The Little Girl Who Remembered the Waitress

Luca didn't remember crossing the room.

One moment, he was standing beside the sofa. The next, he was speaking into the wall panel with a voice so controlled it frightened Hannah more than shouting would have.

“Marcus, do not let that woman leave.””

“Understood.””

“And nobody tells her where I am.””

“Understood, sir.””

Luca ended the call.

Sophia sat up, rubbing her eyes.

“Daddy?””

He knelt beside her.

“I'm here, princess.””

“The lady isn't Mommy.””

“I know.””

“She said she was.””

Luca brushed a curl away from Sophia's forehead.

“Did she tell you that before tonight?””

Sophia nodded.

“Lots of times.””

Hannah's breath caught.

Luca looked at her.

“She's been seeing this woman?””

“I don't know,” Hannah answered.

“But Sophia remembers her from somewhere.””

He turned back to his daughter.

“Sweetheart, when did you see the lady?””

Sophia frowned, searching through memories that seemed to frighten her.

“In the room.””

“What room?””

“The room with the clock.””

Luca closed his eyes briefly.

Then he rose.

“Marcus is bringing her here.””

Hannah stood immediately.

“No.””

He looked at her.

“No?””

“Not with Sophia in the room.””

“This is my apartment.””

“And she's a three-year-old child who just identified a woman as someone who frightened her. If you want answers, don't make her sit here while you interrogate that woman.””

Luca glanced at his daughter.

Sophia had pulled the blanket over her knees and was staring at the door.

“There's a bedroom next door,” Hannah continued.

“Let her rest with the nurse. You can question the woman without making Sophia watch.””

Luca's expression tightened, but he nodded.

“All right.””

He called the nurse back and arranged for Sophia to rest in the adjoining bedroom with the door open. Hannah stayed with her until the little girl had settled beneath a soft white blanket.

“Are you leaving?”” Sophia whispered.

“Just for a little while.””

“Will you come back?””

Hannah brushed a curl from her forehead.

“I promised you once, sweetheart. I don't break promises.””

Sophia held out her little finger.

Hannah linked hers around it.

“Promise?””

“Promise.””

Only then did Sophia close her eyes.

When Hannah returned to the sitting room, the woman from the balcony stood beside the windows.

Up close, she looked remarkably similar to the photographs Hannah had seen of Elena Moretti. She had the same elegant cheekbones, the same dark eyes, and a similar smile.

But there was something artificial about the resemblance.

The woman's makeup had been applied carefully, her hairstyle copied from an older photograph, and the gold crescent necklace hung slightly crooked against her throat.

Luca stood several feet away.

“Take off the necklace,” he ordered.

The woman touched it.

“I don't understand.””

“Take it off.””

She obeyed slowly.

Luca held out his hand.

She placed the necklace in his palm.

He stared at it, turning the crescent beneath the bright ceiling lights.

“My wife wore this necklace every day,” he said.

“I placed it in her coffin myself.””

The woman's face remained composed.

“Then someone must have stolen it.””

“Someone certainly did.””

Luca set the necklace on the table.

“What's your name?””

“Elena Moretti.””

“Your real name.””

The woman hesitated.

Hannah stepped closer.

“I saw you on the balcony. Sophia recognized you.””

The woman's eyes shifted toward Hannah.

“You're the waitress.””

“I'm the woman who kept your victim alive.””

A flicker of anger crossed the woman's face.

Luca noticed.

“That's interesting,” he said.

“You seem to know her.””

“I don't.””

“You looked at her before you looked at me.””

The woman straightened her shoulders.

“Mr. Moretti, I'm a guest at your event. I was invited by one of your business associates. I don't know why your daughter is frightened of me.””

“Who invited you?””

“An assistant.””

“Name?””

“I don't remember.””

Luca gave a short, humorless laugh.

“You arrived at a private family celebration wearing my dead wife's necklace, claimed to be my dead wife, and can't remember who invited you?””

The woman lifted her chin.

“Perhaps you should ask your security captain why he allowed me inside.””

“Victor is being questioned.””

Her composure cracked.

“Questioned?””

“Yes.””

“Then you've already made a mistake.””

Luca stepped closer.

“Explain.””

She looked from Luca to Hannah.

Then she smiled.

It was a small smile, but it made Hannah's skin crawl.

“You think Victor is the person you should be afraid of?””

Luca said nothing.

The woman continued.

“Victor follows orders. He doesn't make them.””

“Whose orders?””

She lowered her gaze.

“Ask your wife.””

The words struck the room like a slap.

Luca grabbed the edge of the table.

“My wife is dead.””

“Is she?””

Hannah stared at the woman.

Luca moved so quickly that the nearest security officer stepped forward, only to stop when Luca raised his hand.

“Say that again.””

The woman swallowed.

“I mean that you never saw what happened to her after she was taken away from the hospital.””

“I identified her body.””

“You identified a body you were told was hers.””

For the first time, Luca looked genuinely shaken.

Hannah remembered the note beneath her apartment door. The warning about the baby. The name Victor Sabato.

She also remembered how the hospital records had disappeared, how the investigators had closed the case, and how every official document seemed to point toward an explanation that never quite made sense.

She turned toward Luca.

“Did you see your wife's face?””

He looked at her.

“Yes.””

“Did you see her medical records?””

“Yes.””

“Did you speak to the doctor who treated her?””

Luca's expression hardened.

“Of course I did.””

The woman laughed softly.

“Dr. Samuel Price.””

Luca froze.

The name meant something to him.

Hannah saw it in his face.

“Who is that?”” she asked.

Luca slowly lowered himself into a chair.

“He was the attending physician who signed Elena's death certificate.””

The woman nodded.

“And where is he now?””

Luca stared at her.

“Retired.””

“No,” she said.

“Missing.””

She reached into her evening bag.

Three security officers moved at once.

“Don't,” Luca ordered.

The woman slowly withdrew a small photograph and placed it on the table.

It showed a hospital corridor.

A woman in a white medical gown stood beside a window, her face turned toward the camera.

She had dark hair.

A delicate crescent-shaped birthmark rested near her collarbone.

And she wore the same wedding ring Luca had placed on Elena's finger before her funeral.

Luca picked up the photograph.

His hands began to shake.

“Where did you get this?””

The woman met his eyes.

“From the person who has been keeping your wife alive.””

Hannah looked at the photograph again.

The woman in the gown was older than the Elena in the wedding pictures, thinner and paler, but the resemblance was unmistakable.

Luca turned the photograph over.

A date had been written on the back.

Six months after Elena's supposed death.

Below it was a location: a private rehabilitation facility outside Chicago.

Luca looked at the woman.

“Who are you?””

She swallowed.

“My name is Vanessa Cole.””

“Why did you pretend to be my wife?””

“Because I needed to get close enough to your daughter to confirm something.””

“What?””

Vanessa looked toward the adjoining bedroom.

“That she remembers.””

Luca rose slowly.

“Remembers what?””

Vanessa's voice dropped.

“The night her mother disappeared.””

Hannah felt her heart pound.

Sophia had been a newborn when Elena supposedly died. Even if the child had witnessed something, she could not have formed a clear memory of it.

But Sophia had described the room with the loud clock.

She had recognized Victor.

And now a stranger had appeared wearing her mother's necklace, insisting that the little girl remembered something someone desperately wanted to keep hidden.

Luca moved toward Vanessa.

“Tell me where my wife is.””

“I can't.””

“Can't or won't?””

Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.

“If I tell you, she'll die.””

“Who?””

“Your wife.””

Before Luca could respond, a security officer entered the sitting room carrying a tablet.

“Sir, we found something on the ballroom footage.””

Luca didn't take his eyes off Vanessa.

“What?””