Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE LOCKED DOOR
"But Daddy... the fire hadn't started when Vanessa locked me in."
Sophie Moretti's words seemed to drain every sound from the dining room.
Forty wealthy guests sat motionless beneath the crystal chandeliers.
Emily Carter stood beside the mahogany table, her scarred left arm exposed, while twelve-year-old Sophie clung to her waist.
Luca Moretti looked at his daughter.
"Sweetheart, are you certain?"
Sophie nodded.
"She told me to stay in my room. I heard the lock click."
Vanessa Bellini gave a strained laugh.
"Luca, she was eight years old. She's confusing things."
"I'm twelve now," Sophie answered. "I know what I remember."
Emily felt the girl's fingers tighten around her uniform.
Four years earlier, she had found Sophie beneath a bed in a smoke-filled bedroom near Lake Geneva.
But something about that night had always troubled her.
The locked door.
The woman's voice.
And the unmistakable smell of gasoline near the back staircase.
Luca turned toward Vanessa.
"Why was my daughter locked in her bedroom?"
Vanessa's expression changed.
"Because she kept trying to leave the house."
"Why?"
"She was upset. You'd gone back to Chicago, and she wanted to follow you."
Luca frowned.
"Sophie was supposed to be staying with my mother that weekend."
"Your mother went into town," Vanessa replied quickly. "You know how irresponsible the staff could be."
Sophie shook her head.
"Grandma wasn't there. Vanessa sent her away."
A murmur passed through the guests.
Luca raised one hand.
"Everyone, dinner is over."
Nobody moved immediately.
Then his security chief, Marco DeSantis, entered from the hallway.
"Please follow me," Marco said quietly.
Within minutes, the dining room emptied.
Vanessa remained standing beside her chair.
"You're humiliating me over a childhood memory?"
Luca's voice was controlled.
"You humiliated the woman who saved my daughter's life. Now I'm asking questions."
Emily instinctively lowered her sleeve.
Luca noticed.
"Emily, you don't have to hide your arm."
She looked away.
For four years, those scars had brought strangers' stares, uncomfortable questions, and employers who preferred long sleeves.
Nobody had ever spoken about them with such simple respect.
Sophie pulled gently at Emily's hand.
"Can she stay?"
Luca nodded.
Then he looked back at Vanessa.
"Tell me exactly what happened that afternoon."
Vanessa sat down slowly.
"We argued. Sophie wanted to call you. I told her she needed to calm down."
"So you locked her inside?"
"For ten minutes."
Sophie looked at her father.
"It wasn't ten minutes."
Vanessa's eyes flashed.
"You don't know how long it was."
"I watched the clock."
Emily felt something cold settle in her stomach.
"What clock?" she asked.
Sophie swallowed.
"The little yellow one beside my bed."
Emily remembered it.
A round yellow alarm clock with painted flowers.
Its hands had stopped at 4:17.
She had seen it lying in the bedroom doorway while carrying Sophie toward the window.
"Four seventeen," Emily whispered.
Sophie stared at her.
"That's when the smoke came under my door."
Luca turned sharply.
"Emily?"
"The clock had stopped at 4:17. I remember because the glass was cracked."
Vanessa stood.
"This is ridiculous."
Marco stepped into the doorway.
"Mr. Moretti, there's something you should know."
Luca faced him.
"Not now."
"It's about the fire."
Vanessa immediately stopped moving.
Marco looked uncomfortable.
"Four years ago, the fire investigators questioned the housekeeper. Her name was Helen Price."
"I remember," Luca said.
"She disappeared before the second interview."
Vanessa folded her arms.
"She was a thief. Everyone knew that."
Marco shook his head.
"That was never established."
Emily looked between them.
"What happened to her?"
Marco hesitated.
"We received information this afternoon. She's living in Wisconsin."
Luca frowned.
"Why are you only telling me now?"
"Because I didn't know it was connected to Emily until tonight."
Sophie suddenly stepped away from Emily.
"Wait."
She reached into the small pocket of her dinner dress.
Inside was a silver bracelet with a tiny blue enamel bird.
"I found this in my old jewelry box yesterday."
Vanessa went pale.
"Where did you get that?"
Sophie looked directly at her.
"It was on the floor outside my bedroom."
Emily recognized the bracelet.
Not because she had seen it on Vanessa.
Because she remembered the woman outside the locked bedroom door shouting at someone.
Give me my bracelet back!
Luca took the bracelet carefully.
Inside the clasp were two engraved initials.
H.P.
"Helen Price," Marco whispered.
Vanessa grabbed her evening bag.
"I'm leaving."
Luca stepped into her path.
"Not until we understand what happened."
For the first time that evening, Vanessa looked genuinely frightened.
Then Sophie spoke again.
"Daddy, Helen wasn't trying to hurt me."
Luca turned.
"How do you know?"
Sophie pointed toward the bracelet.
"Because I heard her crying outside my door."
May you like
She swallowed.
"And Vanessa told her that if she opened it, she'd never see her own son again."
