Chapter 6
The first thing Vanessa said after I knocked her to the ground was, “Get off my dress.”
I stared at her.
A bullet had just missed her head by inches.
“You’re welcome.”
She blinked.
Then started laughing.
Not because anything was funny.
It was the kind of laugh that arrives when fear has nowhere else to go.
Luca dragged us behind a concrete support.
“Stay down.”
Marco moved along the opposite wall.
Emergency lights blinked red above us.
The ledger was gone from sight.
So was Dominic.
Luca called out.
“Dominic!”
His voice rolled through the terminal.
No answer.
A side door slammed.
Marco ran toward it.
Luca followed.
I grabbed his wrist.
“The ledger.”
He looked toward the darkness where it had slid.
Vanessa said, “Go after Dominic. I’ll find it.”
Luca stared at her.
She snapped, “He just tried to shoot me. This is not the moment I betray you.”
He looked at me.
“Stay with her.”
“Why am I always assigned to the dangerous person?”
Vanessa gave me an offended look.
Luca almost smiled.
Then he and Marco disappeared through the side door.
The terminal went quiet.
Too quiet.
I used my phone flashlight.
The beam shook slightly in my hand.
Vanessa noticed.
“Scared?”
“Yes.”
She seemed surprised.
“What?” I asked.
“People usually lie about that around this family.”
“I’m not this family.”
“No.”
Her expression turned unreadable.
“You’re not.”
We searched the floor.
The ledger had hit wet stone and slid beneath a row of freight scales.
I saw the edge of the plastic wrapping.
“There.”
Vanessa crouched before I could.
She reached under.
Her fingers stopped.
“What?”
“There’s something else.”
She pulled out the ledger.
Then a photograph.
Old.
Water-stained.
It had probably been trapped beneath the scale for years.
A young woman stood in front of the station.
Beautiful.
Dark hair.
Luca’s eyes.
His mother.
Beside her stood Sofia.
And a teenage boy I recognized after a moment.
Antonio.
On the back were four handwritten words.
WE LEAVE FRIDAY. PROMISE.
Vanessa looked at me.
“His mother planned to run.”
“With Sofia?”
“Looks like it.”
A distant engine started.
Then tires squealed outside.
Luca returned alone.
“Dominic had a car waiting.”
“Marco?” I asked.
“Following.”
Vanessa held up the ledger.
“Still here.”
Luca took it.
Then saw the photograph.
His face changed.
“Where did you get this?”
“Under the scale.”
He read the back.
For a long time he said nothing.
Then his phone rang.
Daniel.
Luca answered.
“We’re fine.”
He listened.
“What clinic?”
His expression hardened.
“What do you mean she left?”
My stomach dropped.
Sofia.
Luca turned away from us.
“Who took her?”
A pause.
“No. Don’t call the police yet. Send me the footage.”
He ended the call.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Sofia disappeared from the clinic.”
Vanessa went white.
“How?”
“Walked out.”
“That’s impossible.”
“She was weak, not unconscious.”
“With who?”
“A nurse says an older woman came to see her. Sofia called her Elizabeth.”
My body went cold.
“Elizabeth?”
Luca looked at me.
“Your mother’s name is Elizabeth.”
I was already dialing.
One ring.
Two.
Three.
Voicemail.
I called again.
Nothing.
“My mother would never come here without telling me.”
“Did she know you worked for me?” Luca asked.
“Yes.”
“Did she object?”
I thought back.
Her silence when I told her.
The strange way she asked whether the east wing was still closed.
I had assumed she meant the east side of the city.
No.
She had asked, Is the east wing still closed?
I stared at Luca.
“She knew this house.”
Vanessa whispered, “Oh, Rachel.”
I hated the pity in her voice.
“Don’t.”
“Your mother may know exactly what file 8C was.”
I dialed again.
Voicemail.
Luca was already calling Daniel.
“Send two cars to Rachel’s mother’s house. Quietly. No sirens.”
I grabbed his arm.
“Do not scare her.”
“I won’t.”
“Your men scare everybody.”
“That is occasionally the point.”
“Not tonight.”
He looked at me.
Then said into the phone, “Plain clothes. Stay outside unless there’s danger.”
He ended the call.
I let go of him.
“Thank you.”
“We’re going there.”
Vanessa said, “All of us?”
Luca looked at her.
“You wanted to be included.”
“Not in a suburban family reunion.”
“Get in the car.”
Forty minutes later, we pulled onto my mother’s street.
Her yellow house sat at the end of a cul-de-sac.
Porch light on.
Kitchen light off.
Her old blue sedan was gone.
Two of Luca’s men waited across the street.
One approached.
“No movement. Back door unlocked.”
My heart started pounding.
I went inside first despite everyone telling me not to.
The house smelled like cinnamon candles and dog food.
“Mom?”
No answer.
Her dog, Charlie, came running from the hallway.
That scared me more than anything.
My mother never left him alone at night without turning on the television.
“Mom?”
I searched the kitchen.
Living room.
Bedroom.
Empty.
On the kitchen table sat an envelope with my name.
RACHEL.
I picked it up.
My hands shook.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
Honey,
If Luca Moretti is with you when you read this, then Sofia finally found the courage I lost.
I’m sorry.
I should have told you years ago.
I did not work for the county by accident.
I helped Sofia disappear in 2011.
File 8C was the original accident report from the night Elena Moretti died.
It proved she was not driving.
I stole it before Dominic could destroy it.
I hid it where no Moretti would ever think to look.
But Dominic found out I had helped Sofia.
I gave the file to someone else.
Someone I trusted.
If Sofia has come for me, we are going to finish what we failed to finish fifteen years ago.
Do not follow us.
I love you.
Mom.
I read it twice.
Then I handed it to Luca.
His face changed when he saw his mother’s name.
“Where did she hide the report?” Vanessa asked.
I shook my head.
“She says she gave it to someone.”
“Who?”
“She doesn’t say.”
Luca read the letter again.
“She says Sofia came for her.”
“She also says not to follow.”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“So naturally we’ll follow.”
I ignored her.
Something on the refrigerator caught my eye.
A postcard.
I had seen it a hundred times.
A photograph of an abandoned amusement park outside the city.
My mother loved old postcards.
But this one was new.
No stamp.
No message.
Only a black apple drawn on the back.
Inside a white circle.
The same symbol from Dominic’s matchbook.
Orchard House.
I stared at it.
“The orchard has no trees.”
Luca looked over my shoulder.
Vanessa went still.
“What place is that?” she asked.
“Riverview Park. It closed when I was a kid.”
Luca took out his phone.
“Daniel, pull property records on Riverview Park.”
I grabbed the postcard.
The picture showed an old carousel pavilion, a roller coaster skeleton, and a white administrative building near the river.
A building shaped like a farmhouse.
On its roof was a faded sign.
ORCHARD HOUSE CONCESSIONS.
My mother hadn’t left a random postcard.
She had left us an address.
And somewhere inside an abandoned amusement park, two women who had spent decades carrying the same secret were waiting to finish what Luca’s father had started.
Before leaving the house, I stood in my mother’s bedroom doorway.
Her bed was made.
Her reading glasses sat folded on the nightstand.
A paperback lay face-down beside them, as if she planned to return after one chapter.
I wanted to believe that ordinary arrangement meant she would.
Luca appeared behind me.
“You don’t have to come to Riverview.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No. You want to.”
I looked at him.
“Is there a difference tonight?”
“There should be.”
He leaned against the frame.
“You’ve already been hurt because of this family.”
“My mother was threatened because of this family before I even knew your name.”
“That’s exactly my point.”
“And mine.”
We stood there in silence.
Then I picked up my mother’s glasses and put them in my pocket.
“Why those?” he asked.
“She hates driving without them.”
“She may not be driving.”
“I know.”
It was irrational.
But fear makes small objects important.
A pair of glasses can become a promise.
A porch light can become proof someone meant to come home.
A postcard can become a map.
Luca nodded toward the hall.
“Then we bring her back to need them.”
I looked at him.
For once, he didn’t sound like a Moretti giving an order.
He sounded like a man making a promise he knew he might not be able to keep.
That was somehow easier to trust.
Outside, Vanessa waited beside the SUV with both arms folded against the cold.
When I stepped onto the porch, she looked at my pocket.
“Your mother’s glasses?”
I nodded.
She did not make a joke.
Instead she opened the rear door for me.
May you like
That small kindness frightened me in a different way.
It meant even Vanessa believed we might be driving toward something none of us could control.
