Chapter 7
### The Woman Wearing Isabella's Face
The mansion was in lockdown by the time Luca arrived.
Security teams searched every room. The gates were sealed, the perimeter lights illuminated, and every employee was questioned.
Sophie was missing.
Her bedroom window stood open, although the security system showed no forced entry. Her stuffed rabbit lay beside the bed, and her favorite blanket had been folded neatly at the foot of the mattress.
Emma found a small paper heart beneath the pillow.
On it, in Sophie's handwriting, were the words:
Mommy said the blue room.
Emma's stomach dropped.
“The chapel,” she whispered.
Luca turned sharply.
“What?”
“The hidden room beneath the old chapel. Isabella's letter mentioned it.”
They rushed downstairs.
Marcus brought the ledger and the medical records. Emma carried the brass key.
The old chapel smelled of damp wood and dust. Behind the vestry cabinet, they found a narrow staircase descending beneath the stone floor.
The brass key opened a heavy blue door.
Inside was a room lined with shelves, filing cabinets, and photographs.
At the center stood a small wooden table.
On it lay a child's drawing.
Sophie had drawn herself holding hands with two women.
One wore a white coat.
The other wore a red dress.
Beneath the drawing, Isabella had written a message.
Luca, if you have reached this room, Vanessa has finally made her move.
The woman who appeared outside the mansion may look like me, but do not assume every sighting was real.
Three years ago, Vanessa used a woman named Celeste Vane, a former actress and surgical patient, to impersonate me. Celeste had undergone reconstructive procedures and knew enough about my life to deceive people who only saw me from a distance.
Luca read the words twice.
His memory returned to the garden.
The woman in white had looked exactly like Isabella.
But had he truly seen his wife?
Or had he seen someone who wanted him to believe she was alive?
Emma opened a filing cabinet.
Inside were photographs of Celeste, hospital records, and documents connecting her to Vanessa's private security company.
One photograph showed Celeste standing beside a car near the Hudson River on the night Isabella disappeared.
Another showed her entering Saint Agnes Hospital two days later.
Marcus examined the records.
“Vanessa paid Celeste for three years of work. The last payment was made last week.”
“Where is Celeste now?” Luca demanded.
Marcus checked the file.
“An address in Queens.”
“Get a team there.”
Emma continued searching.
Beneath the documents lay a cassette recorder and a handwritten transcript.
She pressed play.
Isabella's voice filled the room.
“If you're hearing this, then Vanessa has found a way to reach Sophie. Luca, I need you to understand something. I didn't disappear because I stopped loving you. I disappeared because I discovered that someone inside our family had helped Vanessa take Maya.”
A pause followed.
Then Isabella continued.
“I tried to tell you, but every time I came close, the people around you made me doubt what I knew. I found records linking Gabriel to the foundation. I thought he was helping Vanessa. Later, I learned he had been secretly collecting evidence against her.”
Luca closed his eyes.
His brother had been alive.
His wife had been trying to warn him.
And he had spent three years chasing the wrong people.
The recording continued.
“Gabriel arranged my escape after Vanessa's men attacked me. But before he could get me to safety, someone betrayed him. The warehouse fire was staged to make the world believe he was dead.”
Then came a sentence that made Luca's blood run cold.
“The person who gave Vanessa access to our security system was someone I trusted with my life.”
The recording stopped.
Marcus looked at Luca.
“Who had access to the system three years ago?”
“Me. You. Gabriel. And—”
Luca stopped.
He remembered an old security administrator named Peter Shaw, who had resigned abruptly a month before Isabella disappeared.
Peter had been hired by Luca's father and had worked for the family for nearly twenty years.
“Find him,” Luca said.
Emma discovered another document.
It was a photograph of Celeste standing outside Sophie's school that morning.
The date had been circled in red.
“She was watching Sophie,” Emma whispered.
Marcus's radio crackled.
A guard's voice came through.
“Mr. Moretti, we have a vehicle approaching the south gate.”
“Identify it.”
“Unknown sedan. No plates.”
The radio went silent.
Then another voice came through.
It was a child's voice.
“Daddy?”
Luca grabbed the radio.
“Sophie!”
“Daddy, I'm okay.”
He heard a muffled sound, followed by a woman's voice.
“Tell him where you are, sweetheart.”
Sophie began crying.
“Daddy, the lady looks like Mommy, but she isn't Mommy.”
Luca's heart stopped.
“Where are you?”
The woman spoke.
“Bring the records to the old ferry terminal. Come alone, or you'll never see your daughter again.”
The radio crackled.
Then a final whisper came through.
“Luca, please.”
It was Isabella's voice.
And this time, he knew it wasn't a recording.
“Don't come.”
May you like
A gunshot rang out.
The transmission died.
