Luca stood beside me, silent but ready.
Vanessa gripped the railing.
“I know you hate me,” she said. “You should. But I didn’t know about the children. I swear I didn’t know.”
My throat worked.
“Why are you here?”
“Because I followed him.”
She looked at Luca.
His expression hardened. “You left the photograph.”
Vanessa nodded.
“I had to warn her.”
“About me?” he asked.
“About everyone.”
The wind pushed the front door wider behind us.
Vanessa descended one step.
“I was stupid,” she said, tears gathering but not falling. “Jealous. In debt. Angry that Sarah always seemed loved even when she didn’t feel it. Someone found that weakness and used it.”
“Who?” I asked.
She looked at me, and the fear in her face deepened.
“I don’t know his real name.”
“Then what did you call him?”
Her fingers tightened on the railing.
“He told me to call him Mr. Bell.”
Luca went still.
The name meant something to him.
I turned. “You know that name?”
“My father used to mention a Bell,” Luca said. “Only never like a person. More like a warning.”
Vanessa came down another step.
“He has people everywhere. In offices. Courts. Banks. He knew when Luca hired investigators. He knew where you almost went. He kept moving you away from the search.”
I swallowed.
“You helped him.”
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt.
Vanessa’s chin trembled.
“I told myself you were better off away from Luca. I told myself it was already broken. Then I realized they didn’t just want you hidden. They wanted you erased from your own life.”
“What changed?” I asked.
Vanessa reached into her coat and pulled out a small cloth pouch.
“Grandmother.”
My heart stopped.
“She found me first,” Vanessa said.
The foyer spun around me.
Luca’s hand hovered near my back but did not touch.
“She’s alive?” I whispered.
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“I don’t know anymore. She was alive eighteen months ago.”
A sound left me, small and wounded.
