Chapter 3 - The Name That Should Have Stayed Buried
Nicholas carried Emily through the mansion doors while Christmas music played in the ballroom.
Every conversation stopped.
Guests turned toward the sight of their feared host carrying an unconscious maid wrapped in his expensive black coat.
“Clear the staircase,” Nicholas ordered.
His private physician, Dr. Samuel Bennett, was waiting upstairs.
Emily was placed in a warm guest suite while the doctor immediately began treating her for severe hypothermia.
Nicholas remained near the doorway.
“How bad?” he asked.
“Her body temperature is dangerously low. We need to warm her carefully and monitor her heart. I've called an ambulance, and she needs hospital care.”
“Will she survive?”
The doctor looked at him.
“We're doing everything we can.”
Nicholas had heard many people beg him for mercy during his years running the Grimaldi organization.
Now he found himself silently begging for one exhausted young woman to open her eyes.
Luca approached him.
“Boss, there's something you need to see.”
They walked into Nicholas's private study.
Luca placed Emily's employment application on the desk.
“Her full name is Emily Rose Carter. Twenty-six. Born in Albany. Parents listed as deceased.”
Nicholas barely glanced at the paper.
Then Luca pointed toward her mother's name.
“Margaret Carter.”
Nicholas froze.
He knew that name.
Fifteen years earlier, Margaret Carter had been a housekeeper for the Grimaldi family.
She had been the last employee assigned to Isabella's bedroom on the night Isabella disappeared.
Margaret resigned three days later.
Nicholas had spent years trying to find her, believing she knew something about his sister's disappearance.
Now her daughter had been working inside his home for three months.
“Did Emily know who I was?” he asked.
“Apparently not. Her application doesn't mention her mother's employment here.”
Nicholas opened a locked drawer.
Inside lay an old photograph of Isabella standing beside a younger Margaret Carter.
On the back, Isabella had written a message.
If something happens to me, trust Margaret.
Nicholas stared at those words.
Then his phone rang.
It was the hospital transport coordinator.
Emily had been stabilized enough for transfer, but before leaving the mansion, she had briefly opened her eyes.
May you like
And according to Dr. Bennett, her first words had been terrifying.
“Tell Nicholas... Richard knows where Isabella is.”
