Chapter 7 - THE NIGHT ROSA DISAPPEARED|
Four days after the birthday banquet, Rosa finally returned home from the hospital.
The doctors had reviewed her medications and documented concerns about her recent treatment.
They were continuing to investigate the unexplained prescription changes.
They also confirmed something Vanessa had spent months trying to convince everyone was impossible.
Rosa could understand her choices and express her wishes.
She wanted to return to the home she'd shared with Antonio.
And she wanted to do it on her own terms.
Luca arranged for an independent nurse to assist with her recovery.
He also offered to move Rosa into a smaller guesthouse on the estate, away from the rooms where she'd been threatened.
But she refused.
“I've lived in this house for forty-three years,” she told him.
“I'm not the one who should have to leave.”
Luca smiled sadly.
“You're right, Ma.”
Vanessa was staying elsewhere while her attorneys disputed the allegations.
She had not yet been charged.
Her lawyers claimed that every decision she'd made had been intended to protect Rosa from declining health.
They also accused me of manipulating an elderly woman for financial gain.
I nearly laughed when Tessa told me.
I'd spent five years polishing silverware, changing bed linens, and trying to save enough money to replace my aging car.
Now a woman wearing a necklace worth more than my annual salary wanted the world to believe I was stealing a fortune.
But I wasn't laughing when I visited Rosa that evening.
She was sitting by the bedroom window, looking at an old photograph of Antonio.
“Your son says you're getting stronger,” I told her.
She smiled.
“I think he's finally learning how stubborn I am.”
I sat beside her.
“That's a good thing.”
Rosa studied me.
“Claire, I need to ask you something.”
“Of course.”
“Do you think Luca will ever forgive himself?”
I looked toward the open bedroom door.
Luca had spent nearly every free moment beside his mother since the banquet.
He brought her breakfast.
He attended medical appointments whenever she wanted him there.
He'd even started learning how to prepare her favorite lemon tea.
But I'd seen the guilt in his face.
“He loves you,” I said.
“I know.”
“But he thinks loving me should have been enough to keep me safe.”
Rosa sighed.
“Sometimes people love us and still fail to see what's happening.”
She reached for my hand.
“That doesn't mean they can stop learning.”
Before I left, I helped her find a setting on her phone.
Months earlier, she'd asked me to teach her how to share her location with me when we went to medical appointments.
She'd accidentally turned it off.
We restored it together.
“Now you won't have to worry when I go wandering around the garden,” she joked.
I smiled.
“Just don't make me chase you down the driveway.”
She laughed.
It was the first genuine laugh I'd heard from her in months.
I left the mansion feeling hopeful.
For one brief evening, it seemed possible that the worst had passed.
At ten forty-seven, my phone rang.
It was Luca.
“Claire, have you spoken to my mother?”
His voice was sharp.
I sat upright in Elena's spare bed.
“Not since I left.”
“Why?”
“She's missing.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“The lights went out in the west wing about twenty minutes ago.”
“When the backup power came on, her nurse found her bedroom empty.”
I scrambled out of bed.
“Have you checked the garden?”
“Everywhere.”
I heard Daniel speaking in the background.
Then Luca returned.
“Security footage shows someone opened the service gate during the outage.”
My hands began shaking.
“Who?”
“We don't know yet.”
I remembered Vanessa's threat.
Your mother won't be here tomorrow morning.
She hadn't succeeded during the banquet.
Now someone might be trying again.
“Mr. Moretti, did Rosa take her phone?”
“It's gone.”
I opened the location-sharing application.
A small blue dot appeared.
It wasn't at the mansion.
It was moving south.
“Luca,” I whispered.
“I can see her location.”
He went silent.
“What?”
“Mrs. Rosa shared her location with me.”
“We used it for medical appointments.”
“Where is she?”
I watched the dot move along the expressway.
“She's traveling south.”
Luca immediately relayed the information to Detective Ellis, who was already responding.
I hurried downstairs.
Elena was waiting in the kitchen, her face pale.
“What's happened?”
“They've taken Rosa.”
She grabbed her coat.
“Then I'm driving you.”
I wanted to refuse.
I wanted to tell her it was too dangerous.
But Elena looked at me with the determination of someone who'd already made her decision.
“Don't argue with me, sweetheart.”
We drove to a police station where Detective Ellis coordinated the information coming from Luca's security team.
I watched the blue dot move across the city.
Then it stopped.
My breath caught.
The location was familiar.
Harbor House.
The very building Grant Bellini had been trying to acquire.
Detective Ellis immediately sent officers to the property.
Luca arrived at the station shortly afterward, looking as though he'd aged ten years in a single night.
“Claire.”
I stood.
He came toward me.
“Did they find her?”
“Not yet.”
He looked at the phone in my hand.
Then, unexpectedly, he took both of my hands.
“Thank you for teaching her how to use that.”
I shook my head.
“We don't know if she's safe.”
His voice broke.
“I should never have let her out of my sight.”
“Luca.”
He looked up.
It was the first time I'd called him by his first name.
“Your mother doesn't need you to blame yourself right now.”
“She needs you to help bring her home.”
He nodded slowly.
Detective Ellis approached.
“Officers have located a dark van at the rear entrance of Harbor House.”
Luca turned.
“Is my mother inside?”
“They're checking.”
The next few minutes seemed endless.
Then an officer's voice crackled over the radio.
“We've found evidence someone was recently brought into the building.”
“There's a wheelchair near the service elevator.”
I held my breath.
Another burst of static.
“Possible voices on the upper floor.”
Luca gripped the back of a chair.
Then the radio came alive again.
“We've located an elderly woman.”
My eyes filled.
But the officer wasn't finished.
“She's conscious.”
“She says her name is Rosa Moretti.”
Luca exhaled shakily.
Then the officer added something that made everyone in the room go still.
“She says the people who brought her here threatened to kill Claire Bennett if she refused to come.”
Luca slowly turned toward me.
May you like
And I realized Rosa hadn't disappeared because someone had managed to frighten her into surrendering.
She'd gone because she believed sacrificing herself was the only way to keep me alive.
