Chapter 2 - THE WARNING HIS MOTHER LEFT BEHIND
Dante Moretti hadn't heard his mother's voice in eleven years.
But the words engraved beneath the safe felt like she was standing directly behind him.
Lorenzo has already betrayed us.
Alessia watched him trace the letters with his fingertips.
"Your mother knew?"
Dante didn't answer immediately.
Then he stood.
"Apparently."
He looked toward the framed photograph on his desk.
Bianca Moretti had been forty-nine when she died.
The official cause was a sudden cardiac arrest.
Dante had accepted that explanation for more than a decade.
Now he wasn't certain what to believe.
"My mother trusted Bellini," he said.
"Maybe she stopped."
He looked at Alessia.
"You're very observant."
She shrugged.
"Housekeepers see things people don't bother hiding."
"Like what?"
"The way employees stop talking when Mrs. Conti enters a room. The way Mr. Bellini never carries his own briefcase. The way everyone pretends they aren't afraid of you."
Dante almost smiled.
"Are you afraid of me?"
Alessia met his gaze.
"I was this morning."
"And now?"
"I'm still deciding."
For some reason, that answer seemed to please him.
A knock interrupted them.
Marco Russo entered with a gray-haired woman carrying a leather equipment case.
"This is Dr. Helen Brooks," Marco said. "She specializes in forensic document examination."
Dante stepped aside.
"Preserve everything you find."
Helen examined the safe without touching its interior.
"There are fresh marks around the lock."
"Can you open it?" Dante asked.
"Possibly, but we should document the condition first."
She photographed the safe and examined the mechanism.
After several careful minutes, the lock opened.
Inside were three empty shelves.
No money.
No documents.
No jewelry.
Only a small velvet pouch.
Dante picked it up after Helen documented it.
Inside was a silver necklace bearing his mother's initials.
And a tiny brass key.
Alessia leaned closer.
"What's that for?"
Dante stared at the key.
"I don't know."
He turned it over.
A number was engraved into the metal.
317.
Marco frowned.
"Room number?"
Dante shook his head.
"This mansion doesn't have a Room 317."
Helen examined the pouch.
"There's something inside the lining."
She carefully opened a concealed seam.
A folded piece of paper slipped out.
Dante unfolded it.
His mother's handwriting covered the page.
My darling Dante,
If you're reading this, I failed to stop Lorenzo.
Do not confront him until you find the missing witness.
Dante's jaw tightened.
Alessia looked up.
"What witness?"
He continued reading.
The woman who knows what happened to your father.
Alessia froze.
Dante's father, Salvatore Moretti, had died fifteen years earlier.
Everyone in Chicago believed he had been killed during a criminal dispute.
But Bianca's final sentence suggested another explanation.
Her name is Rosa Romano.
May you like
Alessia stopped breathing.
Because Rosa Romano was her mother.
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