Chapter 2 - The Night Elena Never Came Back
Mia woke before the servants’ wing bells rang.
She reached across the bed.
“Mama?”
The other side was empty.
That was not unusual.
Elena often started work before sunrise.
Mia climbed down, dragging Bunny by one ear.
She opened the bedroom door.
The corridor was quiet.
“Mommy?”
No answer.
She walked toward the kitchen.
Rosa was already preparing bread.
When the old woman saw Mia standing alone in her red nightshirt, her hands stopped.
“Where is your mother?”
Mia shrugged.
Rosa wiped flour from her hands.
“Elena?”
Nothing.
Rosa checked the laundry room.
Then the pantry.
Then the upstairs linen closets.
By six fifteen, concern had spread through the servant wing.
By six thirty, Marco knew.
At six thirty-five, Aleandro’s study door opened.
“She’s gone,” Marco said.
Aleandro looked up from his desk.
“Who?”
“Elena Rossi.”
For reasons he disliked, Aleandro’s first thought was of Mia’s drawing locked beneath his desk.
“What does gone mean?”
“Her bed wasn’t slept in after midnight. Her coat is missing. Her purse is still there.”
“Car?”
“She doesn’t own one.”
“Phone?”
“Found near the west service entrance.”
Aleandro stood.
“Security recordings.”
“We’re checking.”
“Checking?”
Marco understood the warning.
“Now.”
Aleandro walked downstairs.
He found Mia sitting at the kitchen table.
Her legs did not reach the floor.
Bunny sat beside a bowl of untouched oatmeal.
Rosa stood behind her.
Mia looked up.
“Uncle Al.”
Aleandro stopped.
It was the first time anyone had seen him enter the servants’ kitchen in years.
“Where’s Mommy?”
Aleandro looked at Rosa.
Rosa looked away.
He crouched.
It felt unnatural.
He had not been at eye level with a child since his younger brother’s son had died almost a decade earlier.
“We’re looking for her.”
“Mama works.”
“Yes.”
“She always comes back.”
Aleandro had no acceptable answer.
So he said, “We will find her.”
Mia studied him.
Children had an irritating ability to look directly at things adults spent years hiding.
“Promise?”
Aleandro hesitated.
He did not make promises unless he knew he could keep them.
But Mia was watching him.
“Yes.”
“Promise promise?”
He almost smiled.
“Promise promise.”
Marco appeared in the doorway.
“Aleandro.”
Something in his voice made Aleandro stand.
“Rosa.”
“I have her.”
Aleandro followed Marco into the hall.
“The cameras were disabled between 11:38 and 12:12.”
“All of them?”
“West corridor, courtyard, service gate.”
“Who can do that?”
“Security control.”
“Who was working?”
“Paolo.”
“Bring him.”
“Can’t.”
Aleandro stopped.
Marco continued.
“Paolo left the property at four this morning. His apartment is empty.”
Aleandro’s expression became unreadable.
One missing maid could have been fear.
One missing guard was something else.
“The gate log?”
“Deleted.”
“Backup?”
“Also deleted.”
Aleandro looked toward the kitchen.
“Someone removed her.”
Marco lowered his voice.
“That’s what it looks like.”
“And they knew exactly how this house works.”
Aleandro returned upstairs.
For the next three hours, every vehicle record, telephone log, employee schedule, and security credential was examined.
Nothing.
Elena seemed to have disappeared between one hallway and the next.
At ten thirty, Aleandro discovered that the western warehouse discrepancy had grown.
Another $180,000 had moved overnight.
Someone was using the distraction.
Or the disappearance itself was part of the distraction.
He was still considering that possibility when Rosa called.
“Mr. Moretti?”
“What?”
“You should come downstairs.”
He heard fear behind her words.
“Why?”
“It’s Mia.”
Aleandro was moving before she finished speaking.
He found the child standing beside the enormous glass doors of the front hall.
She was no longer wearing pajamas.
Rosa had dressed her in the deep red dress Elena liked.
Sunlight covered the marble floor.
Outside, a black sedan waited near the circular drive.
A man in a dark suit stood beside it.
Mia stared through the glass.
Then she lifted her arm.
Her small index finger pointed directly at him.
“Uncle Al.”
Aleandro approached.
“What is it?”
Mia’s voice changed.
The carefree little girl who had walked into his study was gone.
“That man.”
Aleandro looked outside.
The stranger wore a dark charcoal suit.
Late thirties.
Short hair.
No visible weapon.
One of the temporary corporate security contractors, perhaps.
Aleandro had seen him before but could not place the name.
“What about him?”
Mia moved closer to Aleandro.
“He took Mommy.”
Everything inside him became still.
Aleandro crouched.
“When?”
“Nighttime.”
“You saw him?”
Mia nodded.
“Mommy went with him.”
“Did she want to?”
Mia’s forehead wrinkled.
“She looked scared.”
Aleandro looked at the man outside.
The stranger glanced toward the mansion.
Their eyes met through the glass.
The man looked away.
Aleandro took out his phone.
“Marco.”
“Yes?”
“Close the gates.”
A pause.
“What happened?”
“Close every gate.”
Something in Aleandro’s tone required no further explanation.
Outside, the iron entrance gates began moving.
The stranger noticed.
He opened the sedan door.
Aleandro’s voice remained almost gentle.
“Mia, stay with Rosa.”
“But Mommy—”
“I’m going to ask him where she is.”
“You promised.”
Aleandro looked at her.
“Yes.”
He stepped outside.
The sedan engine started.
The gates continued closing.
The driver accelerated.
Three Moretti vehicles moved into the circular drive and blocked the exit.
The sedan stopped.
The stranger slowly raised his hands where they could be seen.
Aleandro walked toward him.
He did not hurry.
Marco came from the opposite side with four men.
The stranger stepped away from the car.
“Aleandro, listen.”
That was mistake number one.
He knew Aleandro personally enough to use his first name.
“Who are you?”
The stranger swallowed.
“Daniel Vieri.”
Aleandro remembered.
A security consultant hired through one of Vittorio Greco’s corporate companies.
“You took Elena Rossi from this house.”
Daniel’s eyes moved toward the window.
Mia was visible behind the glass.
He muttered something.
“What?”
Daniel looked at Aleandro.
“I didn’t take her.”
“Mia saw you.”
“I escorted her.”
“To where?”
Daniel remained silent.
Marco stepped closer.
“Answer him.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
Not defiance.
Fear.
But strangely, the fear was not directed at Aleandro.
“You don’t understand what’s happening.”
“Then explain it.”
Daniel looked toward the gates.
“If I tell you here, Elena dies.”
For the first time that morning, Aleandro felt something colder than anger.
Daniel continued.
“And if you keep asking questions in front of your own men, the little girl might be next.”
Marco grabbed him by the jacket.
“Watch your mouth.”
“Marco.”
One word from Aleandro.
Marco released him.
Aleandro looked at the thirty men positioned around the drive.
Men who had worked for him for years.
Men he had trusted with his life.
Then he looked back at Daniel.
“Who inside my house are you afraid of?”
Daniel gave him an exhausted smile.
“That’s the question Elena was trying to answer.”
Behind the glass, Mia pressed Bunny against her chest.
Aleandro saw the repaired seam on its belly.
Three fresh stitches.
He did not know why he noticed them.
Not yet.
But by nightfall, those crooked stitches would become the most important thing inside the Moretti mansion.
May you like
And the secret Elena had hidden inside her daughter’s rabbit would tell Aleandro that her disappearance had begun long before that Thursday night.
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