Chapter 11 - The Woman Isabella Had Been Looking For
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When Detective Harris told Luca that Rachel Donovan had left Isabella Bellini's telephone number on her kitchen table, I felt my stomach drop.
Rachel had spent eleven years avoiding the Moretti family.
She knew something about Giovanni's death.
And now she had vanished.
Luca stood beside his father's desk, his hands clenched.
“Find her.”
Harris looked at him calmly.
“We're already trying.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“She may be in danger.”
“I understand.”
“Then why are we standing here?”
“Because running into this without evidence won't help her.”
For a moment, Luca looked ready to argue.
Then Teresa spoke from her wheelchair.
“Luca.”
He turned.
She held out her hand.
“Come here.”
He knelt beside her.
She touched his cheek.
“Don't let anger make you careless.”
His expression softened.
“I won't, Ma.”
I stood quietly beside the fireplace.
The wedding photograph had been returned to its rightful place.
Every time I looked at it, I remembered how this nightmare began.
A simple gold frame.
A maid who didn't want an elderly woman's memories thrown away.
And a fiancée who had apparently been searching for secrets buried more than a decade earlier.
Harris asked whether anyone had received messages from Isabella recently.
I shook my head.
Luca checked his phone.
Nothing.
Then Teresa looked toward me.
“Emma, did Mrs. Romano say Isabella asked about Rachel?”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Two days ago.”
Teresa frowned.
“Then Isabella knew Rachel might have evidence.”
Harris wrote something down.
“We're examining that possibility.”
An hour later, investigators received a call from Rachel herself.
She was alive.
She had left her house voluntarily after seeing an unfamiliar car parked outside.
The note had been intended to direct police toward Isabella because Rachel believed Isabella had been trying to contact her.
Rachel was hiding at a friend's home.
She agreed to meet investigators at a secure location.
By evening, Harris returned with a recording of her statement.
Rachel had been Giovanni's personal assistant during the last two years of his life.
She managed correspondence, travel arrangements, and confidential financial records.
Shortly before Giovanni died, he asked her to copy several documents connected to Westbridge Consulting.
He told her that foundation money was being stolen.
And that he believed Victor Bellini had help from people inside the Moretti organization.
But the most disturbing part of Rachel's account concerned Giovanni's final evening.
She said he called her from his hotel room in Milwaukee.
He sounded frightened.
“He told me Victor knew about the investigation,” she explained in the recorded interview.
“He said someone had tried to enter his office while he was away.”
Harris asked what happened next.
Rachel hesitated.
Then answered.
“Giovanni told me he'd hidden the most important records somewhere safe.”
“Did he say where?”
“No.”
“What did he ask you to do?”
“He told me to hold onto the briefcase if Anthony brought it to me.”
Rachel paused.
Then her voice broke.
“Twenty minutes later, Giovanni called again.”
I leaned forward.
Luca went perfectly still.
“What did he say?” Harris asked.
“He said he wasn't feeling well.”
A terrible silence followed.
Rachel continued.
“He said his chest hurt. He sounded confused.”
“Did he ask you to call emergency services?”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
“Immediately.”
Harris paused the recording.
Luca stared at the screen.
“So Rachel called the ambulance?”
“According to the emergency dispatch records, yes.”
Teresa covered her mouth.
Harris continued.
“But Rachel says Giovanni told her something before the call ended.”
Luca looked up.
“What?”
Harris restarted the recording.
Rachel's voice trembled.
“He said, 'Tell Teresa the photograph is safe.'”
I felt a chill.
The wedding photograph.
The envelope.
The key.
Giovanni had been thinking about protecting his wife even while struggling to breathe.
Rachel began crying on the recording.
Then she said something unexpected.
“I never thought his death was natural.”
Harris asked why.
“Because Giovanni told me Victor had threatened to make sure he never returned to Chicago.”
Luca stood.
“That's enough.”
He walked toward the window.
For a long time, nobody spoke.
Then Teresa whispered, “My husband knew.”
I knelt beside her.
She touched my hair.
“He knew something terrible might happen.”
Her voice broke.
“And I wasn't there.”
I squeezed her hand.
“You couldn't have known.”
She shook her head.
“I should have been.”
Luca turned.
“Ma.”
She looked at him.
He crossed the room and knelt beside her.
“Dad loved you.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“He did.”
“And he spent his last moments trying to make sure you were safe.”
Teresa began crying.
Luca wrapped his arms around her.
I looked away.
Then Harris's phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
He listened for nearly a minute.
Then said, “Understood.”
Luca looked up.
“What happened?”
Harris took a breath.
“Rachel's briefcase contained a backup drive with copies of Giovanni's financial records.”
Luca stood.
“And?”
“The files include payments to a company connected to Victor Bellini shortly before Giovanni's death.”
My stomach tightened.
“Payments for what?”
Harris paused.
“That's what investigators are establishing.”
Then he added one more detail.
“Several payments were made to a private medical consultant.”
Teresa went completely still.
Luca's face hardened.
“Who?”
Harris looked at the document.
“Dr. Malcolm Pierce.”
I stared at him.
Because Dr. Pierce wasn't just any physician.
He was the same doctor Isabella had recently tried to convince Teresa to see for a private medical evaluation.
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And suddenly, the past and the present were no longer separate.
They were part of the same terrifying story.
