Chapter 5 - THE HOUSEKEEPER WHO WAS NEVER HIRED BY CHANCE
“Who brought Emily into this house?”
Luca's question hung in the damp greenhouse air.
I stared at my employment application.
My name.
My address.
My mother's emergency contact information.
All written in my handwriting.
But across the page was a red approval stamp I'd never seen before.
Priority placement.
Luca looked at Marco.
“Who approved her hiring?”
“Your former household manager, sir.”
“Who recommended her?”
Marco checked the document.
“An agency called Lakeshore Domestic Services.”
I shook my head.
“That isn't right.”
Luca turned toward me.
“What?”
“I never applied through an agency.”
Everyone fell silent.
“I came for an interview after receiving a letter from your estate office.”
I remembered that afternoon clearly.
My mother had just returned from treatment.
We were behind on rent.
The letter had offered a salary almost twice what I'd been making at a downtown hotel.
It felt like a miracle.
Now I wondered whether it had been a trap.
Luca handed me the application.
“Did you sign this?”
“Yes.”
“Who gave you the letter?”
“It came by mail.”
“Do you still have it?”
“At my apartment.”
Luca looked troubled.
Then he said something I hadn't expected.
“Emily, I'm sorry.”
I blinked.
“For what?”
“For letting Vanessa treat you as though your dignity depended on your paycheck.”
I looked away.
His apology didn't erase eleven months of swallowed insults.
But it mattered that he had finally noticed.
“We need to get Sophie somewhere safe,” I said.
Luca nodded.
Then he turned toward Antonio.
“Take her back to the main house. Stay with her.”
Sophie clung to my hand.
“No.”
Luca crouched.
“Princess—”
“I want Emily.”
I looked at him.
“I can stay with her.”
He hesitated.
Then nodded.
But before we left, Sophie pointed toward a clay flowerpot near the window.
“Mommy used to put letters there.”
Antonio froze.
“Under the rosemary.”
I lifted the pot.
Beneath it was a small metal tin.
Luca opened it.
Inside lay a rosary with blue glass beads and a folded note.
The handwriting was Elena's.
If Sophie brings Emily here, tell her the truth about her mother.
My breath caught.
The note continued.
Margaret Carter saved my life. But she paid for it with her health.
I sat down heavily.
My mother's name was Margaret Carter.
She had spent three years battling complications from an illness doctors couldn't fully explain.
Luca read the note again.
“What happened to her?”
I shook my head.
“I don't know.”
But I suddenly remembered something.
When my mother first became ill, she worked as a nurse at a private clinic.
One evening she'd come home shaking.
She told me she'd witnessed something terrible.
Two weeks later, she resigned.
Months afterward, her health began to collapse.
At the time, she said it was an infection.
Now I wasn't sure.
Luca quietly handed me the rosary.
“Was this your mother's?”
“No.”
Antonio studied it.
“Those belonged to Elena's grandmother.”
I turned the beads over.
A small silver medal hung at the end.
On the back were three letters.
M.C.
My mother's initials.
Luca looked toward the house.
“We need to speak to Margaret.”
I stood immediately.
“She's staying with my aunt in Evanston this week.”
“Then we'll go there.”
But Marco's radio interrupted.
“Sir, Richard Bellini has agreed to cooperate. There's something he wants you to see.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“Bring him to the office.”
We returned through the garden.
Sophie walked between us.
Her little hand was warm inside mine.
When we reached the kitchen, Antonio prepared hot chocolate.
He insisted Sophie drink it before anything else happened.
For once, nobody argued with him.
Luca took me aside.
“Emily, I need you to understand something.”
I waited.
“If your mother helped Elena, she's been carrying a dangerous secret.”
“Then why send me into your house?”
“Maybe Elena trusted you.”
I shook my head.
“She hadn't seen me since I was a teenager.”
Luca looked surprised.
“You knew her?”
“Only briefly.”
Years earlier, Elena had volunteered at a hospital fundraiser where my mother worked.
She'd spoken to me about college.
She'd even sent me a graduation card.
I hadn't thought about it in years.
“She remembered you,” Luca said quietly.
I felt tears sting my eyes.
For months I'd believed I was simply a housekeeper.
Someone hired to polish silver and carry trays.
But Elena had remembered me.
And somehow, that memory had brought me into her daughter's life.
In Luca's office, Richard sat between two guards.
Vanessa stood near the fireplace.
Her makeup was smeared.
Luca placed the ledger on the desk.
“You paid for Elena's care.”
Vanessa's eyes widened.
“Where did you find that?”
“Answer me.”
Richard spoke.
“My daughter was trying to keep your wife alive.”
Luca stared.
Vanessa began crying.
“I found out she was at St. Catherine's eighteen months after she disappeared.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because she begged me not to.”
“Did you speak to her?”
Vanessa nodded.
“Twice.”
Luca looked stunned.
“You looked me in the eyes and told me Elena was dead.”
“I know.”
“You watched Sophie cry for her mother.”
Vanessa covered her face.
“I thought I was protecting her.”
Richard leaned forward.
“Elena believed someone in your organization was responsible for her disappearance.”
“Who?”
Richard shook his head.
“She wouldn't say.”
Luca placed the watch before him.
“Then explain this.”
Richard looked at the scratched warning.
His face tightened.
“I didn't put those words there.”
“Who did?”
“I don't know.”
Vanessa wiped her eyes.
“That's why I moved up the wedding.”
Luca frowned.
“What?”
“The package contained the watch and photographs of Sophie. Someone wanted us frightened.”
“Who?”
Vanessa stared at her father.
“I thought it was one of his enemies.”
Richard's expression changed.
“Vanessa.”
But she continued.
“I hired a private investigator. He found out someone had been visiting Elena's rehabilitation center.”
Luca leaned forward.
“Who?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Then she whispered a name.
“Marco.”
The room fell silent.
Our security chief stood beside the door.
For eleven months, I'd watched Marco escort Sophie to school, inspect every visitor, and manage the mansion's alarms.
He'd always seemed loyal.
Now Luca slowly turned toward him.
Marco didn't move.
“Is that true?”
“Yes, sir.”
Luca stared.
“You visited Elena?”
Marco nodded.
“Three times.”
“And you never told me?”
“I was ordered not to.”
“By whom?”
Marco looked directly at Richard.
Richard shook his head.
“Don't.”
But Marco continued.
“By your wife.”
Luca went completely still.
“What did she say?”
Marco reached into his jacket.
He removed a sealed envelope.
“Elena gave me this before she vanished. I was told to open it only if Sophie used the plate signal.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“Then open it.”
Marco broke the seal.
Inside was a photograph of Elena holding newborn Sophie.
Behind it lay a handwritten statement.
Luca read the first line aloud.
My husband must never know who betrayed me until Sophie is old enough to tell him herself.
He stopped.
Then his eyes moved to the signature.
It wasn't Elena's.
It was someone else's.
He lifted the paper.
May you like
And I saw my mother's name.
MARGARET CARTER.
