Chapter 5 - THE SUNDAY GIOVANNI NEVER ARRIVED
“Antonio came instead.”
Luca read the words on the receipt without moving.
We were still in the hospital waiting room.
My mother sat beside me, twisting a tissue between her fingers.
“What happened that Sunday?” Luca asked.
Mom looked at him.
“Giovanni never came.”
“Why?”
“Antonio said your father had changed his mind.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“My father wouldn't have sent Bellini to tell his daughter she wasn't wanted.”
Mom looked at him sadly.
“That's what Rose believed too.”
I leaned forward.
“What did she do?”
“She demanded to speak with Giovanni. Antonio told her that if she contacted the Moretti family again, Elizabeth's safety couldn't be guaranteed.”
Luca stared at the receipt.
“Did he threaten her?”
“Not directly. He never needed to.”
I looked at my mother.
“And you stayed quiet?”
She wiped her eyes.
“I've asked myself that every day.”
Her answer hurt because I could hear how deeply she meant it.
But regret didn't change the years Elizabeth had lost.
Luca pulled a chair closer.
“Mrs. Bennett, my mother believes my father tried to find Elizabeth. Do you know anything about that?”
Mom shook her head.
“Only that he sent a gift.”
“What gift?”
“A gold watch.”
Luca looked up.
“My father's watch?”
Mom nodded.
“Rose said it was an old pocket watch. Giovanni had engraved something inside.”
I remembered Aunt Rose keeping a small velvet pouch in her kitchen drawer.
When I was little, I'd once tried to open it.
She'd told me it wasn't a toy.
“Does Elizabeth have it?” I asked.
Mom hesitated.
“I think Rose does.”
Luca stood.
“I need to speak with Rose.”
Mom caught his sleeve.
“Please don't frighten her.”
He looked down.
“I'm not going to hurt your sister.”
“She's been frightened for so long that she sometimes can't tell the difference anymore.”
That stopped him.
For the first time since I'd met Luca Moretti, I saw him struggle with a problem his money couldn't solve.
Trust.
His father had lost it.
His fiancée had abused it.
And his sister might never offer it to him.
Before we left, Mom reached for my hand.
“Claire, I'm sorry I kept this from you.”
I looked at her.
“Did you think I couldn't handle the truth?”
“No. I thought you shouldn't have to.”
I wanted to forgive her.
But I wasn't ready.
“I need time.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
On the drive back, Luca remained quiet.
Then he said, “Claire, you can take leave. You don't have to be part of this.”
I looked out the window.
“Elizabeth used to help me with my homework. She'd draw little stars beside the answers I got right.”
Luca turned toward me.
“She did?”
I nodded.
“She told me I was smarter than I thought.”
My throat tightened.
“I want her to know I remember.”
Luca looked down at the photograph.
“So do I.”
That evening, Rose Bennett agreed to meet us at her small house outside Rockford.
She opened the door wearing a beige cardigan.
The moment she saw Luca, she stepped backward.
“No.”
“Aunt Rose,” I said.
She looked at my bruised arm.
“What happened to you?”
“That's not why we're here.”
She stared at Luca.
“You look like Giovanni.”
His expression softened.
“You knew my father?”
Rose nodded.
“Once.”
“Did he send Elizabeth a watch?”
Her eyes filled immediately.
She stepped aside.
“Come in.”
The house smelled of coffee and old books.
Everything was exactly as I remembered.
The yellow kitchen curtains.
The wooden table with one uneven leg.
A photograph of Elizabeth at sixteen, smiling beside a birthday cake.
Rose saw Luca looking at it.
“She was a good girl.”
“Where is she?” he asked.
Rose lowered herself into a chair.
“She doesn't want to see anyone named Moretti.”
“Because of the letter?”
Rose looked startled.
“You know about that?”
“Yes. I didn't write it.”
She covered her face.
“Oh, dear God.”
I knelt beside her.
“Aunt Rose, what happened?”
Rose began crying.
“Elizabeth wanted a family. She wanted so badly to believe somebody had been looking for her.”
I touched her hand.
“Why did you stop her?”
Rose looked at me.
“Because I thought I was keeping her alive.”
She told us about the Sunday Giovanni had promised to visit.
Elizabeth had been waiting in a blue dress.
She'd placed flowers in a jar beside the front door.
Antonio arrived alone.
He said Giovanni had changed his mind.
Then he showed Rose a photograph of Elizabeth walking to school.
On the back were the words:
Children can have accidents.
Luca's face hardened.
Rose shook her head.
“I didn't know whether he meant it. But I knew he wanted me afraid.”
“Do you still have the photograph?” Luca asked.
Rose nodded.
She opened a kitchen cabinet and removed an old biscuit tin.
Inside were birthday cards, school photographs, and a little silver necklace.
Then she lifted out a velvet pouch.
From it came a gold pocket watch.
Luca recognized it immediately.
“My grandfather gave that to my father.”
Rose handed it to him.
“He wanted Elizabeth to have it.”
Luca opened the cover.
Inside was an engraving.
To my little girl. Time cannot change who you are. Love, Dad.
For several seconds, he couldn't speak.
Then he noticed a small scratch beside the hinge.
He pressed it.
A hidden inner cover opened.
Inside was a folded strip of paper.
Luca carefully removed it.
His face changed as he read.
“What does it say?” I asked.
He looked at Rose.
“My father wrote that if anything happened to him, Elizabeth should ask for the original 1998 trust ledger.”
Rose frowned.
“Why?”
Luca continued reading.
“Because the ledger would show who had been receiving money in her name.”
I looked at him.
“Antonio?”
“Maybe.”
He turned the paper over.
There was one more line.
If Thomas Reed refuses to release it, tell him I kept the photograph from November 14.
Luca went still.
“Thomas wasn't just Vanessa's attorney.”
Rose looked frightened.
“What do you mean?”
Luca folded the paper.
“He was my father's attorney too.”
Just then, Rose reached beneath the biscuit tin and brought out a child's drawing.
It showed a little girl standing between two adults.
Above them was a house with a red roof.
On the back, in Elizabeth's handwriting, was a date from thirty years earlier.
May you like
And beneath it were five words that made Luca's face drain of color.
MR. REED TOOK DADDY AWAY.
