Chapter 6 - THE TANGLED ROSARY
“Your mother’s?” Luca frowned, holding up the silver beads. “Emily, Elena bought this in Florence ten years ago.”
“No,” I said, my voice trembling. I reached into my apron pocket and pulled out my phone, scrolling frantically to a picture of my late mother. I handed it to Luca.
In the photo, my mother was wearing the exact same silver rosary.
“My mother was an accountant,” I explained, my mind racing. “She worked for a private firm in the city until she died of cancer two years ago. She gave me that rosary before she passed, but it was stolen from my apartment a week before I applied for this job.”
Luca looked from the photo to the beads on his desk.
He reached back into the hidden compartment and pulled out a folded piece of paper that had been tucked beneath the velvet pouch.
It was a handwritten letter from Elena, dated three days before her death.
Luca read it aloud, his voice breaking.
“Luca, if you are reading this, Carlo has made his move. He is bankrupt and intends to drain Sofia’s trust. I have hired an auditor to track his embezzlements, a woman named Maria Carter. But Carlo found out. He threatened Maria's daughter, Emily. I stole Maria’s rosary as proof of our meeting, and I promised I would protect her child.”
Tears blurred my vision. My mother hadn't just been an accountant. She had been working for Elena Moretti to expose Carlo Bellini’s theft. And she had kept it a secret to protect me.
“I have arranged for Emily to be hired as our new housekeeper,” the letter continued. “Keep her close, Luca. Carlo’s men are watching her. She is safer inside our walls. And if anything happens to me, trust her with Sofia. She has her mother’s fierce heart.”
I collapsed into the leather guest chair, burying my face in my hands. The job, the coincidences, the stolen rosary—it was all orchestrated by a dying mother trying to protect her child, and my mother trying to protect me.
Luca walked around the desk and placed a heavy, comforting hand on my shoulder.
“You didn't just stumble into our lives, Emily,” Luca said softly. “You were chosen.”
Suddenly, the study doors burst open. Sofia wheeled herself into the room, her face flushed with adrenaline.
“Daddy!” she cried. “Vanessa is awake in the basement. I heard the guards talking. She’s demanding to see a lawyer.”
Luca’s expression hardened into granite.
“She doesn't need a lawyer,” Luca said, picking up his gun from the desk drawer. “She needs a priest.”
“Wait,” Sofia said, rolling forward. She held up a small, ornate wooden music box. “Mommy gave me this before she died. She told me to only open it if Vanessa ever tried to hurt me.”
Sofia turned the tiny brass key. The music box chimed a soft lullaby, and a hidden drawer popped out from the wooden base.
Inside the drawer was a single, stamped train ticket to Switzerland.
May you like
But it wasn't issued in Sofia’s name.
It was issued to Vanessa Bellini, dated for tomorrow.
