Chapter 1
“KEEP LIFTING! I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE PREGNANT!” THE MAFIA BOSS'S FIANCÉE SCREAMED AS A SEVEN-MONTH-PREGNANT MAID STRUGGLED TO MOVE A MASSIVE LOCKED WARDROBE. BUT WHEN THE MAFIA BOSS ORDERED THEM TO STOP, A LITTLE GIRL BEGAN CRYING FROM INSIDE THE WOODEN CABINET. AND THE VOICE HE HEARD MADE HIS BLOOD RUN COLD.
“Please, ma'am. My stomach hurts.”
Emily Carter, twenty-five, pressed one hand against her seven-month belly while struggling to lift the enormous oak wardrobe.
Another housekeeper, Maria, supported the opposite side.
Vanessa Sterling stood in the mansion's living room, watching impatiently.
“Stop complaining, Emily. Just get it into the storage room.”
Emily's face was pale.
Sweat ran down her forehead.
“Could we please get someone stronger to help?”
Vanessa stepped closer.
“Do you want to keep your job?”
Emily lowered her eyes.
“No, ma'am. I mean—yes.”
“Then lift.”
The wardrobe shifted.
Emily gasped and nearly collapsed.
Suddenly, a deep voice thundered from the doorway.
“PUT THAT DOWN!”
Luca Moretti stood beside the staircase.
Thirty-eight years old. Black suit. Cold expression.
He rushed toward Emily.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, struggling to breathe.
“I'm okay, sir.”
Luca looked at Vanessa.
“Why is a pregnant woman moving furniture this heavy?”
Vanessa forced a smile.
“Darling, we're just rearranging the house.”
Luca turned toward Maria.
“Put it down. Both of you.”
The wardrobe settled against the marble floor.
Then something moved inside.
A faint scratching sound.
Luca froze.
“What was that?”
Vanessa's smile vanished.
“Probably a mouse.”
Then came a small, frightened sob.
“Daddy?”
Luca stopped breathing.
He knew that voice.
His six-year-old daughter, Sophie.
He grabbed the wardrobe handles.
The doors were locked.
“Who locked this?”
Vanessa stepped backward.
“Luca, wait—”
He seized a fireplace poker and forced the small latch.
The doors swung open.
Sophie was curled inside, trembling in her pink pajamas.
Her cheeks were wet with tears.
“DADDY!”
Luca caught her as she stumbled forward.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
He held her tightly.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
Then buried her face in his shoulder.
“She said I couldn't come out.”
Luca slowly turned toward Vanessa.
“Who?”
Sophie pointed at her.
“Vanessa.”
The room fell silent.
Vanessa raised both hands.
“Luca, she was playing hide-and-seek. I didn't know she was inside.”
But Emily suddenly began crying.
Luca looked toward her.
“Emily?”
She was trembling.
“Sir… that's not true.”
Vanessa snapped:
“Don't you dare!”
Luca's voice turned cold.
“Let her speak.”
Emily swallowed.
“Mrs. Sterling knew Sophie was inside.”
Luca stared.
“How?”
Emily lowered her head.
“Because she locked the doors herself.”
Vanessa lunged forward.
“YOU'RE FIRED!”
Luca stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Then he looked at Emily.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Tears spilled down her cheeks.
“Because she said she'd make sure I lost my job and my health insurance before my baby was born.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
Sophie clung to his neck.
“Daddy, I saw something bad.”
He gently brushed the hair from her face.
“What did you see, sweetheart?”
Sophie glanced toward Vanessa.
Her little hands began trembling.
“She was talking to a man in your office.”
Luca froze.
“What man?”
Sophie whispered:
“The man from Mommy's picture.”
Luca felt cold.
His wife, Elena, had died three years earlier.
There were very few photographs of her left in the house.
“Which picture?”
Sophie swallowed.
“The one Mommy hid in her jewelry box.”
Vanessa's face went white.
Luca stared at her.
Then back at his daughter.
“What were they doing?”
Sophie looked frightened.
“They were taking papers out of your safe.”
Luca slowly stood, still holding her.
He turned toward Vanessa.
“Who was in my office?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Nobody.”
But Sophie whispered:
“He told Vanessa you weren't supposed to know he was alive.”
The room went silent.
Luca's heart pounded.
Because there was only one man in Elena's old photograph whose death had never made sense.
His younger brother, Adrian Moretti.
Adrian had supposedly died in a boating accident five years earlier.
Luca had buried an empty coffin after authorities failed to recover his body.
He slowly looked at Sophie.
“Sweetheart… was the man wearing a silver ring with a black stone?”
Sophie nodded.
“Yes, Daddy.”
Luca's face drained of color.
Adrian had worn that ring every day.
Vanessa suddenly turned toward the door.
“Luca, I can explain.”
He didn't move.
“Then explain why my daughter was locked inside a wardrobe.”
She opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Emily quietly spoke.
“Sir, there's something else.”
Luca turned.
She pressed a hand against her stomach.
“Before Mrs. Sterling made us move the wardrobe, I heard her on the phone.”
“What did she say?”
Emily's voice trembled.
“She said the little girl had seen his face.”
Luca stared.
“And?”
Emily swallowed.
“She said they needed to get Sophie out of the house before you came home.”
Luca tightened his arms around his daughter.
Then his phone vibrated.
A message from an unknown number.
Your daughter should have kept her eyes closed.
Attached was a photograph.
Taken less than an hour earlier.
It showed Sophie standing outside Luca's office.
Beside a man wearing a silver ring with a black stone.
Luca enlarged the image.
His breath caught.
The man's face was partially visible.
But there was no mistaking the scar above his left eyebrow.
Adrian.
His supposedly dead brother.
And beneath the photograph was one final message.
“Ask Vanessa what really happened to Elena.”
Luca slowly looked toward his fiancée.
She was crying now.
Not with guilt.
With fear.
Because whoever had sent that photograph knew exactly what Sophie had witnessed.
And they wanted Luca to know too.
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Read Chapter 2 in the first comment to discover why Adrian returned from the dead—and what Sophie saw inside her father's office. Thank you for reading!
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