Chapter 2 – THE SCARS ON HER WRISTS

The chandelier lights seemed to flicker as the words hung in the air.

Luca looked at the floor beneath his feet, realizing he was standing in the very house where his mother might have been kept.

“The basement?” Luca asked, his voice cracking for the first time.

Robert took a step back toward the door.

“Antonio is senile! He doesn’t know what he’s saying!”

“Stay exactly where you are,” Luca ordered. Two large men in dark suits stepped out from the shadows of the hallway, blocking Robert’s exit.

Vanessa grabbed Luca’s arm. “Luca, listen to me. My father was trying to protect her. Your father was a monster!”

Luca pulled his arm away. He looked at Antonio.

The old man was weeping now, his hands moving with agonizing slowness.

“He says… your father didn’t lock her in the basement,” I translated, tears blurring my own vision. “He says your father was trying to get her out.”

Luca looked at the worn train ticket in his hand.

“If my father was trying to save her,” Luca said, turning to Robert, “why did he give you his ring?”

“To pay for her safe passage!” Robert blurted out. “He didn’t have cash that night. He gave me the ring as collateral. I swear to God, Luca!”

Antonio shook his head violently.

He pointed to Vanessa’s wrist.

“Look at her arm,” I said, following Antonio’s gesture.

Vanessa immediately pulled her silk sleeve down, but she wasn’t fast enough.

Luca grabbed her wrist. He pushed the red silk up.

There, wrapped around Vanessa’s forearm, was a thick, braided leather bracelet. It was old, worn, and entirely out of place with her diamond jewelry.

Luca recognized it instantly.

“That’s my mother’s,” Luca whispered. “She made that when I was a boy.”

Vanessa whimpered.

“How do you have this, Vanessa?” Luca asked, his grip tightening.

“She… she left it behind!”

Antonio signed again. His eyes were burning with rage.

“He says she didn’t leave it behind,” I translated. “He says she traded it.”

“Traded it for what?” Luca demanded.

Antonio formed the sign for water, then the sign for medicine.

“For medicine,” I whispered.

Luca looked at Robert. “You didn’t help her escape. You were the one keeping her down there. You and your family.”

Robert’s face was slick with sweat. “It was a business arrangement, Luca! Your father owed the Bellini family money! We kept her as collateral, and he paid us every month to keep her alive!”

The horror in the room was absolute.

But then, Vanessa did something unexpected.

She stopped crying. Her face went completely cold.

“Dad, shut up,” Vanessa said. She looked at Luca. “My father is an idiot. He doesn’t have the whole story.”

Vanessa reached into her purse and pulled out a small, silver key.

“Your mother didn’t die twenty-two years ago, Luca,” Vanessa said softly. “And she didn’t run away to Montreal.”

She tossed the silver key onto the dining table.

“She’s upstairs. In the attic. And she’s been waiting to see you.”