Chapter 2 - THE SECRET BENEATH THE STAIRS
The first thing Elena heard when she entered her childhood home was the sound of someone moving upstairs.
She stopped in the doorway.
"Caroline?"
No answer.
It was nearly midnight.
Dante stood behind her, his dark coat still damp from the Boston rain. Marco waited outside with two security officers.
Elena had insisted on returning to the house immediately.
Dante had insisted she wouldn't return alone.
"Someone's here," she whispered.
Dante raised one hand.
The sound stopped.
Then a back door slammed.
Marco's voice came through Dante's earpiece.
"Someone just ran into the alley. We're following."
Elena stared at the staircase.
Her aunt had lived here for nineteen years.
She had celebrated Elena's birthdays here, watched her graduate from high school, and told her repeatedly that Sophia Marlo had been selfish enough to abandon her only child.
Now Elena wondered how many of those memories had been built on lies.
Dante crouched beside the staircase.
"Your mother said beneath the stairs?"
Elena nodded.
"There used to be a storage closet. Caroline had it sealed after a plumbing leak."
They found the door behind a tall antique cabinet.
The brass key fit a tiny lock hidden beneath the bottom stair.
Elena turned it.
A narrow wooden compartment opened.
Inside lay a leather journal, a photograph, and a sealed envelope.
Her hands shook as she lifted the photograph.
Sophia Marlo stood beside a younger woman with dark hair and a beautiful smile.
Dante leaned closer.
"That's my mother."
Elena studied the picture.
Both women wore identical silver iris pendants.
Then she opened the journal.
The first pages were filled with restoration notes and sketches of antique furniture.
Halfway through, the handwriting changed.
I made a terrible mistake trusting Caroline.
Elena stopped breathing.
She turned another page.
The documents aren't ordinary property records. They're proof that someone inside the Moretti family has been stealing from the trust for years.
Dante's expression hardened.
"Keep reading."
If anything happens to me, Elena must never be given to the Belandis. They will use her to finish what they started.
Elena looked up.
"The Belandis? Victoria's family?"
Before Dante could answer, his phone rang.
Marco.
"We caught the intruder. He's carrying gasoline and a box of matches."
Dante's jaw tightened.
"Who sent him?"
"He's refusing to talk."
A pause followed.
"Boss, there's something else."
Elena watched Dante's expression change.
"What?"
"The man has a photograph of Elena taken tonight at the dinner."
Beneath it was a handwritten instruction.
Burn the house. Leave the girl inside.
Elena stumbled backward.
Dante caught her before she fell.
And when the photograph slipped from her fingers, another image became visible beneath it.
A recent photograph of a woman entering a hospital.
Her face was older.
Her hair was gray at the temples.
But Elena recognized her immediately.
It was Sophia Marlo.
May you like
Her mother.
And the photograph had been taken only three days earlier.
