Chapter 7 - THE MAID WHO WASN’T RANDOM
Adrien turned toward Clara.
“You came to my house through an agency.”
“Yes.”
“Who told you about the job?”
She hesitated.
That was enough.
“Clara.”
“A woman called.”
“What woman?”
“I thought she worked for the agency.”
“Name?”
“Marianne.”
Luca checked.
No Marianne worked there.
The agency claimed Clara had been specifically requested by “Moretti household staffing.”
Adrien had made no request.
Salvatore had not.
Someone placed her inside the mansion.
Clara sat.
“My apartment rent went up. I needed better work. The woman said the Moretti job paid double.”
“And you took it.”
“I have a three-year-old.”
No apology.
Good.
Then they searched the Pink Shoes apartment.
A laptop was missing.
But Daniel had left paper.
One envelope:
FOR CLARA — ONLY IF ADRIEN DOESN’T KILL HER FIRST.
Adrien stared.
Clara almost smiled.
“My husband had a sense of humor.”
She opened it.
Daniel’s letter was dated six weeks earlier.
Clara,
If you are reading this, then I managed to get you close to Adrien.
I am sorry.
She stopped.
Adrien looked at her.
Daniel had arranged the maid placement.
He wanted Clara inside the Moretti estate.
Not for employment.
For access to Alessandra’s hidden room.
He believed only Adrien could open the family side of the investigation without triggering Carlo’s defenses.
But Daniel could not contact Adrien directly.
Carlo monitored old networks.
So he used the one person nobody would suspect.
His wife.
Clara’s anger rose with every paragraph.
“He used me.”
Adrien said:
“Yes.”
“To protect me.”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
“No.”
He understood that too.
The letter continued.
The rabbit contains the West Four key. Mia’s bracelet proves Alessandra trusted me.
If Adrien sees both, he will investigate.
If he doesn’t, leave immediately.
Adrien glanced at Clara.
“Your husband predicted me.”
“Apparently he underestimated my desire to quit after six days.”
Then the final section.
Do not look for me.
Carlo believes I died last year.
Let him believe it until Harborlight is safe.
I have one final witness.
If I can get her out, we can prove what happened to Alessandra.
Her.
Adrien’s pulse changed.
Who was she?
Then they found a second envelope.
No name.
Only:
CHICAGO CHILDREN’S HOME — ROOM 214.
The number from Daniel’s coded notebook.
They drove there after sunrise.
Not a hospital.
A long-term residential care facility for disabled adults that had once been a children’s rehabilitation center.
Room 214 belonged to a woman named:
Evelyn Caruso.
Adrien froze.
Caruso.
His sister Alessandra had married a man named Nicholas Caruso shortly before her death.
Officially, there had been no children.
Evelyn was twenty-seven.
Bedridden after a brain injury.
Records showed she had been admitted eleven years earlier.
One week after Alessandra died.
Clara whispered:
“Who is she?”
Adrien already suspected.
Then the nurse opened Evelyn’s bedside drawer.
Inside was a photograph.
Alessandra holding a newborn.
And written across the back:
MY DAUGHTER EVELYN.
Adrien stared.
May you like
His dead sister had secretly had a child.
A child his family had hidden for eleven years.
