Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN BEHIND THE BOAT WINDOW
“Daddy... the woman inside was singing the song Mommy used to sing to me.”
Luca Moretti stared at his eight-year-old daughter as though the entire world had shifted beneath his feet.
Forty-eight dinner guests sat motionless around the enormous mahogany table.
The music had stopped.
The gates were locked.
And Vanessa Bellini, the woman Luca was supposed to marry in six weeks, was gripping the back of her chair so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.
“What song, sweetheart?” Luca asked.
Sophie looked toward Vanessa.
Then she stepped behind me.
I felt her little fingers tighten around my apron.
“The one about the moon,” she whispered.
Luca's expression changed.
“Sing a little for me.”
Sophie shook her head.
“Vanessa said bad things happen when I sing it.”
The silence that followed was unbearable.
Luca slowly straightened.
“Vanessa.”
His voice was dangerously quiet.
“Explain that.”
Vanessa gave a brittle laugh.
“Luca, she's eight. Children imagine things. Especially children who have suffered trauma.”
“She said you took her to a boat.”
“I took her sightseeing. There were dozens of boats.”
“And you told her not to speak to someone inside?”
Vanessa opened her mouth.
Her father, Richard Bellini, interrupted.
“This is ridiculous. You're interrogating my daughter over a child's fantasy.”
Richard was sixty-two, silver-haired, and one of Chicago's most influential shipping executives.
He had helped Luca rebuild several legitimate businesses after Elena disappeared.
For three years, Luca had treated him almost like family.
Now Richard's eyes kept moving toward the photograph in Antonio's hand.
I noticed something else.
His right thumb was rubbing the face of an old gold wristwatch.
Over and over.
As if counting seconds.
“Mr. Moretti,” I said carefully, “Sophie told me about that boat last month.”
Luca turned.
“You knew?”
“She said Vanessa took her to see the water. She didn't tell me about the woman.”
Vanessa pointed at me.
“She's lying because I threatened to fire her!”
I felt heat rise into my cheeks.
“That's not true.”
“You've been filling that child's head with nonsense for months.”
Luca raised one hand.
“Enough.”
Then he looked directly at Sophie.
“Did you see the woman's face?”
Sophie shook her head.
“There was a little window. She had yellow hair.”
Elena Moretti had dark brown hair.
Luca's shoulders lowered slightly.
But Sophie continued.
“She was wearing Mommy's bracelet.”
Luca froze.
“What bracelet?”
“The silver one with the little blue bird.”
Antonio made a broken sound.
I watched Luca close his eyes.
He recognized it.
“Elena's mother gave her that bracelet when Sophie was born,” he said quietly.
Vanessa stepped forward.
“Thousands of women wear silver bracelets.”
Luca ignored her.
He reached for his security chief.
“Marco. Bring me every record from the east harbor. Every vessel registered to Bellini Maritime.”
Richard stood abruptly.
“You have no authority to seize my company's records.”
“No,” Luca replied. “But I own the security firm that monitors your private docks.”
Richard sat back down.
For the first time, he looked frightened.
Sophie tugged at my hand.
“Emily?”
I crouched.
“Yes, honey?”
“Am I in trouble?”
The question hurt more than anything Vanessa had said to me.
“No, sweetheart.”
She looked at her father.
“Daddy looks mad.”
Luca heard her.
He immediately knelt.
“I'm not angry with you, princess.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
She thought for a moment.
“Then can Mommy come home?”
Luca's face crumpled.
He couldn't answer.
And for the first time since I'd entered the Moretti household, I saw the man everyone feared struggle to speak to someone he loved.
Antonio rescued him.
“Mr. Moretti, there's something else about that photograph.”
He placed it on the table.
Elena stood beside the fishing boat, wearing a gray coat.
Behind her was a weathered red building.
Antonio pointed toward its doorway.
“That building belongs to Saint Agnes Marina.”
Richard's wineglass slipped from his fingers.
It shattered against the floor.
Luca looked up.
“What's wrong, Richard?”
“Nothing.”
But Marco had already stepped beside him.
“Sir, Saint Agnes Marina was purchased through a Bellini subsidiary two years ago.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Luca turned toward Antonio.
“When did Elena send you this picture?”
“Three months after she disappeared.”
“Why didn't you give it to me?”
Antonio looked ashamed.
“Because the envelope contained a warning.”
He removed a yellowed piece of paper from his jacket.
His fingers trembled as he unfolded it.
There were only seven words.
If Luca knows, Sophie will disappear too.
Luca read them twice.
Then he looked at his daughter.
“Who delivered this?”
Antonio swallowed.
“It came through the regular mail. No return address.”
Luca's voice hardened.
“And you believed it?”
“I had already seen what happened to Elena. Sophie was five years old. I couldn't risk her life.”
A terrible understanding crossed Luca's face.
“You thought someone inside this house was involved.”
Antonio didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Vanessa suddenly pushed her chair away.
“I refuse to sit here while everyone treats my father like a criminal.”
“Sit down,” Luca said.
“You cannot order me around!”
“No,” he replied. “But you can tell me why you took my daughter to a marina connected to your father's company.”
Richard rose.
“Luca, you need to understand something. Elena wasn't the innocent woman you remember.”
Luca turned slowly.
“Choose your next words carefully.”
Richard reached into his jacket.
Marco immediately moved closer.
But Richard only removed his phone.
He opened an old photograph.
It showed Elena standing beside a man outside a hotel.
The man had one arm around her waist.
“She was planning to leave you,” Richard said.
Luca stared.
I could see the shock in his face.
“Who is that?”
“Daniel Mercer. A federal investigator.”
The room erupted in whispers.
Richard continued.
“Your wife was cooperating with federal authorities. She was preparing to destroy everything you built.”
Luca said nothing.
I watched Sophie shrink against my side.
Then Antonio spoke.
“That's not why she met Mercer.”
Richard's expression darkened.
“You know nothing about it.”
Antonio stepped forward.
“I know what Elena told me.”
“And what was that?” Luca demanded.
Antonio looked at Vanessa.
“She discovered someone was using Moretti shipping accounts to move illegal cargo without Luca's knowledge.”
Richard laughed.
“A convenient story from a dead woman.”
Antonio's eyes filled.
“She wasn't dead when she wrote that letter.”
Luca stared at the photograph again.
Then he noticed something.
Elena was holding a small white envelope.
On its corner was a familiar red mark.
The same mark printed on the invitations to that evening's dinner.
Luca slowly lifted his gaze toward Vanessa.
“You designed tonight's invitations.”
Vanessa looked confused.
“Yes.”
“Where did you get that symbol?”
“It's an old Bellini family emblem.”
Antonio whispered, “No, it isn't.”
He turned the photograph over.
On the back, Elena had written one sentence.
The red seal belongs to the man who ordered the accident.
Luca's breathing changed.
Richard stepped toward the photograph.
But Sophie spoke first.
“Daddy?”
Everyone turned.
She pointed at Richard's gold watch.
“The boat lady had a clock like that.”
Richard stopped.
Sophie frowned, searching her memory.
“She gave it to Vanessa. Vanessa said Grandpa Richard would be happy to get it back.”
Luca slowly approached Richard.
“Take off your watch.”
Richard backed away.
“Absolutely not.”
Marco stepped between him and the door.
Luca repeated himself.
“Take. It. Off.”
Richard reluctantly unfastened the gold watch.
Luca turned it over.
An inscription was engraved beneath the scratched metal.
E.M. — UNTIL WE FIND OUR WAY HOME.
Luca stared at those words.
His voice was barely audible.
“I gave this watch to Elena on our first anniversary.”
Richard opened his mouth.
But Luca was already looking at the date engraved below the inscription.
It was a date from three years earlier.
The night Elena disappeared.
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And beneath it, someone had recently scratched three additional words.
SOPHIE IS NEXT.
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