Chapter 3 - The Child Who Disappeared Twice
The first gunshot shattered the office window.
Luca threw Vanessa to the floor.
Glass rained across the Persian rug.
Emily screamed as a second shot struck the wooden door.
"Stay down!" Luca ordered.
He pulled both women behind Antonio's massive oak desk and reached for the emergency transmitter beneath it.
The transmitter was dead.
Someone had disabled the private security circuit.
Luca cursed under his breath.
Outside, footsteps thundered along the hallway.
"Boss!" Marcus shouted. "It's me!"
"Identify yourself!"
"Marcus Bell. Security code seven-four-two."
Luca unlocked the door.
Marcus entered with two armed guards.
"Perimeter breach," he reported. "South camera feed was replaced. We found the surveillance technician unconscious in the equipment room."
"Who fired?"
"Unknown. Shooter's gone."
Luca glanced at Vanessa.
She was sitting on the floor, staring at the broken window.
A thin line of blood ran down her wrist.
Emily knelt beside her.
"You're hurt."
"It's nothing."
But Vanessa was shaking so badly she could barely speak.
Luca turned to Marcus.
"Get a medic. Then find Margaret Carter."
Marcus nodded.
"Already sending a team."
"Alive, Marcus."
"Understood."
Within twenty minutes, the mansion had become a fortress.
Security vehicles surrounded the property. Every employee was accounted for. The damaged surveillance equipment was disconnected from the network.
Luca moved Vanessa and Emily to a secure sitting room.
He refused to let either woman leave.
Not because he trusted them.
Because he no longer knew whom he could trust.
At midnight, Marcus returned.
"We found Margaret."
Emily stood immediately.
"Where?"
"At her house."
"Is she okay?"
Marcus hesitated.
Luca recognized the expression.
"Tell us."
"She's alive. But someone broke in."
Emily pressed a hand against her chest.
"Was she hurt?"
"She's being examined by paramedics. She says she wants to speak to you, Luca. Alone."
"No," Emily said.
Everyone looked at her.
"She's my mother. I'm going."
Luca studied the young maid.
Emily had worked in the mansion for four years. She was twenty-six, quiet, observant, and almost invisible to the wealthy guests who passed through the halls.
Tonight, she had noticed what everyone else had overlooked.
The bullet hole.
The keyhole.
The hidden compartment.
And now she was refusing an order from the man who paid her salary.
"You're coming," Luca said.
Vanessa stepped forward.
"So am I."
Luca shook his head.
"Absolutely not."
"Those records are about me."
"Someone just tried to kill us."
"Exactly."
Her eyes filled with anger.
"I'm finished letting other people decide what I'm allowed to know."
Luca wanted to argue.
Instead, he looked at Marcus.
"Three vehicles. Full escort."
They reached Margaret's house shortly after one in the morning.
The front door had been forced open.
Two windows were broken.
Margaret sat at the kitchen table beneath a yellow lamp, wrapped in a blanket.
When she saw Emily, she began to cry.
Her daughter rushed into her arms.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Margaret noticed Vanessa.
Her face changed.
"Oh, God."
Vanessa stopped.
"You recognize me."
Margaret covered her mouth.
"Those eyes."
Luca pulled out a chair.
"Margaret. We need the truth."
The older woman looked at him.
"You have your mother's eyes too, Mr. Moretti."
"Then tell me what she did."
Margaret stared at the table.
"Your mother didn't adopt Vanessa because she wanted another daughter."
Vanessa stiffened.
"Then why?"
"Because a little girl was going to be killed."
Silence filled the kitchen.
Margaret continued.
"Twenty-eight years ago, your father was involved in a business arrangement with a man named Samuel Voss."
Luca knew the name.
Voss had once controlled half the shipping terminals along the East Coast.
He had disappeared from organized crime circles after a federal investigation.
"My father worked with Voss?"
"At first."
"What happened?"
"Voss discovered that your mother had found evidence of his illegal financial operations. He threatened to destroy your family."
Margaret looked at Vanessa.
"And then your mother found you."
Vanessa's lips trembled.
"Where?"
"In a house near the Hudson River. You were seven. Your mother had disappeared. You'd been left with people who were being paid to keep you quiet."
"Why?"
"Because you had witnessed something."
Vanessa stared at her.
"What?"
Margaret shook her head.
"I don't know. Elena never told me."
Luca leaned forward.
"Then explain the adoption record."
"Your parents created a legal identity to protect her. They intended to raise her until the danger passed."
Vanessa's expression hardened.
"But they didn't."
"No."
"Why?"
Margaret began crying again.
"Because Elena was killed."
Luca went still.
His mother had died in a car accident when he was a teenager.
At least, that was what Antonio had told him.
"She was murdered?"
Margaret nodded.
"Her car was forced off the road. Your father knew who ordered it, but he couldn't prove it."
Luca looked away.
For years, he had blamed his father for becoming cold after Elena's death.
He had never considered that Antonio might have been living with fear.
"What happened to Vanessa?" he asked.
Margaret wiped her face.
"Antonio sent her away. He arranged a new identity with a trusted family. He believed that if she remained near you, Voss would eventually find her."
Vanessa whispered, "I remember a woman crying when they took me."
Margaret nodded.
"That was me."
Vanessa closed her eyes.
"And the photograph?"
"Your mother holding you as a baby?"
"Yes."
Margaret frowned.
"That wasn't taken after the adoption."
Luca looked up.
"What?"
"It was taken years earlier."
Vanessa's face drained of color.
"How could Elena have been holding me as a baby if she didn't find me until I was seven?"
Margaret stared at her.
Then at Luca.
"Because Elena knew your birth mother."
Luca leaned forward.
"Who was she?"
Margaret looked toward the broken kitchen window.
"Her name was Catherine Vale."
Vanessa repeated the name softly.
"Catherine Vale."
"She was Elena's closest friend. And she worked as an accountant for Samuel Voss."
Luca understood immediately.
"She discovered something."
Margaret nodded.
"Something worth killing for."
Emily reached for her mother's hand.
"What happened to Catherine?"
Margaret's expression turned strange.
"That's the part your father never told anyone."
She stood, walked to an old kitchen cabinet, and removed a small metal box.
Inside were several letters and a yellowed newspaper clipping.
The headline read:
ACCOUNTANT AND INFANT DAUGHTER PRESUMED DEAD IN HOUSE FIRE.
Luca examined the date.
Twenty-eight years earlier.
Vanessa stared at the clipping.
"But I was alive."
Margaret nodded.
"Yes."
"Then why did the newspapers say I died?"
Margaret looked at Luca.
"Because someone needed the world to believe Catherine Vale's daughter was gone."
Luca unfolded the first letter.
It was written in Elena's handwriting.
Antonio, if anything happens to me, protect both children. Catherine trusted us with her daughter, but she never told Voss about the second baby.
Luca's hands went cold.
"The second baby?"
Margaret shut her eyes.
Vanessa whispered, "I had a sibling?"
Margaret nodded.
"A twin."
Luca stared at the letter.
"Where is the other child?"
Margaret opened her mouth.
Before she could answer, Emily spoke from behind him.
"Mom?"
May you like
Her voice was barely audible.
"Why is there a photograph of me in that box?"
