Chapter 2
### The Photograph Hidden Behind the Nursery Wall
At 11:43 that night, Luca Moretti locked the doors to his study and ordered every security camera on the estate reviewed.
He had spent three years paying investigators, threatening informants, and searching hospital records for a woman the world had declared missing.
Now he had seen Isabella with his own eyes.
She had been alive.
And his daughter had been trying to tell him.
“Start with the garden cameras,” Luca ordered.
Marcus Bell, his head of security, stood beside the desk with a tablet in his hand.
“I've reviewed the footage twice. The woman appears at 8:16 p.m. She leaves the frame at 8:19.”
“Leaves how?”
“The eastern fence has a service gate. It was unlocked.”
“Who unlocked it?”
Marcus hesitated.
“That access code belongs to three people. You, me, and Vanessa.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“Change every code on the property. Nobody enters or leaves without my authorization.”
“Already done.”
“Find the vehicle that passed her. I want the driver, registration, and every camera that caught it.”
Marcus nodded.
Then he added, more quietly, “Boss, there's something else.”
He placed a photograph on the desk.
It showed a black sedan parked near the Hudson River on the night Isabella disappeared, three years earlier.
The vehicle's license plate was partially visible.
Luca recognized it immediately.
It belonged to his older brother, Gabriel.
Gabriel had died in a warehouse fire six months before Isabella vanished. Luca had never questioned whether the car in the photograph was his.
“Where did you get this?”
“From the original police file. It wasn't included in the investigator's final report.”
Luca stared at the photograph.
“Who removed it?”
“The report was handled by Detective Richard Hale. He retired shortly after Isabella disappeared.”
Luca looked up.
“Find him.”
Marcus left without another word.
Upstairs, Emma was sitting beside Sophie's bed.
The little girl had refused to sleep alone after the engagement party. Her cheek remained faintly red, and every time a car passed outside, she startled awake.
Emma brushed a strand of hair from her forehead.
“Do you want me to stay until you fall asleep?”
Sophie nodded.
“Will Daddy find Mommy?”
Emma's heart ached.
“I think he's going to try very hard.”
Sophie reached beneath her pillow and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
“I kept this.”
Emma opened it carefully.
It was a child's drawing of a woman standing beyond a fence. The woman wore a white coat, and above her head Sophie had written one word in uneven letters.
MOMMY.
“When did you draw this?”
“The first time she came.”
Emma studied the date written in the corner.
It was nine days earlier.
“Did you talk to her?”
Sophie shook her head.
“She put her hand on the fence. I waved, but she cried.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“I told Vanessa.”
Emma's stomach tightened.
“What did she say?”
Sophie lowered her voice.
“She said if I told Daddy, you'd disappear too.”
Emma went still.
“Did she say anything else?”
Sophie nodded.
“She said Mommy was dead and that people who make up stories get sent away.”
Emma carefully folded the drawing.
“Sweetheart, you haven't done anything wrong.”
Sophie clutched her hand.
“Can you promise not to leave me?”
Emma didn't know why the question frightened her more than it should have.
But she promised to stay for the night.
At dawn, Emma went to the nursery to retrieve a clean blanket. Sophie had fallen asleep holding her old stuffed rabbit, and Emma didn't want to wake her.
As she straightened the bed, she noticed a narrow line in the wallpaper behind the headboard.
One corner had begun to peel.
She gently pressed it.
The panel moved.
Behind it was a small, shallow compartment.
Inside lay a photograph, a brass key, and a sealed envelope bearing Isabella's handwriting.
Emma recognized the handwriting from the labels on the boxes of old photographs in the upstairs hallway.
Her fingers trembled as she opened the envelope.
If Sophie has started seeing me, then Vanessa has moved faster than I feared.
Do not trust the woman she claims to be.
Find the blue room beneath the old chapel.
And whatever you do, don't let Luca open the second envelope until you know who betrayed me.
There was no signature.
Emma turned the page over.
A second note had been written in hurried, uneven strokes.
Emma, if you're the one reading this, you were right to stay.
Emma felt the blood drain from her face.
How could Isabella have known her name?
She had joined the Moretti household only four months earlier. She had never met Isabella, at least not as far as she could remember.
She slipped the letter into her apron just as footsteps sounded in the hallway.
Vanessa appeared in the doorway.
Her evening gown had been replaced by a cream silk robe. Her hair was perfectly arranged, but her eyes were swollen from a sleepless night.
“What are you doing in here?”
“Changing the bedding, ma'am.”
Vanessa's gaze moved to the disturbed wallpaper.
For a fraction of a second, her expression changed.
Then she smiled.
“Leave the nursery. I'll take care of Sophie myself.”
“Mr. Moretti asked me to stay with her.”
“And I'm going to be his wife.”
Emma didn't move.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“You seem to have forgotten your place.”
“I know exactly where I belong.”
Vanessa's smile vanished.
She reached toward the wallpaper and pushed the panel shut.
“Then remember something else. Isabella Moretti was a troubled woman. Whatever you think you saw last night, it wasn't her.”
Emma kept her face blank.
“I didn't say I thought it was anyone.”
Vanessa studied her.
Then she leaned close enough for Emma to smell her perfume.
“Good. Because if you start asking questions about the old chapel, you'll discover why nobody goes down there anymore.”
She turned and left.
Emma waited until the footsteps faded.
Then she took out the brass key.
On its handle, nearly worn away, were three engraved letters.
B.R.
That evening, Emma found Marcus in the security office and showed him the letter.
He read it twice.
“The old chapel has been closed since the fire that killed Gabriel,” he said. “The basement was sealed.”
“Then why would Isabella leave a key?”
Marcus looked at her.
“Because she knew something was down there.”
Before Emma could answer, the security monitor chimed.
A motion alert had been triggered at the eastern garden gate.
Marcus opened the live feed.
A woman in a white coat stood outside.
She lifted her face toward the camera.
Then she held up a photograph of Sophie.
May you like
On the back, written in red ink, were six words.
TELL LUCA HIS DAUGHTER IS NEXT.
