Chapter 2 – THE NURSE’S SILVER ROSARY

Vanessa didn’t scream. She didn’t try to run. Instead, she let out a cold, sharp laugh that made the hairs on my arms stand up.

“A crazy old woman,” Vanessa sneered, stepping into the room. “You’re going to believe a squatter I found wandering the streets? I put her in here out of pity!”

Luca didn’t blink. He took the silver rosary from the old nurse’s trembling hand. He traced his thumb over the small, engraved ‘E’ on the back of the cross.

“This was buried with my wife,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a lethal calm. “I placed it in her hands myself.”

“Then she dug it up!” Vanessa shrieked, her facade finally cracking. “Luca, she’s a thief!”

I looked at the old woman. She wasn’t looking at Vanessa. She was looking at me. Specifically, at the simple braided bracelet around my wrist.

“My name is Rosa,” the nurse said quietly in Italian. She kept her eyes on my wrist. “I didn’t dig it up, Mr. Moretti. Elena gave it to me in the private clinic. The clinic Vanessa paid to keep off the books.”

Isabella buried her face in my apron, crying softly. I stroked her hair, glaring at Vanessa.

“You locked her in here,” I said, the pieces snapping together. “You locked Isabella’s door so she wouldn’t hear Rosa moving around at night. You were hiding the only witness.”

“Shut up, you ignorant maid!” Vanessa lunged toward me, raising her hand to strike.

Luca caught her wrist mid-air.

He didn’t squeeze, but Vanessa gasped in pain.

“You told me Elena died on impact,” Luca whispered. “You identified the body. You said it was too badly burned for me to see.”

“It was!” Vanessa cried, tears of desperation ruining her makeup. “Luca, I love you! I did everything to protect you from the pain!”

Rosa coughed, a dry, rattling sound. “She didn’t protect you. She paid the doctors to switch the dental records. The woman in the crash was a stranger.”

Luca dropped Vanessa’s arm. He looked at Rosa, his chest heaving. “If my wife didn’t die in that crash… where is she?”

Vanessa smiled then. A nasty, triumphant smile.

“Dead,” Vanessa hissed. “She died two weeks later in that clinic. Her heart gave out. You can look all you want, Luca. Elena is gone. This old hag is lying just to extort you.”

Luca looked like he was about to tear the room apart. But Rosa slowly stood up from the chair.

“She is lying, Mr. Moretti,” Rosa said softly. “Elena is alive.”

The silence in the room was deafening.

“Where?” Luca demanded, stepping toward her. “Tell me where she is!”

Rosa shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. They moved her before I could memorize the address.”

Vanessa let out a breath of relief. She adjusted her dress, regaining her composure. “See? The old bat is crazy. Throw her out, Luca. And fire this maid while you’re at it.”

But Rosa reached into the pocket of her faded nightgown.

“I don’t know where she is,” Rosa continued. “But Elena managed to slip this into my pocket the night they took her away. She said to give it to the girl with the braided bracelet.”

Rosa walked right past Luca. She stopped in front of me and pressed a crumpled, folded piece of paper into my palm.

“She said her family would know what it means,” Rosa whispered.

I looked down at my wrist. The braided leather bracelet. It belonged to my grandmother.

I unfolded the paper.

It was a child’s drawing. A messy crayon sketch of a lighthouse.

Vanessa saw it and let out a strangled gasp.

“No,” Vanessa whispered.

I looked at the drawing, my heart pounding in my ears. I knew this lighthouse. It was the exact same one my grandmother had painted on the wall of my childhood bedroom.

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