her like a person,” Lorenzo answered.
Victoria looked away.
“Fine.”
Lorenzo held up the cassette case.
“Where's the recording?”
Victoria's face turned pale.
“You went to Pier Six.”
“Yes.”
“I told Salvatore that place should have been demolished.”
Emma noticed the bitterness in her voice.
“You told him?”
Victoria looked at her.
“You think you're the only person who has tried to protect someone?”
“You threatened my mother,” Emma replied.
“I paid for her rehabilitation.”
“You paid to keep her quiet.”
Victoria didn't deny it.
Lorenzo stepped closer.
“Start telling the truth.”
Victoria looked at the house.
“My mother lived here until the summer of 2015.”
“Elizabeth.”
“Yes.”
“You told me she died in California.”
“I lied.”
“And your name?”
“Rebecca. I changed it legally when I was twenty.”
“Why?”
“Because every time someone said Rebecca Sinclair, I remembered that night.”
Lorenzo stared at her.
“Were you on the boat?”
Victoria nodded.
“I was seven. Sophie was my best friend.”
Emma thought of the drawing.
The two little girls holding hands.
“Why didn't you tell Lorenzo?” she asked.
Victoria laughed without humor.
“Because Salvatore told me the Morettis would blame my mother for Sophie's death.”
“Did he believe Sophie was dead?” Lorenzo asked.
Victoria hesitated.
“I don't know what he believed then. I know what he told me.”
She led them into the house.
Inside, the furniture was covered with white sheets.
Only a small sitting room appeared recently used.
On the mantel stood a photograph of two little girls dressed in matching yellow raincoats.
Sophie and Rebecca.
Lorenzo picked it up.
His sister was grinning.
Rebecca had one arm around her shoulders.
“They look happy,” Emma said.
Victoria looked at the photograph.
“We were.”
Then she opened a drawer.
Inside lay a blue suitcase.
Small enough for a child.
Its corners were scratched.
“That's the suitcase Anna remembers,” Emma said.
Victoria stared.
“She remembers it?”
“Yes.”
For the first time, Victoria seemed genuinely shaken.
“I thought she'd forgotten everything.”
Lorenzo turned toward her.
“You've seen her.”
“Twice.”
“And you didn't tell me.”
“She didn't know me.”
Victoria sat down.
“The first time I visited, she was painting. I told her my name was Victoria. She asked whether I knew someone called Rebecca.”
Lorenzo felt a sharp ache.
“What did you say?”
“I told her Rebecca had been a friend.”
“Why didn't you tell her you were Rebecca?”
Victoria covered her face.
“Because I was afraid she'd remember what happened at the marina.”
Emma sat opposite her.
“Did you hurt her?”
“No.”
The answer came immediately.
“Then what were you afraid of?”
Victoria lowered her hands.
“That she'd remember what my mother did afterward.”
Lorenzo's eyes narrowed.
“Tell me.”
Victoria looked toward the photograph.
“My mother took the recording from the marina. She intended to use it to force Salvatore to return the stolen money.”
“Blackmail?”
“She called it protection.”
“What happened to her?”
Victoria swallowed.
“Four months later, your mother became seriously ill. Elizabeth went to visit her at the Moretti estate. After that, my mother vanished from my life.”
Emma leaned forward.
“Vanished?”
“Salvatore told me she'd abandoned me. He arranged for relatives in California to raise me.”
“And you believed him?”
“I was seven, Emma!”
The outburst surprised them both.
Victoria pressed her lips together.
Then her voice softened.
“I was a little girl whose mother didn't come home.”
Emma looked at her.
For the first time, she saw the frightened child beneath the woman who had made cruelty look effortless.
That didn't erase the cruelty.
But it gave it a history.
“I'm sorry you lost your mother,” Emma said. “But you didn't have to hurt people who had nothing to do with it.”
Victoria met her gaze.
“I know.”
Lorenzo crossed his arms.
“Where's the cassette?”
Victoria stood.
“I took it from Pier Six because Salvatore was looking for it.”
“Have you listened to it?”
“Yes.”
“What does it say?”
Victoria walked to the fireplace.
She removed a small tin from behind a loose decorative panel.
Inside was an old cassette wrapped in tissue.
Lorenzo reached for it.
Victoria pulled it back.
“Before I give this to you, you need to understand something.”
“Tell me.”
“My mother recorded the meeting because she thought your father would protect her.”
“And?”
“He did something that made everything worse.”
Lorenzo's face hardened.
“What did he do?”
Victoria placed the cassette in a player beside the mantel.
She pressed Play.
Static filled the room.
Then came a man's voice.
Leonardo Moretti.
“Salvatore, return the money and leave the children alone.”
Another voice answered.
Salvatore.
“You don't understand what Elizabeth has done.”
A woman spoke sharply.
“Don't put this on me. I found the accounts.”
Elizabeth.
Then came a second woman's voice.
Lorenzo's mother, Catherine.
“Leonardo, please. Rebecca and Sophie are on the boat.”
The recording crackled.
Salvatore said, “If anyone hears this, your son loses everything.”
Leonardo answered.
“I would rather lose every dollar than let you threaten my children.”
Lorenzo closed his eyes.
Then his mother's voice returned.
“There's another way.”
“What way?” Elizabeth demanded.
“We separate the girls. We make the world believe Sophie drowned. Salvatore won't risk harming a child everyone thinks is already dead.”
Emma felt cold.
The plan had come from Catherine.
Lorenzo stared at the player.
His mother had suggested making Sophie disappear.
Then Elizabeth spoke.
“You're trusting the man who threatened her?”
Catherine answered.
“No. I'm trusting what he fears.”
The tape clicked.
A man's voice rose.
Salvatore.
“You won't have control over her once she's gone.”
Catherine replied.
“I already know that.”
Lorenzo gripped the chair.
“You knew,” he whispered to the recording.
The tape continued.
Elizabeth said something they couldn't hear.
Then Catherine spoke one final sentence.
“If anything happens to me, Lorenzo must never learn why Sophie was taken.”
The recording ended abruptly.
Victoria stood beside the player.
“Now you understand why I didn't tell you.”
Lorenzo shook his head.
“No. I understand that my mother lied. I still don't understand why.”
Victoria looked at the cassette.
“There's more.”
She removed the plastic case.
A second tape had been hidden beneath the cardboard insert.
Its label read:
CATHERINE — SEPTEMBER 28, 2015.
Lorenzo frowned.
“That was two weeks before my mother died.”
Victoria held it carefully.
“My mother recorded this after visiting Catherine in the hospital.”
“What's on it?”
Victoria swallowed.
“A conversation about what Salvatore planned to do to you when you turned thirty.”
Lorenzo was now twenty-nine.
His thirtieth birthday was less than six weeks away.
Victoria placed the second cassette into the player.
Catherine's weak voice emerged.
“Elizabeth, if Lorenzo marries Rebecca, Salvatore gets access to both family trusts.”
Elizabeth answered.
“Then we must keep them apart.”
Catherine whispered something.
Victoria turned up the volume.
The words came through clearly.
“He isn't trying to marry them for love. He's trying to make sure neither child can inherit without his permission.”
Lorenzo stared at Victoria.
Their wedding was scheduled for November.
May you like
Three weeks after his birthday.
And Salvatore had personally insisted on the date.
