Chapter 7 - The Girl in the Photograph
Luca did not speak until they were back at the estate.
Sofia was upstairs with Clara.
Daniel's words had followed them home.
Ask Elena where the real Sofia is.
Elena stood beside the library window.
Luca closed the door.
“Explain.”
“The girl in Boston wasn't Sofia.”
“I know that now.”
“Her name is Mia.”
“Whose daughter?”
Elena looked at him.
“Adrian's.”
Luca stared.
“Clara has a sister?”
“A half sister.”
Adrian sank into a chair.
He knew nothing about her.
Elena explained.
Years after Adrian disappeared, he fell in love with a woman named Rachel Cole while living under an assumed identity.
They had a daughter.
Mia.
When Vittorio's men found Rachel, she was killed.
Adrian escaped with the child.
Elena helped hide her.
The photograph outside the bakery showed Elena and Mia.
“She looks like Sofia because they're cousins,” Elena said.
The mystery finally made sense.
But another question remained.
“Where is Mia?”
Elena looked at Adrian.
“I don't know.”
Adrian's face drained.
“What?”
“Daniel took her three years ago.”
Adrian stood.
“You told me she was safe.”
“I believed she was.”
“You lied to me.”
“I was trying to find her!”
Adrian swept a glass from the table.
It shattered.
Luca stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Adrian's eyes were wet.
“My daughter has been missing for three years.”
“So we find her.”
“How?”
A small voice answered from the doorway.
“I know Mia.”
Everyone turned.
Sofia stood there.
Clara was behind her.
Luca crouched.
“What did you say?”
“Mia.”
“How do you know that name?”
Sofia hugged her rabbit.
“She sends me letters.”
Nobody moved.
“What letters?”
Sofia led them to her bedroom.
Beneath a loose floorboard were seven envelopes.
Luca opened one.
A child's handwriting covered the page.
Dear Sofia, Grandpa says we are cousins but I'm not allowed to meet you yet.
Another:
I heard Mommy Elena sing our song today.
Elena gasped.
The latest letter was dated three weeks earlier.
Grandpa says we're moving again. I don't like the lake house.
Marco immediately began searching properties connected to Daniel Russo.
There were twenty-seven.
Only one stood beside a lake.
A secluded estate in Vermont.
They left before sunset.
The house was empty when they arrived.
But someone had lived there recently.
A child's drawings covered one bedroom.
Two girls holding hands.
A dark-haired woman.
A man with a scar.
Adrian touched the drawing of himself.
“She remembers me.”
On the bed lay a music box.
Clara opened it.
Elena's melody played.
Then Luca noticed a small red light.
“Don't touch anything.”
Marco inspected the music box.
A camera.
Someone had been watching.
The television turned on by itself.
Daniel appeared on-screen from what looked like a hospital room.
His shoulder was bandaged.
“Hello, Luca.”
The recording had been scheduled.
“If you're seeing this, you found the lake house.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Where is she?”
Daniel continued.
“Mia is alive.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“But she isn't with me.”
Daniel explained that Vittorio had secretly moved Mia after realizing Daniel planned to use her as leverage.
Vittorio had left instructions with one trusted associate.
The location was hidden inside the financial ledger.
The same ledger Sofia and Clara could unlock.
Back at the estate, Elena finally explained the song.
Each musical note corresponded to a number.
Clara remembered the melody Elena sang in Boston.
Sofia remembered the altered ending Elena sang in the garden.
Together they reconstructed the sequence.
Marco entered it into the encrypted drive.
The screen unlocked.
Thousands of documents appeared.
Financial crimes.
Bribery.
Murders.
Blackmail.
Then a folder labeled MIA.
Adrian opened it.
An address appeared.
A private boarding school in Maine.
They called.
No student named Mia Cole existed.
Then Clara noticed a photograph in the folder.
A school uniform.
An embroidered crest.
She searched the school's records.
There was a student matching Mia's age registered under another name.
Emma Vale.
Vale.
Luca remembered the missing guard.
Thomas Vale.
They reached the school the next morning.
Thomas was waiting.
He did not run.
He simply raised his hands.
“I was hoping you'd figure it out.”
Adrian nearly killed him.
“Where is my daughter?”
Thomas pointed toward the chapel.
A girl sat alone inside.
Nine years old.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
Adrian stopped in the doorway.
“Mia?”
The girl turned.
For a moment, she looked frightened.
Then she saw the scar on his jaw.
“Daddy?”
Adrian broke.
He fell to his knees.
Mia ran into his arms.
Clara stood behind them, crying as she met the little sister she never knew existed.
For once, Luca allowed himself to believe they had reached the end.
Then Thomas spoke.
“You need to know why Vittorio hid her here.”
Luca turned.
Thomas handed him a sealed envelope.
“He wasn't protecting himself.”
“Then who?”
Thomas's answer stunned them.
“You.”
Luca frowned.
Thomas looked toward Sofia.
“Vittorio discovered Daniel was planning to kill Luca once he had the ledger. He moved Mia so Daniel couldn't unlock it.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It will.”
Thomas nodded toward the envelope.
“Read Vittorio's confession.”
Luca opened it.
His uncle had written twelve pages.
On the final page was one sentence Luca read three times.
I destroyed this family trying to control it, but Daniel Russo was always planning something worse.
Below it:
He put a contract on Luca's life.
May you like
And beneath that was the date.
Tomorrow.
