Chapter 5
Celia stood and crossed to the crib, straightening a blanket that did not need straightening. Her movements had become careful, giving him time.
Finally, Vincent spoke.
“She came to this house after midnight. She was frightened, but she refused to tell me why. She said Daniel had discovered something that could harm people who had done nothing wrong.”
“What people?”
“She would not say.”
“And then?”
“The next morning, Daniel was gone.”
I held Lily closer.
“Did your sister think he had left her?”
“At first. Then his passport was found in his desk. His car was found at the train station. His phone was never recovered.”
“What happened to Isabella?”
Vincent’s gaze lowered.
“She stopped sleeping. Stopped eating. Spent every day looking for him and every night blaming herself.”
“Where is she now?”
A silence passed through the room.
Celia looked away.
Vincent’s voice became almost too quiet to hear.
“She died two years later.”
My anger weakened beneath the grief in his face.
“I’m sorry.”
He nodded once.
“No one should disappear without leaving the people who love them an answer,” he said.
For the first time, I understood something about him.
The control. The watchfulness. The way he measured every doorway and every person who entered a room.
Vincent Moretti did not simply fear betrayal.
He feared absence.
Someone he loved had walked into a mystery and never returned.
The most powerful man in the room had built his entire life around preventing another person from vanishing.
Lily stirred and opened her eyes.
She studied Vincent with the serious expression she reserved for unfamiliar situations. Then she lifted her rabbit toward him.
May you like
Vincent looked at me before reaching for it.
I nodded.
