Chapter 2 - The Girl Aleandro Recognized
Aleandro recovered his smile before Dominic entered the foyer.
He had always been good at that.
Dominic was the older brother by four years, built from discipline and restraint. Aleandro had inherited charm instead. He could enter a room of suspicious people and leave with invitations to dinner.
He descended the staircase casually.
"Dom."
Then he looked toward Valentina.
"What have we here?"
Valentina moved slightly behind Rosa.
Dominic noticed.
"My daughter."
Aleandro stopped.
Rosa's eyebrows rose even though she'd heard Dominic make the offer.
"Your what?"
"For one week."
Aleandro laughed.
Dominic didn't.
The laughter ended.
Aleandro crouched.
"I'm your Uncle Aleandro."
Valentina stared at him.
No smile.
Aleandro extended his hand.
She didn't take it.
Something passed across his face.
Very small.
So small Dominic almost missed it.
Recognition?
Fear?
Then it was gone.
Dinner became one of the strangest meals the Moretti mansion had ever hosted.
Valentina sat before plates containing more food than she'd probably seen together in months.
She ate slowly.
Carefully.
After several minutes Dominic realized she was slipping bread into the pocket of his jacket.
He pretended not to notice.
Rosa noticed and immediately began discussing tomorrow's breakfast loudly enough to reassure the child there would be another meal.
"Eggs," Rosa said. "Pancakes. Fruit."
Valentina looked skeptical.
"All of it?"
"All of it."
"What if I don't finish?"
"Then the refrigerator survives."
For the first time, Valentina smiled.
Dominic stared.
Something warm and painful moved through him.
Matteo had smiled with his entire face too.
Dominic stood abruptly.
"I have a call."
There was no call.
He went to his office and closed the door.
A photograph sat inside the desk drawer because keeping it on display had become impossible.
Isabella and Matteo.
Cape Cod.
Matteo sitting on Dominic's shoulders.
Isabella laughing.
Dominic touched the edge of the photograph.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
He didn't know whether he was apologizing for surviving them or for allowing another child through the front door.
Later Rosa prepared Valentina's bedroom.
It had once been a guest room overlooking the east gardens.
Valentina stood in the doorway.
The bed alone was larger than some rooms she'd slept in.
"I can't sleep there."
Rosa smiled.
"Why?"
"I'll mess it up."
"That's what beds are for."
Rosa found an old gray stuffed rabbit in a cedar chest.
It had belonged to Matteo.
Dominic entered as Rosa placed it beside the pillow.
He froze.
Rosa looked at him.
"I thought—"
"It's fine."
But his voice didn't sound fine.
Valentina touched the rabbit.
"Was it someone's?"
Dominic nodded.
"My son's."
"Where is he?"
Rosa lowered her eyes.
Dominic answered.
"He died."
Valentina looked at him differently after that.
Not with pity.
Recognition.
Children who had suffered seemed to possess an instinct adults spent years losing.
"I'm sorry."
Dominic nodded.
"So am I."
That night Dominic couldn't sleep.
Near two in the morning a scream tore through the hallway.
He ran barefoot toward Valentina's room.
She was upright in bed, sweating, clutching the rabbit.
"No!"
Dominic stopped in the doorway.
"Valentina."
She stared past him.
"Don't lock it!"
"Nobody is locking anything."
"The room—"
Dominic moved closer.
"What room?"
She began shaking.
Rosa appeared behind him.
Dominic sat carefully on the mattress.
Valentina spoke in fragments.
A woman crying.
Men outside a door.
A window too high to reach.
Being told not to make noise.
Running at night.
Rain.
Sleeping beneath stairs.
Dominic felt something cold settle inside him.
"Who locked you in?"
"I don't know his name."
"What did he look like?"
Valentina shook her head violently.
"No."
"All right."
Dominic stopped immediately.
He covered her with the blanket.
"You're safe here."
She looked toward the hallway.
"Can you leave the door open?"
"Yes."
"And the light?"
"Yes."
Dominic stood.
Her hand shot from beneath the blanket and caught his finger.
"Don't go yet."
Dominic sat again.
Minutes passed.
Her breathing slowed.
Eventually she fell asleep.
But her fingers remained wrapped around his.
Dominic stayed until morning.
Across the estate, Aleandro sat alone in his room making a phone call.
A man answered after three rings.
"You told me the child disappeared," Aleandro whispered.
"I thought she did."
"She's in Dominic's house."
Silence.
"How?"
"I don't know."
"What does she remember?"
Aleandro looked toward the darkness outside.
"That's what we need to find out."
The man lowered his voice.
"And Dominic?"
Aleandro hesitated.
"He looks sick."
"Then perhaps we don't need to worry long."
Aleandro disconnected.
Down the hall, Valentina stirred.
Dominic was half asleep in the chair beside her.
She whispered something.
At first he thought it was part of the nightmare.
Then she said it again.
"My mama knew you."
Dominic's eyes opened.
He leaned forward.
"What did you say?"
Valentina's eyes remained closed.
"My mama knew your name."
Dominic's pulse changed.
"Valentina."
The girl's eyelids fluttered.
"What was your mother's name?"
She opened her eyes.
"Lucía."
Dominic felt nothing at first.
Then something faint stirred in memory.
Lucía.
A name he'd once heard.
Years earlier.
Near the last days of Isabella's life.
And suddenly six weeks no longer felt like his greatest problem.
Because a dead woman's daughter had just walked into his house—
May you like
and carried a secret from the night Dominic's family died.
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