Chapter 6 - The Empty Chair
For three seconds, Isabella couldn't move.
Lily's crayons were scattered across the kitchen table.
Her yellow star was unfinished.
The back door stood open.
“Lily?”
No answer.
Isabella rushed into the yard.
“Lily!”
The little girl's bicycle was still beside the fence.
The garden gate was closed.
A cold wave of panic swept through her.
Then she heard a small voice.
“Mommy?”
Lily emerged from behind the shed carrying a muddy orange kitten.
Isabella nearly collapsed.
She ran forward and gathered her daughter into her arms.
“Don't ever disappear like that!”
Lily looked startled.
“I was getting the kitty.”
Isabella held her tighter.
“Please. Just tell me before you go outside.”
“Okay, Mommy.”
Margaret hurried into the yard.
“What happened?”
Isabella looked at the message still glowing on her phone.
“Someone is watching us.”
Luca arrived twenty minutes later.
He found Isabella sitting on the couch with Lily curled against her.
The little girl was asleep.
Her mother was not.
Isabella looked up when he entered.
“I need you to take us somewhere safe.”
Luca stopped.
It was the first time she had asked him for help.
He approached slowly.
“Of course.”
She handed him the phone.
He read the threat.
His expression changed.
“Who sent this?”
“I don't know.”
He forwarded the message to Marco and Daniel.
Then he looked at Isabella.
“There's a guesthouse on my property. Separate entrance. Private garden. You and Lily can stay there with Margaret.”
“Will we be safe?”
“I'll arrange professional protection and coordinate with the police.”
She studied him.
“Not your usual men?”
Luca understood.
“You can choose who stays near you. I'll have Daniel arrange licensed security professionals who report to you as well.”
Isabella looked down at Lily.
“I don't want her growing up surrounded by guns.”
“Neither do I.”
She looked surprised.
Luca sat opposite her.
“Bella, the life I've built isn't the life I want for her.”
“Then change it.”
The words were simple.
But they struck him harder than any accusation.
He looked at his sleeping daughter.
“I intend to.”
By nine that evening, Isabella, Lily, and Margaret had moved into the guesthouse.
Lily loved the garden.
She loved the little bedroom with painted stars on the ceiling.
And she loved that Luca had placed a small upright piano beside the window.
“Is this mine?” she asked.
Luca smiled.
“You can use it whenever you like.”
“Even after bedtime?”
“Ask your mother.”
Lily giggled.
“Mommy always says no.”
“Then I suppose that's the rule.”
For one beautiful moment, Isabella smiled.
Luca saw it.
And something inside him loosened.
He hadn't realized how desperately he missed that smile.
The following morning, Daniel arrived with news.
“The family services call was fraudulent.”
Luca frowned.
“What?”
“The number was spoofed. No report was filed through the county office, and no appointment was scheduled.”
Isabella went pale.
“Someone pretended to be a caseworker?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked at Luca.
“To frighten you. Possibly to make you move Lily somewhere predictable.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“Richard Hart.”
“That's one possibility. We need evidence.”
Daniel placed another folder on the table.
“We also have preliminary results from the hospital records.”
Luca opened it.
Isabella's original admission had been recorded under an unidentified female patient number.
She had arrived at a private trauma unit after the crash.
Alive.
Pregnant.
With severe head injuries.
“Who transferred her?” Luca asked.
Daniel pointed to a signature.
“Dr. Adrian Vale.”
Isabella stared at the page.
“That name.”
Luca looked up.
“Do you remember him?”
She pressed a hand against her forehead.
“A man in a white coat.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“I don't know.”
Her breathing quickened.
“He kept asking whether I remembered Luca.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing. I couldn't remember.”
She closed her eyes.
“Then one day, I heard him talking outside my room.”
“What did he say?”
Isabella's hands began shaking.
“He said the baby had to be delivered somewhere else.”
Luca went still.
“Why?”
She shook her head.
“I don't know.”
A memory flashed.
Hospital lights.
A woman's voice.
Don't let them take her.
Isabella gasped.
“Elena.”
Luca stared.
“You remember Elena?”
“She was a nurse.”
“Did she help you?”
Isabella nodded slowly.
“She brought me food. She told me not to trust the doctors.”
Her voice cracked.
“One night, she came into my room and said we had to leave.”
“What happened?”
Isabella pressed both hands against her temples.
“I remember running.”
“Where?”
“A hallway. Stairs. A parking garage.”
She looked at Luca.
“Elena was carrying my medical records.”
“And then?”
Isabella's eyes filled with tears.
“Someone caught us.”
That afternoon, Luca met with Elena Marquez's younger brother.
Daniel had located him in Queens.
His name was Rafael.
He was thirty-four, a public-school teacher, and he had spent seven years searching for his sister.
He entered Luca's office carrying a battered folder.
“You're Luca Ferrante?”
“Yes.”
Rafael looked around the mansion.
“My sister hated people like you.”
Luca accepted the insult.
“Why?”
“Because she thought rich men could buy their way out of anything.”
“She was right about some of them.”
Rafael studied him.
“Why did you call me?”
Luca placed Elena's photograph on the desk.
Rafael's expression changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“My wife kept it.”
“Your wife?”
“Isabella Ferrante.”
Rafael stared.
“She's alive?”
“Yes.”
He sat down heavily.
For a moment, he couldn't speak.
Then he opened his folder.
“My sister called me the night she disappeared.”
Luca leaned forward.
“What did she say?”
“She said she'd found proof that patients were being moved between hospitals under false identities. She said someone was making money from it.”
“Did she mention Richard Hart?”
Rafael nodded.
“And Giovanni Ferrante.”
Luca closed his eyes.
Rafael continued.
“She told me she was helping a pregnant woman escape.”
“Isabella.”
“Yes.”
“What happened after that?”
Rafael removed a small recorder from his pocket.
“My sister left this in my mailbox two days before she disappeared.”
Luca stared.
“What is it?”
“A recording.”
Daniel connected the device to a speaker.
Static crackled.
Then a woman's voice filled the room.
Elena.
“If anything happens to me, check the maternity records. The child is the reason they're doing this.”
A pause.
Then another voice.
Male.
Cold.
Familiar.
You should have stayed out of Ferrante business, Elena.
Luca felt his blood turn to ice.
He knew that voice.
Giovanni.
The recording continued.
Elena spoke again.
You can't erase a baby.
The man answered:
Watch me.
A door slammed.
The recording ended.
Rafael looked at Luca.
“My sister was trying to save your family.”
Luca stared at the silent recorder.
Then he looked at Rafael.
“And my family killed her.”
That night, Luca confronted Giovanni in the mansion's private study.
His uncle listened to the recording without speaking.
When it ended, Luca asked one question.
“Did you kill Elena Marquez?”
Giovanni looked exhausted.
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“I don't know.”
“Stop lying.”
Giovanni closed his eyes.
“I threatened her. I admit that.”
“Why?”
“Because she had evidence that could destroy everything your father built.”
“Everything you stole,” Luca corrected.
Giovanni flinched.
Luca placed the recorder on the desk.
“I'm turning this over to investigators.”
His uncle looked up sharply.
“You'll destroy the family.”
Luca stared at him.
“You already did.”
Giovanni's face hardened.
“You don't understand what Richard Hart is capable of.”
“Then tell me.”
The older man leaned forward.
“Richard didn't just want the trust.”
Luca waited.
“He wanted the child.”
“What?”
Giovanni's voice dropped.
“Lily was supposed to be raised under another identity. When she came of age, Richard planned to use her inheritance rights while keeping her dependent on him.”
Luca felt physically sick.
“And Isabella?”
Giovanni looked away.
“She wasn't supposed to survive the accident.”
Luca stepped back.
For seven years, he had called this man family.
Now he could barely look at him.
Then Giovanni said something that changed everything.
“Richard thinks Elena is dead.”
Luca stopped.
“What?”
May you like
His uncle looked directly at him.
“But I never saw her body.”
