Chapter 3 – The Coat That Smelled Like Yesterday

Rain lashed against the windows of the Moretti estate, washing away the remnants of the ruined engagement party.

Luca stood in the center of Isabella’s preserved closet, staring at her winter coat. It still smelled faintly of vanilla and rain.

He needed something—anything—that could tell him where Vanessa might have taken the young nanny, Sarah. If Vanessa was truly Isabella’s sister, her motives were deeper, darker, and rooted in a past Isabella had spent her life burying.

Ruth stood in the doorway, wringing her hands. “Mr. Moretti, the police are sweeping the city. They’ll find her.”

“Vanessa won’t stay in the city,” Luca said, running his hands through his hair. “She’s been planning this for four years. She inserted herself into my company, my life, my home. She knows my security protocols better than I do.”

Lily padded into the closet, clutching a worn teddy bear. She looked up at Luca with large, fearful eyes.

“Daddy? Why did the bad lady want Mommy’s necklace?”

Luca knelt, bringing himself to his daughter’s eye level. “I don’t know yet, sweetie. But we’re going to find out.”

Lily hesitated, then reached into her pocket. “She didn’t want the necklace. She wanted what was inside it.”

Luca frowned. “The locket was empty, Lily. I checked it after your mother passed.”

Lily shook her head. “Not behind the picture.”

She held out her small palm. Resting there was a tiny, folded ticket stub.

“I took it out when I hid the necklace in Ruth’s pocket,” Lily explained. “Mommy showed it to me once. She said it was a magic ticket to a safe place.”

Luca carefully unfolded the fragile paper. It was a vintage train ticket, dated twenty years ago, for a one-way trip to a small logging town in upstate New York: Blackwood Pines.

“Blackwood Pines,” Ruth gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. “That’s where Isabella grew up. That’s the lake.”

Luca stood up, his eyes hardening into flint. He grabbed his keys.

“Stay here with Lily,” Luca ordered Ruth. “Lock the doors. Do not let anyone inside, not even Marco.”

Ruth blinked, confused. “Marco? Your head of security?”

“Vanessa bypassed the front gate in my car,” Luca said coldly. “She couldn’t have done that unless someone deactivated the perimeter alarms from the inside.”

Luca turned toward the garage. He was going to Blackwood Pines.

But as he started the engine of his SUV, his phone vibrated in his pocket. It was an unknown number.

He answered, saying nothing.

“Did you find the ticket, Luca?” Vanessa’s voice purred through the speakers, laced with manic joy. “I hope you did. Because the nanny was just a distraction.”

Luca slammed on the brakes. “Where is she, Vanessa?”

“Check the backseat, darling.”

Luca whipped his head around.

Sitting in the dim light of the backseat, unharmed but fast asleep, was Lily.

She had just been in the house with Ruth.

“I told you,” Vanessa whispered over the phone. “I’m taking back what belongs to me.”

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