Chapter 8 - Sofia’s Diary
Emergency lights flickered on.
Luca immediately moved Isabella, Rosa, and Elena into the kitchen.
"No one goes outside."
Grant called agents.
Enzo checked the rear exit.
No intruder.
No shots.
After ten minutes, they discovered the cause.
Someone had cut power to the entire block.
A coincidence was possible.
No one believed it.
Isabella showed Luca the message.
"You’re not going to your apartment."
"Yes, I am."
"No."
"Again with this?"
"Someone broke in."
"Which means there may be evidence."
"Or a trap."
"Then come with me."
Luca opened his mouth.
Closed it.
"Fine."
Rosa insisted on joining.
Elena refused to be left behind.
So what should have been a quiet inspection became a four-person family procession with Enzo trailing behind.
Isabella lived in a third-floor walk-up above a bakery.
The front door had been forced.
Inside, drawers were emptied.
Furniture overturned.
Nothing valuable seemed missing.
"Bedroom," Isabella said.
She ran toward it.
Her mother’s cedar keepsake box was gone.
"That’s where the diary was?"
Rosa nodded.
"Yes."
"You knew about it?"
"Your mother gave it to you."
"I never saw a diary."
"It had a false bottom."
Isabella stared at the empty shelf.
"Would anyone like to mention another secret compartment before midnight?"
No one answered.
She looked at Elena.
"You?"
"I’ve been dead twenty-one years. I’m somewhat behind."
That almost made Isabella smile.
Luca examined the broken window latch.
"Who knew about the diary?"
"Me," Rosa said.
"Sofia."
"Anyone else?"
Rosa hesitated.
"Margaret Hayes."
"Why?"
"Your mother met her."
Isabella turned.
"When?"
"Before Sofia died."
Her anger returned.
"You told me Mom had never been involved."
"Not involved with Carlo. She became involved with Elena later."
"What did she write?"
"I don’t know."
"You didn’t read it?"
"No."
Luca looked around.
"If Dominic took it, he believes it matters."
Elena sat on the edge of the bed.
"Sofia knew where I was."
Everyone turned.
Rosa whispered, "What?"
"Not at first."
"When?"
"About eight years ago."
Rosa stepped closer.
"My daughter knew you were alive and said nothing?"
"I begged her."
Rosa’s face crumpled.
"Why would she agree?"
"Because I was helping her."
Isabella felt a new kind of fear.
"Helping with what?"
Elena looked at her.
"She was investigating your father."
Isabella went still.
"My father?"
Sofia had always said Isabella’s father left before she could remember him.
His name was Daniel Vale.
A construction worker.
Unreliable.
Gone.
That was the entire story.
"What about him?"
Elena lowered her voice.
"Daniel Vale was not his real name."
Isabella laughed once.
"Of course it wasn’t."
Luca watched her carefully.
"What was it?"
"Daniel Ferraro."
Silence.
Isabella looked at Dominic’s message again.
"No."
Elena continued.
"He was Dominic’s younger brother."
Isabella sat.
Her legs had stopped cooperating.
Rosa reached for her.
Isabella pulled away.
"You knew."
Rosa nodded.
"How long?"
"Since your mother became pregnant."
"And you let me believe he abandoned us?"
"He did."
"Why?"
"Because Vittorio Ferraro ordered him to."
Isabella stared.
"Dominic is my uncle."
Elena nodded.
Luca cursed under his breath.
Every strange glance Dominic had given Isabella now made sense.
He had not merely known about her.
He was family.
"Is Daniel alive?" Isabella asked.
Rosa closed her eyes.
"I don’t know."
"That means maybe."
"He disappeared when you were two."
"Did Mom look for him?"
"For years."
"And the diary?"
"Sofia wrote everything she learned."
Luca said, "Dominic wants it because it may implicate Daniel."
"Or clear him," Isabella replied.
A floorboard creaked in the hallway.
Everyone froze.
Enzo raised his weapon.
Luca moved toward the door.
A shadow crossed beneath it.
"Who’s there?" Luca called.
No answer.
Enzo pulled the door open.
A woman stood outside.
Sixty-something.
Gray curls.
Nurse’s posture.
Elena gasped.
"Margaret."
Margaret Hayes stepped inside.
"I heard Dominic was released."
Grant had been trying to find her for years.
Apparently she had been closer than anyone knew.
"Where have you been?" Luca asked.
"Keeping your mother alive."
"For twenty-one years?"
"At first."
She looked toward Elena.
"Later she kept herself hidden."
Margaret turned to Isabella.
"I’m sorry about your apartment."
"You did this?"
"No."
"Then how did you know?"
"Because Dominic called me."
Everyone stiffened.
"When?" Luca asked.
"An hour ago."
"What did he want?"
"The diary."
"Do you have it?"
Margaret reached into her coat.
She produced a leather journal.
Isabella stared.
"You took it?"
"Sofia gave it to me three days before she died."
Rosa whispered, "Then what was in the box?"
"A decoy."
Margaret handed Isabella the diary.
"Your mother knew somebody searched her apartment."
"Who?"
"She suspected Dominic."
Isabella opened the first page.
Sofia’s handwriting.
Her chest tightened.
For a moment, she was ten again, seeing notes in her lunch bag.
Eat your apple.
Love, Mom.
She turned pages.
Names.
Dates.
Letters copied by hand.
Then an entry from 2008.
Daniel contacted me today.
Isabella stopped breathing.
She read aloud.
"He says Dominic has kept him away from us by threatening Isabella."
Her hands shook.
Another entry.
Daniel claims he has proof Vittorio ordered Antonio’s murder and that Carlo never wanted Rosa’s family harmed after Elena disappeared.
Luca frowned.
"That contradicts the ledger."
Margaret nodded.
"Because Vittorio manipulated Carlo too."
Elena stared.
"How?"
"Vittorio wanted the properties. Carlo wanted power. They were partners until Vittorio began acting without him."
Isabella turned the page.
Sofia had written:
Daniel says there is a recording.
"What recording?" Luca asked.
Margaret pointed toward the next page.
Isabella read.
A tape made the night Antonio died. Daniel stole it from his father. He says it proves Vittorio ordered the killing after Carlo told him to stop.
Rosa covered her mouth.
"My Antonio."
Isabella continued.
Daniel wanted to meet Sofia.
They chose a motel in Connecticut.
The final entry was written the night before.
If anything happens to me, Daniel is not the one I fear.
Isabella looked up.
"Mom died two days later."
Everyone knew the official cause.
A car accident.
Margaret sat beside her.
"Sofia’s brakes failed."
Isabella’s eyes filled with tears.
"Dominic."
"I don’t know."
But they all suspected.
The diary contained an address.
A storage facility in New Haven.
Unit 214.
Underneath, Sofia wrote:
Daniel said the tape is there.
Luca checked the time.
"We go tomorrow."
"No," Isabella said.
"Why?"
"Because Dominic has the same diary pages if he searched Mom’s things before."
"Then he may already be there."
"Exactly."
Margaret stood.
"There’s something else."
"What?"
"Daniel is alive."
Isabella stared.
"Where?"
"I spoke to him last year."
Her heart hammered.
"Where is my father?"
Margaret reached into her pocket.
Before she could answer, the apartment door slammed shut behind them.
May you like
A voice came from the dark hallway.
"Right here."
