Chapter 4 - The Woman Who DisappearedAlessandro did not yell.
The mansion had changed.
Security officers guarded every entrance.
Kitchen cabinets carried numbered seals.
Meals were prepared under camera surveillance.
Every delivery was inspected.
And Hattie’s bedroom had been moved.
Instead of the staff wing downstairs, Alessandro ordered her placed in a guest room directly across from Isabella.
Hattie discovered this when she opened the door and found her suitcase sitting beside a four-poster bed.
She marched downstairs.
Alessandro was in his study.
“No.”
He looked up from his desk.
“No what?”
“I’m not moving upstairs.”
“You already did.”
“You moved my suitcase.”
“Yes.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
Alessandro leaned back.
“You saved my daughter’s life.”
“That doesn’t make me her bodyguard.”
“No. It makes you someone she trusts.”
Hattie folded her arms.
“And you think putting me across the hall is going to fix whatever is wrong with her?”
“No.”
His expression turned serious.
“I think somebody tried to murder my daughter.”
That stopped her.
“I trust five people in this house,” he continued. “You’ve somehow become the sixth.”
“We barely know each other.”
“I know.”
“That should concern you.”
“It does.”
Hattie almost laughed.
Instead she sighed.
“One week.”
“Two.”
“One.”
“Ten days.”
“Fine.”
He nodded.
“Done.”
As she turned toward the door, Alessandro said, “Hattie.”
She looked back.
“Thank you.”
His sincerity unsettled her.
She left.
That evening, Isabella refused dinner.
Hattie found her sitting at the window.
“You need to eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You haven’t eaten since lunch.”
“I said I’m not hungry.”
Hattie placed the tray on the table.
“Your father had everything tested.”
Isabella’s eyes remained on the garden.
“That’s not why.”
Hattie waited.
Eventually Isabella whispered, “I keep thinking about my mother.”
Hattie sat.
“I’m listening.”
Isabella looked at her sharply.
“That’s it?”
“What else am I supposed to say?”
“Everybody tells me she’d want me to be strong.”
Hattie snorted.
“That sounds annoying.”
Isabella blinked.
Then laughed unexpectedly.
“She would have hated people saying that.”
“What was she like?”
For nearly ten minutes, Isabella said nothing.
Then memories began coming.
Elena Ventresca loved terrible singing.
She burned pancakes every Sunday.
She collected cheap postcards despite owning houses in three countries.
She had once taken Isabella to Coney Island in sunglasses and baseball caps because Alessandro’s security team thought it was too dangerous.
“She made Dad ride the Cyclone.”
Hattie smiled.
“I would pay money to see that.”
“He hated every second.”
“I believe you.”
Isabella’s smile faded.
“She died three weeks later.”
Hattie stayed quiet.
“The boat exploded.”
“I know.”
“Dad told me it was an accident.”
“Do you believe him?”
Isabella’s face changed.
“No.”
The word came so quietly Hattie almost missed it.
“Why?”
Isabella looked toward the door.
Then she crossed the room and pulled a locked wooden box from beneath her bed.
Inside were photographs.
Letters.
A silk scarf.
A dried rose.
And a silver pendant.
“My mother gave me this the week she died.”
She opened the pendant.
Inside was a tiny folded piece of paper.
Hattie leaned closer.
A string of numbers was written in Elena’s handwriting.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You never showed your father?”
Isabella shook her head.
“Why?”
“Because Mom told me not to.”
Hattie stared at her.
“She specifically told you not to show Alessandro?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“The night before she died.”
A cold sensation traveled across Hattie’s arms.
“What exactly did she say?”
Isabella closed her eyes.
“She came into my room after midnight. She looked scared.”
“Scared of what?”
“I don’t know.”
“She gave me the necklace and said, ‘If anything happens to me, keep this hidden. Don’t give it to your father until you know who betrayed us.’”
Hattie stopped breathing for a moment.
“You’ve kept this secret for five years?”
“I was sixteen.”
Isabella’s eyes filled with anger.
“My mother died the next day.”
“Why are you showing me?”
“Because someone just tried to kill me.”
That was when Hattie understood.
Isabella’s cruelty wasn’t merely grief.
It was armor.
For five years, she had lived in a mansion filled with people she suspected might have killed her mother.
Every maid became a potential threat.
Every stranger.
Every friend.
Every person Alessandro trusted.
“You drive people away before they can get close,” Hattie said.
Isabella’s expression hardened.
“Don’t analyze me.”
“You’re scared.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
“Stop.”
“You treat people badly because if they hate you, you don’t have to wonder whether they love you enough to betray you.”
Isabella stood.
“Get out.”
Hattie rose.
“All right.”
She reached the door.
Behind her, Isabella spoke.
“I didn’t always hate you.”
Hattie turned.
Isabella looked ashamed.
“The day you arrived, you reminded me of someone.”
“Who?”
“My mother’s nurse.”
Hattie frowned.
“She was kind to me after Mom died. Then she disappeared.”
“What was her name?”
“Lorraine.”
Hattie’s stomach dropped.
“Lorraine Monroe?”
Isabella stared.
“How do you know that?”
Hattie slowly sat back down.
“Because Lorraine Monroe was my older sister.”
The room went silent.
Isabella’s face drained of color.
“Your sister?”
“She worked private nursing jobs before she got sick.”
“When did she get sick?”
“Five years ago.”
Isabella moved closer.
“Why did she leave this house?”
“She never told me.”
Hattie’s heart was pounding now.
“She came home terrified. Quit private nursing. Refused to explain why.”
“What happened to her?”
“She developed kidney failure two years later. She’s been in assisted care ever since.”
Isabella stared at the pendant.
“Could she know what these numbers mean?”
“Maybe.”
The bedroom door opened.
Alessandro stepped inside.
He stopped when he saw the pendant.
Then his eyes moved to Isabella.
“What is that?”
Isabella froze.
Hattie watched father and daughter stare at each other.
Five years of secrets filled the space between them.
Alessandro stepped closer.
“Bella.”
His voice had changed.
“Where did you get that?”
Isabella closed her fist around the necklace.
“Mom.”
He went pale.
“When?”
“The night before she died.”
The silence became unbearable.
Alessandro whispered, “Why have I never seen it?”
Isabella’s eyes filled.
May you like
“Because she told me not to trust you.”
And for the first time in Hattie’s presence, the most feared man in New York looked completely shattered.
Related Stories
