Chapter 4 - THE PROMISE INSIDE THE RIBBON|
Detective Shaw turned toward me the instant she heard me gasp.
“You know Daniel Mercer?”
I nodded slowly.
“Not personally.”
“Mrs. Isabella mentioned him a week before she died.”
Luca moved closer.
“What did she say?”
I looked down at my hands.
“She said he was helping her understand something about the family business.”
“Something she couldn't ask you about.”
The words hurt Luca.
I could see it in his face.
For years, he had believed that his wife trusted him more than anyone in the world.
Now he was discovering how much fear she had hidden behind her beautiful smile.
“Daniel was our outside financial consultant,” Luca said.
“He reviewed the transportation company's accounts.”
Detective Shaw frowned.
“And apparently he also worked on your wife's car?”
Luca shook his head.
“He wasn't a mechanic.”
The detective stared at her notebook.
“Then someone gave us a false identity.”
A terrible silence filled the study.
We were no longer looking at one suspicious car accident.
We were looking at an investigation that someone had deliberately corrupted from the beginning.
Gabriel's phone rang.
He listened for several seconds, then looked at Luca.
“Sir, Vivienne's car was abandoned near the river.”
“Any sign of her?”
“No.”
“And Matteo?”
Gabriel shook his head.
Luca slammed his palm against the desk.
“Two people involved in my wife's murder were living under my roof.”
“Eating at my table.”
“Sleeping beside my son.”
His voice cracked.
“And I invited them both inside.”
I wanted to say something comforting.
But there were no words large enough to cover that kind of betrayal.
A soft knock interrupted us.
Rosa appeared in the doorway with Oliver beside her.
The little boy was barefoot, still wearing his black dinner trousers and white shirt.
Mr. Buttons dangled from his hand.
“I'm sorry,” Rosa whispered.
“He wouldn't sleep.”
Oliver looked straight at Luca.
“Daddy, can Mommy come upstairs?”
Luca's face crumpled.
He knelt.
“Of course, buddy.”
Oliver hurried forward, then stopped.
“Promise you won't throw her away?”
Luca reached for the teddy bear.
“I promise.”
Oliver hesitated before placing the worn toy in his father's hands.
“Mommy told me something before the accident.”
Everyone became still.
“What did she tell you?” Luca asked.
Oliver rubbed his eyes.
“She said Mr. Buttons was going to help me remember important things.”
“She made me practice pushing his paw.”
“Did she tell you why?”
The boy nodded.
“She said that if anyone ever tried to take him away, I should find a grown-up who was kind.”
His gaze shifted toward me.
“That's why I gave him to Claire.”
I felt tears rising.
Even in her final days, Isabella had somehow understood that her son might need protection.
Oliver pointed at the faded ribbon around the teddy bear's neck.
“Mommy tied that herself.”
“She said it was our secret ribbon.”
Detective Shaw moved closer.
“Would you mind if we looked at it?”
Oliver pulled the bear against his chest.
“Are you going to cut him?”
“No, sweetheart,” I answered.
“We'll be gentle.”
He considered this.
Then he handed Mr. Buttons to me.
I carried the bear to the study table.
The ribbon was old, made from red cotton with tiny golden stars stitched along its edges.
I remembered Isabella working on it in the sewing room shortly before her death.
She had laughed when I asked why she was spending an entire afternoon decorating an old toy.
“Some things are worth protecting, Claire,” she had said.
Now I ran my fingers along the fabric.
Near the knot, the stitching felt unusually thick.
“There's something here.”
Luca leaned forward.
Detective Shaw pulled a pair of examination gloves from her coat and asked me to set the bear down.
She photographed the ribbon before carefully loosening the knot.
A small folded piece of waterproof paper slipped onto the desk.
Oliver gasped.
“Mommy's secret!”
Shaw unfolded the paper.
Three numbers had been written in Isabella's handwriting.
417.
Below them was a tiny drawing of a star.
Luca stared at the drawing.
“What does that mean?”
I knew the answer before anyone else spoke.
“Rosa's Bakery.”
Luca turned sharply.
“What?”
I looked at Isabella's photograph.
“Your wife used to take Oliver there every Sunday.”
“Her grandmother owned it before she passed away.”
“There's an old storage room behind the kitchen.”
Luca nodded slowly.
“Isabella used to call it her secret place.”
“That's where I proposed to her.”
The realization struck him with visible force.
Detective Shaw examined the paper.
“Do you know what 417 refers to?”
“No,” Luca admitted.
“But if Isabella hid something there, Matteo would never think to look.”
Then Gabriel's phone vibrated again.
He read the incoming message, and his expression changed.
“Sir, you need to see this.”
A security camera still appeared on the screen.
It showed someone standing outside Rosa's Bakery.
A dark-haired woman in a hooded coat.
May you like
Vivienne.
And in her hand was a red gasoline container.
