Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE WALL
“Don't open that door until you know who's on the other side.”
Vanessa Bellini's warning came so suddenly that Luca Moretti stopped halfway across the dining room.
Fifty guests watched as the woman he intended to marry stood beside the banquet table, her red satin gown trembling around her knees.
“You told me there was nobody downstairs,” Luca said.
Vanessa looked toward the security chief.
“I said you don't understand what you're dealing with.”
“Then explain.”
She opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Beside me, seven-year-old Daniel tightened his grip around the antique silver bell.
“Daddy,” he whispered, “the lady doesn't like the bright lights.”
Luca turned toward his son.
“What do you mean, buddy?”
“She cries when they turn on.”
Arthur Bennett, the seventy-eight-year-old butler, closed his eyes.
I had worked in the Moretti mansion for eleven months. I'd seen Arthur handle angry guests, broken antiques, and Luca's occasional storms of temper without raising his voice.
But now his hands shook so badly that he had to hold the back of a chair.
“Mr. Moretti,” he said quietly, “there's something I should have told you years ago.”
Luca looked at him.
“Years?”
Arthur nodded.
“Your father had certain instructions about the lower level. He told me never to let the service corridor be permanently closed.”
Vanessa interrupted.
“That corridor was unsafe. The renovations were necessary.”
“Renovations?” Luca repeated.
I remembered the workmen arriving four months earlier.
Vanessa had ordered the old service hallway sealed behind decorative paneling. She said the plumbing was unreliable.
I had carried cleaning supplies past that wall countless times.
Once, I'd heard three dull taps.
I'd assumed someone was repairing a pipe.
A terrible thought settled over me.
“Mr. Moretti,” I said, “there's an access panel behind the laundry cabinets.”
Vanessa turned sharply.
“Emma, stop talking.”
For eleven months, I'd lowered my eyes whenever Vanessa entered a room.
Not this time.
“I heard something there last Tuesday.”
Luca looked at me.
“What did you hear?”
“Someone tapping. I thought it was the heating system.”
Daniel tugged my sleeve.
“It wasn't.”
Luca immediately turned to his security chief, Marco Santini.
“Keep everyone upstairs. Nobody touches the security recordings. Call the police and paramedics.”
Marco nodded.
“And Vanessa?”
Luca looked at his fiancée.
“She stays where I can see her.”
Vanessa's expression changed.
For the first time, her anger gave way to something that looked remarkably like fear.
“Luca, if you go down there without understanding what happened, you'll destroy everything your father was trying to protect.”
“Then he should have told me.”
“He tried.”
The words escaped before she could stop them.
Luca stared.
“What?”
Vanessa pressed her lips together.
Arthur whispered, “Sir, we need to move.”
Luca reached for Daniel.
But the boy stepped backward.
“No.”
Luca froze.
“Daniel?”
“I don't want to go downstairs.”
His voice was small.
“Last time, Grandpa told me to hide.”
Luca's expression softened.
“You don't have to go anywhere, buddy.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Emma stays?”
“Of course,” I said.
Luca nodded.
“Stay with my son.”
Then he did something I hadn't expected.
He crouched in front of Daniel and placed both hands gently on his shoulders.
“I'm sorry I didn't listen to you sooner.”
Daniel looked down at the bell.
“Grandpa listened.”
Those two words wounded Luca more deeply than anything Vanessa had said.
“I know,” he whispered.
Then he stood and followed Marco and Arthur downstairs.
I took Daniel into the adjoining morning room, where the noise from the banquet was barely audible.
He climbed onto the sofa and set the silver bell between us.
“Emma?”
“Yes?”
“Is Daddy mad at Grandpa?”
“No, sweetheart.”
“Then why didn't he come when I rang?”
I struggled for an answer.
“Sometimes grown-ups don't understand something important until someone shows them.”
Daniel considered that.
Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
It was a drawing.
A little blue suitcase.
A yellow door.
And a woman wearing a red bracelet.
At the bottom, written in uneven letters, were three words.
DON'T FORGET HER.
“Grandpa helped me write that,” Daniel explained.
I stared at the bracelet.
“Who is she?”
Daniel touched the woman's face.
“Miss Catherine.”
My stomach tightened.
The missing nurse.
“Did Grandpa say why you needed to remember her?”
Daniel nodded.
“Because she was being brave.”
Before I could ask another question, footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Vanessa appeared at the morning-room entrance.
Marco's younger security officer stood behind her.
“Mrs. Bellini insists she needs to speak with Daniel,” he said uncomfortably.
I rose.
“Mr. Moretti said his son should stay with me.”
Vanessa looked at the drawing.
Her face changed.
“Where did you get that?”
Daniel pulled it against his chest.
“It's mine.”
“Daniel, sweetheart, give it to me.”
“No.”
She took a step forward.
I moved between them.
“Please leave.”
Vanessa stared at me.
“You have absolutely no idea what that picture means.”
“Then tell me.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
For a moment, she looked less like the cruel woman who had humiliated me and more like someone approaching the edge of a terrible decision.
“Catherine wasn't supposed to be trapped,” she whispered.
I felt the blood drain from my face.
“You knew?”
Vanessa looked toward the hallway.
“I thought she'd be released.”
“Released from what?”
She shook her head.
“Ask Arthur what happened the night Vittorio died.”
Then she turned and walked away.
I was still staring after her when my phone vibrated.
It was Marco, calling from downstairs.
“Emma, bring the drawing if Daniel has it.”
“What happened?”
He hesitated.
“We found the original service entrance.”
“And Catherine?”
Another pause.
“She is alive.”
I gripped the sofa.
“Thank God.”
“But there's a problem.”
“What problem?”
Marco lowered his voice.
“The woman we found says her name is Catherine Ellis. She recognized Arthur immediately.”
“That's good, isn't it?”
“No.”
I heard someone coughing faintly behind him.
Then a woman's weak voice spoke.
“Tell the boy not to give them the bracelet.”
I looked at Daniel's drawing.
“Why?”
The woman answered before Marco could.
“Because Vittorio didn't hide it to prove who hurt him.”
Her voice trembled.
“He hid it to prove who he was trying to save.”
At that moment, Arthur came onto the line.
And what he said made my fingers go numb.
“Emma, keep Daniel away from the old family photographs.”
“Why?”
Arthur's next words were barely audible.
“Because Catherine just told us that the woman in Daniel's drawing isn't Catherine.”
I stared at the little figure wearing the red bracelet.
Arthur swallowed.
“It's Luca's mother.”
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And then he added:
“THE WOMAN THIS FAMILY BURIED TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO.”
