Chapter 3 - THE GIRL IN THE PINK COAT
“The other half?”
My voice sounded strange in the enormous ballroom.
Margaret nodded.
“Isabella had the bracelet divided before you were taken away. Elizabeth kept one half. The other was hidden somewhere no one would think to search.”
I stared at Emily's face on Adrian's security monitor.
She looked excited in the first photograph.
In the second, she was smiling politely at Celeste Bellini.
My sister had always trusted people too easily.
Especially older women who reminded her of Elizabeth.
“Find her,” I told Luca.
He was already speaking to Adrian.
“Get the vehicle registration. Alert the police. I want every available camera reviewed.”
Vanessa stood motionless beside the ruined banquet table.
I turned toward her.
“Did you know they were taking Emily?”
“No.”
“Then how did you know everything about her?”
Vanessa glanced toward Luca.
“Because my mother had your family investigated.”
“Why?”
She swallowed.
“Because you weren't supposed to work here.”
For a moment, nobody moved.
I remembered my interview ten months earlier.
The housekeeping supervisor had seemed unusually interested in my family.
She'd asked about my parents, my childhood, even whether I had any relatives in New York.
Two days later, I'd received the job offer.
“Who hired me?” I asked.
Vanessa looked away.
“My mother arranged it.”
I felt the floor shift beneath me.
“You brought me into this house?”
“She wanted to know what you remembered.”
Luca's expression darkened.
“You told me Natalie was recommended by an employment agency.”
“That was what Mother said.”
“And you never questioned it?”
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
“I questioned plenty of things, Luca. You just never noticed.”
He stared at her.
The remark hurt him.
I could see that.
But I didn't care.
Emily was missing.
I stepped closer to Vanessa.
“If anything happens to my sister—”
“I didn't know Celeste would take her!”
“Then help us.”
Vanessa pressed her lips together.
“She owns a cottage near Cold Spring. She goes there when she wants privacy.”
Adrian immediately passed the information to his team.
Luca reached for his coat.
“I'm going.”
“So am I,” I said.
“No.”
I stared at him.
“You don't get to decide that.”
“Natalie, I won't put you in danger.”
“She's my sister.”
His face changed.
For a moment, he looked as though the word had struck something deep inside him.
Then he nodded.
“All right.”
Margaret caught my hand before we left.
“Take this.”
She placed a small brass key in my palm.
It was not the same key she'd used to reveal the hidden wall in the wine cellar.
This one was smaller, with a faded blue thread tied around its neck.
“Elizabeth gave it to me years ago,” she said. “I promised not to use it unless the Bellinis found you.”
“What does it open?”
“She said you'd recognize the place.”
I nearly laughed.
It was such a cruel answer.
My life was falling apart, and everyone seemed to know things about me except me.
But Margaret leaned closer.
“Your mother didn't trust the Moretti family either, Natalie. Remember that.”
I glanced toward Luca.
He was issuing instructions to Adrian.
“What do you mean?”
“Finding your brother doesn't mean you've found the truth.”
Before I could ask more, Adrian returned.
“The car's been located near the Hudson River.”
I followed him toward the doors.
And for the first time in my life, I stepped into a Moretti family vehicle not as an employee.
But as someone whose family was in danger.
The drive north felt endless.
Luca sat opposite me in the back of the armored SUV.
Outside, the city lights gradually disappeared.
I kept staring at my phone.
Emily had sent me three messages that afternoon.
Got my exam grade. Passed!
Don't forget to eat something tonight.
Love you, Nat.
I had replied to the first two.
Not the last.
Luca noticed.
“She knows you love her.”
I looked up.
“You don't know her.”
“No,” he admitted. “But I know what it means to spend years wishing you'd said something before someone disappeared.”
I studied his face.
At forty, Luca Moretti was one of the most feared men in our part of New York.
People whispered about his family.
They said his grandfather had controlled the docks, the gambling houses, and half the politicians along the waterfront.
Luca had inherited legitimate businesses too—restaurants, shipping contracts, luxury properties.
But nobody pretended his fortune had an ordinary history.
Now he sat across from me looking like a frightened son.
“Do you remember your mother?” I asked.
His gaze settled on the window.
“Her perfume. Lavender.”
He paused.
“She used to make paper birds from restaurant receipts. She said birds could always find their way home.”
My throat tightened.
Elizabeth had taught me to fold paper birds.
Whenever I had nightmares, she'd put one beside my pillow.
I told him.
Luca looked at me for a long moment.
Then he reached into his jacket.
He removed a small silver watch.
Its leather strap had been replaced several times.
“My mother gave me this before she disappeared,” he said. “She told me never to let anyone persuade me that what I remembered was wrong.”
He opened the back.
Inside was a tiny photograph.
A boy of about sixteen stood beside a dark-haired woman.
Luca and Isabella.
I touched the picture with one finger.
For the first time, I could see the resemblance.
Her eyes were mine.
But before I could say anything, Adrian's voice came through the vehicle speaker.
“We've reached the cottage. There are lights inside.”
Luca closed the watch.
“Keep your distance until we know where Emily is.”
Adrian acknowledged him.
Then a second voice came over the radio.
“Mr. Moretti, there's someone outside.”
My entire body stiffened.
“Who?”
“A young woman. Pink coat. She's walking toward the road.”
“Emily!”
I threw open the door before the vehicle had fully stopped.
Luca called my name.
I barely heard him.
Emily stood beneath a bare oak tree, clutching her overnight bag.
When she saw me, her face crumpled.
“Natalie!”
She ran toward me.
I caught her so hard we nearly fell.
Her body shook against mine.
“I thought you were working,” she whispered.
“I was. Oh, sweetheart, I was.”
I held her face between my hands.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“No. The lady said she was your friend's mother. She told me you were coming.”
“What happened?”
“She wanted to ask about Mom.”
I froze.
“About Elizabeth?”
Emily nodded.
“She kept asking about the bracelet.”
Luca approached carefully.
Emily looked at him.
Then at me.
“Who's that?”
I swallowed.
“Someone who's helping us.”
Adrian and two guards moved toward the cottage.
A moment later, he reported that Celeste was gone.
The building was empty.
Emily gripped my hand.
“She didn't hurt me, Nat.”
“Then why were you walking down the road?”
“Because she left after I told her I didn't have what she wanted.”
I stared.
“What did you tell her?”
Emily unzipped her overnight bag.
She removed Elizabeth's old blue cardigan.
I recognized it immediately.
Mom used to wear it every winter morning while making coffee.
Emily turned the sleeve inside out.
There was a tiny stitched pocket near the cuff.
“I found this when I was fixing the seam last month.”
She removed half of a silver bracelet.
A delicate row of flowers curved along its edge.
I could barely breathe.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I thought it was just jewelry. I wanted to surprise you on Mom's birthday.”
She looked embarrassed.
“Then the lady said it belonged to someone dangerous.”
Luca took one step closer.
“May I see it?”
Emily hesitated.
I nodded.
He examined the tiny flowers.
Then his expression changed.
“These aren't flowers.”
Margaret's warning echoed in my memory.
Luca turned the bracelet beneath the SUV's interior light.
Along the inside edge were twelve tiny marks.
Not petals.
Letters.
He read them aloud.
“E. M. H. Seven. East.”
I frowned.
“What's that supposed to mean?”
Luca looked suddenly ill.
“East Moretti Harbor. Pier Seven.”
He turned the bracelet over.
There was an inscription.
For my daughter, when she is ready to know why the water remembers.
Emily looked from him to me.
“Nat?”
Luca's voice was barely audible.
“Thirty years ago, my father disappeared after a fire at our harbor warehouse.”
I stared at the bracelet.
“What happened at Pier Seven?”
He looked straight at me.
“That's where my grandfather ordered the last witnesses to be taken.”
“Witnesses to what?”
Luca hesitated.
Then Adrian emerged from the cottage carrying a small cassette tape.
A white label had been attached to it.
In faded blue handwriting were four words:
ISABELLA MORETTI — FINAL STATEMENT.
Adrian looked grim.
“We found this in the bedroom. There's a portable player beside it.”
Luca took the cassette.
But Emily suddenly grabbed my arm.
“Wait.”
Her face had gone pale.
“The woman played that tape for me.”
“What did you hear?” I whispered.
Emily stared at Luca.
“A lady was crying. She said she was scared.”
May you like
Then she looked back at me.
“And she said, ‘If Natalie ever meets Luca, don't let him take her to Pier Seven.’”
