Chapter 1 - THE PHOTOGRAPH THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE EXISTED
“DESTROY THAT FILM!” THE MAFIA BOSS'S FIANCÉE SCREAMED WHEN A MAID BROUGHT AN ELDERLY PHOTOGRAPHER INTO THEIR ENGAGEMENT DINNER. BUT WHEN THE MAFIA BOSS DEVELOPED THE OLD MAN'S SECRET FILM, HE DISCOVERED HIS FIANCÉE HAD BEEN AT THE HOUSE WHERE HIS YOUNGER BROTHER DISAPPEARED—FIVE YEARS BEFORE SHE CLAIMED THEY FIRST MET.
The elderly photographer arrived at the Moretti mansion just before sunset.
Arthur Bennett, seventy-six, carried a battered wooden box beneath his arm.
He had spent weeks restoring an old roll of film for the anniversary of Antonio Moretti's death.
At the security gate, Vanessa Sterling intercepted him.
“What are you doing here?”
“Mr. Antonio left instructions for me to deliver these photographs to his son.”
Vanessa's expression changed.
“Give me that box.”
Arthur pulled it closer.
“I'm afraid I can't, ma'am.”
Vanessa turned toward Emma Reed, the young maid standing nearby.
“Send him away. Immediately.”
Emma was about to obey when she noticed an envelope attached to the box.
Across its yellowed surface was Antonio's unmistakable handwriting.
FOR LUCA, WHEN HE'S READY.
Emma remembered Luca sitting alone in his father's study every anniversary.
And the younger brother whose disappearance nobody in the household dared mention.
She looked at Arthur.
“Please wait here.”
Twenty minutes later, Luca Moretti raised his champagne glass before eighty engagement guests.
“To our future—”
“Mr. Moretti, please wait.”
Emma stood at the ballroom entrance.
Vanessa's smile vanished.
“Emma, not now.”
The maid's hands trembled.
“There's someone you need to see.”
She opened the doors.
Arthur entered carrying the wooden box.
Vanessa shot to her feet.
“DESTROY THAT FILM!”
She lunged toward Arthur.
Emma stepped between them, but Vanessa shoved past her and seized the box.
Luca caught it before it fell.
“Vanessa! What's wrong with you?”
“Those photographs are private!”
Luca slowly stood upright, holding the box.
“Then why are you trying to destroy them?”
Arthur opened the lid.
Inside were a restored roll of film and several printed photographs.
“Your father paid me to take these, Mr. Moretti.”
Luca examined the first picture.
An old lakeside house.
He recognized it immediately.
It was where his younger brother, Gabriel, had disappeared seven years earlier.
The second photograph showed a black car outside the house.
The third showed a woman stepping onto the porch.
Luca brought the photograph closer.
His blood turned cold.
Vanessa.
Younger, with darker hair.
But unmistakably Vanessa.
The date printed on the film sleeve was seven years old.
Luca looked at his fiancée.
“You told me we first met two years ago.”
Vanessa backed away.
“That isn't me.”
Arthur shook his head.
“I remember her. She arrived shortly before your brother disappeared.”
Luca turned toward him.
“You saw Gabriel?”
Arthur nodded.
“He was inside the house.”
Luca's hands began shaking.
“Why were you photographing it?”
Arthur looked at the sealed envelope.
Then quietly answered:
“Your father asked me to photograph everyone who entered that house.”
The ballroom fell silent.
Luca stared at Vanessa.
“Why were you there?”
She couldn't answer.
Arthur reached into his coat.
“Mr. Moretti, your father told me never to give you these photographs until I could restore the entire roll.”
“Why?”
“Because the police only saw the pictures taken before your brother disappeared.”
Luca froze.
“And the others?”
Arthur pointed toward the wooden box.
“The last photographs were taken after midnight.”
Vanessa suddenly began crying.
“Luca, please. I didn't know what they were going to do to Gabriel.”
He slowly turned toward her.
“Who is 'they'?”
She covered her mouth.
Arthur placed one final photograph on the table, face down.
“Your father wanted you to see this one last.”
Luca reached for it.
Vanessa grabbed his arm.
“PLEASE! DON'T TURN IT OVER!”
He pulled away.
Then turned the photograph over.
His brother Gabriel stood beside the lakeside house.
Alive.
The photograph was dated three days after the police had declared him missing.
And someone stood beside him, holding his arm.
Luca stared at the partially obscured face.
Arthur leaned closer.
“Your father spent the rest of his life trying to identify that person.”
Luca looked up.
“Did he succeed?”
Arthur nodded slowly.
“He wrote the name on the back of the original negative sleeve.”
Luca reached into the box.
But the sleeve was gone.
He looked at Vanessa.
Her champagne-stained fingers were clenched around something hidden inside her fist.
“VANESSA. OPEN YOUR HAND.”
She began trembling.
And Arthur whispered:
May you like
“Mr. Moretti… your father believed that whoever took Gabriel also knew where he was being kept.”
Read Chapter 2 in the first comment to discover whose name Antonio wrote on the missing film sleeve—and why Vanessa was at the lakeside house the night Gabriel disappeared. Thank you for reading!
