Chapter 3 - THE WATCH THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN BURIED
“Who scratched those words onto my wife's watch?”
Luca held the gold timepiece beneath the chandelier.
Richard Bellini looked at his daughter.
Vanessa looked away.
And I understood that the people sitting around that table were no longer watching a family argument.
They were witnessing the collapse of a carefully protected secret.
“Answer me,” Luca said.
Richard cleared his throat.
“I received the watch anonymously. I didn't recognize it.”
“You wore it to my home.”
“It's an expensive watch.”
“It has my wife's initials engraved on the back.”
Richard said nothing.
Luca stepped closer.
“You've eaten dinner in this house every month for three years. You knew Elena. You knew that watch.”
Vanessa suddenly spoke.
“Daddy didn't know.”
Luca turned.
“What?”
“He didn't know it was Elena's.”
Richard grabbed her wrist.
“Vanessa, stop.”
She pulled away.
“No. I'm not letting you blame him for everything.”
Her voice cracked.
“I found the watch inside a package that was delivered to our family office. There was no note.”
“When?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Six weeks ago.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“Six weeks ago was when you insisted we move up our wedding.”
A murmur passed through the guests.
Vanessa shook her head.
“That had nothing to do with Elena.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because every time someone mentions your wife, you forget I exist!”
Her words rang through the dining room.
For one brief moment, nobody spoke.
Vanessa was crying now.
Not the polished tears I'd seen her use when a dinner arrangement went wrong.
These looked real.
“I spent two years trying to help you and Sophie,” she whispered. “And still, every room in this house belongs to a woman who isn't here.”
Luca looked at her with something close to pity.
“You knew that when you agreed to marry me.”
Vanessa's expression collapsed.
“I thought eventually you'd choose me.”
Sophie pressed closer to me.
I gently covered her ears.
She was eight years old.
She didn't need to hear adults argue about whether her mother deserved to be remembered.
Luca seemed to realize the same thing.
“Emily, please take Sophie into the breakfast room.”
Vanessa immediately protested.
“She's the reason we're having this conversation!”
Luca turned on her.
“No. She's the reason your lies are finally being questioned.”
I took Sophie's hand.
But before we reached the doorway, she stopped.
“Daddy, I didn't make it up.”
Luca knelt again.
“I know.”
“You always told me Mommy was in heaven.”
His face twisted.
“I believed she was.”
“Will you still believe me tomorrow?”
That question broke something in him.
He pulled her into his arms.
“Tomorrow. And every day after that.”
I looked away.
There are moments when being a housekeeper means pretending not to see a family's private heartbreak.
This was one of them.
In the breakfast room, I gave Sophie a glass of warm milk.
She sat at the little oak table where she usually did her homework.
For several minutes, she remained silent.
Then she reached beneath the collar of her dress.
“Emily, can I show you something?”
She pulled out a thin necklace.
Hanging from it was a tiny silver key.
I'd never seen it before.
“Where did you get that?”
“Mommy put it in my teddy bear.”
I sat beside her.
“When?”
“Before she went away.”
Sophie turned the key between her fingers.
“She said it opened something important.”
“Did she tell you what?”
Sophie shook her head.
“She said I should give it to Daddy when he remembered the cherry.”
My heart began pounding.
“Sophie, why didn't you tell him?”
She looked embarrassed.
“Vanessa said Daddy would get sad if I talked about Mommy.”
I gently squeezed her hand.
“You haven't done anything wrong.”
“I know.”
She looked down.
“But sometimes grown-ups say that when they're mad.”
I didn't know what to say.
Because she was right.
From the hallway came the sound of hurried footsteps.
Antonio appeared.
“Emily, Mr. Moretti wants you both upstairs. Security found something.”
Sophie immediately grabbed her necklace.
I stood.
“Is everything okay?”
Antonio's face was pale.
“They found photographs inside Richard Bellini's briefcase.”
“What kind?”
Antonio glanced at Sophie.
“Photographs of this house.”
A cold feeling spread through my stomach.
He lowered his voice.
“Photographs taken from outside Sophie's bedroom window.”
I took her hand.
We hurried upstairs.
Luca stood in the family sitting room with Marco and two trusted guards.
A collection of glossy photographs lay across the coffee table.
Sophie's bedroom.
Her school entrance.
The garden path where she rode her bicycle.
And one photograph of me holding her hand outside the doctor's office.
Across each picture, someone had drawn a small red circle.
I felt sick.
“Where did those come from?”
Luca looked at me.
“Richard's briefcase.”
“Why would he have pictures of Sophie?”
“That's what I'm finding out.”
I glanced toward the hallway.
“Where is he?”
“In my office with Marco's men.”
Luca crouched beside his daughter.
“Sweetheart, is there anything else Mommy gave you?”
Sophie slowly removed her necklace.
The tiny silver key gleamed in her palm.
Luca stared.
“Elena's jewelry box key.”
He took it gently.
“Where did you find this?”
“Mr. Bear.”
Luca smiled sadly.
“Of course.”
He looked toward me.
“Elena had a jewelry box shaped like a little piano. After she disappeared, I put it away.”
“Where?” I asked.
“In our bedroom closet.”
Sophie shook her head.
“No, Daddy. Not the piano.”
Luca frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“Mommy said it opens the place where she kept her brave things.”
Antonio stepped forward.
“Mr. Moretti.”
Luca looked at him.
“The old greenhouse.”
I watched Luca's expression change.
Three years earlier, Elena had used the greenhouse behind the mansion as a private office.
After she disappeared, it had been closed.
Vanessa called it a depressing reminder of the past.
She'd repeatedly suggested demolishing it.
Luca turned toward Marco.
“Secure the grounds. Nobody goes near that building until I get there.”
Vanessa appeared at the sitting-room entrance.
For the first time that evening, she wasn't wearing her confident smile.
“What building?”
Nobody answered.
Her eyes fell on the silver key.
Then her face changed.
“No,” she whispered.
Luca stood.
“You recognize it?”
Vanessa backed away.
“Luca, please. Don't go into that greenhouse.”
“Why?”
“Because Elena wasn't working alone.”
Luca approached her.
“Who was helping her?”
Vanessa swallowed.
She looked toward Sophie.
Then toward me.
“Emily,” she said quietly, “take the child somewhere safe.”
I stared at her.
It was the first time she'd ever spoken to me without contempt.
“Why?” I asked.
Vanessa's eyes filled with terror.
“Because my father didn't take those photographs to threaten Sophie.”
Luca froze.
“Then why?”
Vanessa looked directly at him.
“HE TOOK THEM TO PROVE THAT SOMEONE INSIDE YOUR OWN SECURITY TEAM HAS BEEN WATCHING HER FOR THREE YEARS.”
Before Luca could answer, Marco's radio crackled.
A guard's urgent voice filled the room.
“Sir, we have a problem at the greenhouse.”
Luca grabbed the radio.
“What problem?”
A pause.
May you like
Then the guard answered.
“SOMEONE HAS ALREADY OPENED IT. AND THERE'S A FRESH DINNER PLATE ON THE DESK.”
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