Chapter 3 - The Maid Lorenzo Couldn’t Ignore
Elena did not sleep.
At 2:14 in the morning she sat at the tiny kitchen table in the apartment she shared with Mia and stared at the business card Lorenzo’s driver had given her.
There was no name on it.
Only a telephone number.
Mia slept nearby with one hand tucked beneath her cheek.
She had asked four times whether they were visiting Sophie tomorrow.
Each time Elena had said yes.
Each time her stomach tightened.
The Moretti house had been the best-paying job Elena had found in almost a year.
She needed it.
Rent was overdue.
Her car required repairs.
Her mother’s old medical debt still followed her despite every payment arrangement.
But none of those things frightened her as much as the idea that someone inside the mansion had deliberately opened the medical wing.
At 7:03 the next morning, her phone rang.
“Ms. Carter?”
Marco Ferrara.
“Yes.”
“Mr. Moretti would like you to come at ten.”
“With Mia?”
“Especially Mia.”
Elena looked across the room.
Her daughter was already awake, holding a plastic spoon like a sword.
“Okay.”
When they arrived, the estate felt different.
Security had doubled.
Every employee badge was checked twice.
Mia noticed none of it.
She carried a new stuffed rabbit because Bartholomew had remained with Sophie.
“Where lion?”
“With Sophie.”
“She needs him.”
Apparently satisfied, Mia walked into the mansion.
Lorenzo was waiting outside the medical suite.
He looked as though he had not slept either.
Mia ran toward him.
“Hi, Sophie Daddy.”
Marco coughed to hide something resembling a laugh.
Lorenzo looked down at her.
“Good morning.”
“Where Sophie?”
“Inside.”
Mia pushed past him.
Lorenzo watched her enter.
Sophie was sitting higher in bed.
The moment she saw Mia, her entire face changed.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
Her eyes woke up.
Mia climbed onto the chair.
“I brought Mr. Bun.”
Sophie pointed toward Bartholomew.
“He missed you.”
That sentence stopped every adult in the room.
Four words.
Clear.
Voluntary.
Elena looked at Lorenzo.
He had gone completely still.
Mia accepted the statement without ceremony.
“He misses everybody.”
The girls began playing.
Lorenzo stepped into the hallway.
Elena followed.
“Thank you,” he said.
She blinked.
“For what?”
“For coming back.”
“She wanted to.”
“So did Sophie.”
Elena looked toward the room.
“She seems stronger today.”
“The doctors say not to assume too much from one afternoon.”
“They’re right.”
Lorenzo studied her.
“You disagree?”
“No.”
“Then why do you sound like you do?”
Elena sighed.
“Because doctors sometimes describe what they see without understanding why it’s happening.”
“You have medical training?”
“No.”
“Then?”
Elena glanced at Sophie.
“My younger brother stopped talking after our mother died.”
Lorenzo’s expression softened slightly.
“For how long?”
“Almost a year.”
“What changed?”
“He found someone he trusted.”
Lorenzo waited.
“Not me,” Elena added. “Our neighbor. An old man named Walter who fixed watches. My brother would sit in his shop for hours. Walter never asked him what was wrong. He just let him sort screws.”
“And he started speaking?”
“Eventually.”
Lorenzo stared through the open door.
“Sophie has specialists.”
“I know.”
“Therapists.”
“I know.”
“People she trusts.”
Elena looked at him.
“Does she?”
The question irritated him immediately.
“My daughter is surrounded by people who care about her.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Lorenzo turned.
Most employees would have lowered their eyes.
Elena did not.
“What are you suggesting?”
“That adults have spent seven months watching her.”
“That is necessary.”
“Maybe.”
She hesitated.
“But Mia didn’t watch her.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
“Mia treated Sophie like Sophie.”
Something in that sentence reached him.
Elena continued more carefully.
“She didn’t ask whether she hurt. She didn’t ask if she was tired. She didn’t whisper around her. She just told her a ridiculous story about a dinosaur.”
Lorenzo almost smiled.
“Bartholomew.”
“Yes.”
A voice came from the room.
“Daddy.”
Lorenzo turned so quickly Elena saw the father before he could hide himself.
Sophie was looking at him.
“Come.”
He entered immediately.
She pointed toward the chair.
Lorenzo sat.
Mia handed him the stuffed rabbit.
“You’re the bad guy.”
Lorenzo looked at the rabbit.
Marco, standing by the doorway, looked delighted.
“The bad guy?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
“He stole all the pancakes.”
Lorenzo nodded solemnly.
“Unforgivable.”
Sophie giggled.
Lorenzo lowered his eyes.
For the first time in months, he spent an entire morning without thinking about medicine.
They played.
Badly.
Lorenzo had no idea how stuffed-animal court worked, but Mia corrected him constantly.
At noon Sophie ate half a bowl of soup.
The nurse nearly cried again.
At one, she asked for the curtains to be opened.
At two, she was exhausted.
Elena took Mia home.
Before leaving, Lorenzo stopped them.
“Tomorrow?”
Mia answered first.
“Yes.”
Elena laughed.
“I suppose tomorrow.”
Lorenzo nodded.
Then Marco appeared.
The warmth vanished.
“We found the source of the security breach.”
Lorenzo looked at Elena.
“Take Mia.”
She did not argue.
When they were gone, Marco handed Lorenzo a tablet.
“The code did come from your account.”
“How?”
“A duplicate credential was generated six months ago.”
“By whom?”
“That’s the problem.”
Marco enlarged a name.
Dr. Vincent Hale.
Sophie’s lead specialist.
Lorenzo’s face became unreadable.
“Why would her doctor have access to my security credentials?”
“He shouldn’t.”
“When is Hale coming?”
“Three.”
Lorenzo looked toward Sophie’s room.
“Move the appointment.”
“To when?”
“Now.”
Marco nodded.
As he turned away, Lorenzo added:
“And Marco?”
“Yes?”
“Do not tell him we know.”
For the first time since Sophie laughed, something colder than hope entered the house.
Because Dr. Vincent Hale had been responsible for nearly every decision concerning Sophie’s treatment for eight months.
And if his access to the Moretti security system had a harmless explanation, Lorenzo intended to hear it.
If it did not—
then the mystery was no longer how a three-year-old entered Sophie’s room.
May you like
It was how long someone else had been entering it before her.
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