Chapter 3 - The Call Alessandro Expected

The telephone sat on a shelf inside the hidden passage.

Black.

Rotary.

Old enough to belong in a museum.

Yet it rang.

Luca lifted the receiver.

He said nothing.

Neither did the caller.

Then an elderly woman spoke.

“Is Alessandro dead?”

Luca’s expression hardened.

“He has been dead three years.”

A pause.

“Then you must be Luca.”

“Who are you?”

“Helena Ward.”

Emma saw Matteo react.

Luca noticed.

“You know the name?”

Matteo nodded once.

“Your father’s private attorney. Before my time.”

Helena continued through the receiver.

“If the west archive has been opened, you have found the Reed photograph.”

Emma stopped moving.

Luca looked at her.

“Yes.”

“Is the child alive?”

Luca’s eyes narrowed.

“She is standing beside me.”

This time the silence on the line lasted longer.

Then Helena exhaled.

“Thank God.”

Emma stepped closer.

“Who am I?”

The question came out harder than she intended.

Helena heard it.

“You are Emma Reed.”

“I know my name.”

“No,” Helena said. “You know the name you were allowed to keep.”

Luca’s jaw tightened.

“Enough riddles.”

“Then listen carefully. Do not leave the house. Do not let any Bellini leave. And do not give the photograph to the police until I arrive.”

Detective Voss raised an eyebrow.

Luca said, “You are asking me to withhold evidence.”

“I am asking you not to hand twenty-five years of evidence to the wrong person by accident.”

Voss stepped closer to the phone.

“This is Detective Mara Voss.”

Another pause.

Then Helena said, “Your father was Joseph Voss.”

The detective went still.

Emma saw it.

Helena continued.

“He helped Alessandro move the Reed child the night Vittorio Bellini tried to finish what he started.”

Voss lowered her eyes.

“My father died fifteen years ago.”

“I know.”

Luca looked between them.

The room had become crowded with dead men’s decisions.

Helena said, “I will be there in forty minutes.”

The line disconnected.

Luca kept holding the receiver.

Emma asked, “Did your father know?”

Voss looked at her.

“Apparently more than I did.”

Matteo searched the passage while they waited.

He found three locked drawers.

The brass key opened the second.

Inside lay one sealed envelope.

Not Luca’s name.

Emma’s.

Her fingers trembled when she took it.

The handwriting matched the note from the safe.

Alessandro.

She opened it.

Emma,

If you are reading this, then I failed to tell you the truth while I was alive.

For that, I am sorry.

She stopped.

Luca stood beside her.

“Keep going.”

Emma swallowed.

Your father was Daniel Reed.

He was not my enemy.

He was my partner.

The legitimate Moretti companies were built with his money, his engineering contracts and his name kept deliberately away from mine.

Daniel discovered that Vittorio Bellini was stealing from both of us.

He also discovered something worse.

Emma looked up.

Enzo stared at the floor.

Belini was still missing.

She continued.

When Daniel threatened to expose him, Vittorio arranged the fire that killed him.

Your mother, Claire, escaped with you.

For eleven months I moved you both between safe houses.

Then Vittorio found you.

Claire did not survive the second attack.

You did.

Emma lowered the letter.

Her breathing became shallow.

Lily pressed against her side.

Luca took the page from her before it fell.

There was more.

I placed you with Claire’s sister and left your surname unchanged because changing it would have created a trail.

I told no one in my family where you went.

Years later, when you returned to New York as an adult, I recognized you before you recognized this house.

Emma whispered, “He knew me.”

Luca remembered his father calling Emma the only person in the house who listened before speaking.

“He knew.”

The final paragraph was shorter.

You are not Moretti blood.

But part of the Moretti empire belongs to you.

And if Vittorio learns you survived, he will not be afraid of what you remember.

He will be afraid of what your existence proves.

Emma looked at Luca.

“What does it prove?”

A voice came from the archive doorway.

“That the Bellinis never owned what they sold.”

Everyone turned.

An elegant woman in a charcoal coat stood beside Detective Voss.

Silver hair.

Black cane.

Sharp eyes.

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Helena Ward had arrived.

And she was carrying a metal case handcuffed to her wrist.