Chapter 2 - The First Word
Lorenzo reached the lower corridor before anyone else.
I followed because Lily refused to release my hand.
Marco followed because that was apparently his job.
And Sophie stayed upstairs under the nurse's care, clutching Leo against her chest.
The mansion’s lower level contained storage rooms, a wine cellar, a laundry facility, and several old service corridors dating back decades.
I had worked there four months and never seen the passage we entered.
It was hidden behind a paneled service wall.
At the end stood a blue metal door.
Lorenzo stopped several feet away.
“Who has access?”
Marco answered.
“According to the current security plan, nobody.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“The room isn't on the current security plan.”
Lorenzo looked at him.
Marco's jaw tightened.
“I didn't know it existed.”
That statement seemed impossible.
Marco knew everything about the property.
Yet the dust around the frame suggested the door had not been opened recently.
The security officer who had unlocked it remained beside the wall.
“You said someone was inside,” Lorenzo said.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
“You opened the door.”
“Only a few inches. Someone moved on the other side.”
Lorenzo's face became still.
He pushed the door.
It opened.
The room beyond was dark.
Marco switched on the light.
Nobody was there.
The security officer stared.
“I swear—”
“Quiet.”
Lorenzo entered.
The room looked abandoned.
Old furniture stood beneath white sheets.
Cardboard boxes lined one wall.
There was a narrow desk and an old filing cabinet.
No windows.
No person.
Then Lily pointed.
“There.”
A second door stood behind a shelving unit.
It was partly open.
Marco crossed the room and pulled it wider.
Beyond it was another corridor.
“Where does that go?” I asked.
Marco looked disturbed.
“I don't know.”
Lorenzo turned to him.
“You've worked for me eleven years.”
“Twelve.”
“And there's a corridor in my house you didn't know existed?”
“Yes.”
Lorenzo said nothing.
That silence carried more force than shouting.
Lily tugged my hand.
“Mommy.”
“We're leaving.”
I had reached my limit.
Secret rooms and mysterious numbers had nothing to do with us.
Whatever was happening belonged to Lorenzo’s family.
I picked Lily up.
Then I saw something on the desk.
A photograph.
I don't know why it caught my attention.
Maybe because everything else was covered in dust while the photograph wasn't.
I walked closer.
A woman stood beside a much younger Lorenzo.
He looked perhaps twenty-five.
The woman beside him was smiling.
She held a toddler.
Sophie.
My eyes moved to the bottom corner.
A date had been written there.
Seven years earlier.
“That’s Sophie’s mother?” I asked.
Lorenzo turned.
His expression closed instantly.
“Yes.”
I knew almost nothing about Elena Moretti.
Only that she had died years earlier.
Lily leaned over my shoulder.
“That's the lady.”
I nearly dropped her.
“What?”
“The crying lady.”
Lorenzo crossed the room.
“What did you say?”
Lily pointed at Elena.
“That lady.”
I tried to keep my voice gentle.
“Sweetheart, when did you see her?”
“Before.”
“Before what?”
“Before I found Sister.”
“Where?”
She pointed toward the hidden corridor.
“There.”
Every adult looked at the darkness beyond the second door.
My heart began pounding.
“Lily, this woman can't have been there.”
“She was.”
Lorenzo crouched in front of her.
He did not touch her.
His voice softened in a way I had never heard before.
“Lily, can you tell me exactly what you saw?”
She looked at him.
“A lady.”
“What was she doing?”
“Crying.”
“Did she talk to you?”
Lily nodded.
“What did she say?”
Lily thought.
“She said I had pretty hair.”
I looked at Lorenzo.
He had become motionless.
“Anything else?”
“She asked my name.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Lily.”
“And then?”
“She said…” Lily frowned, trying to remember. “She said Sophie liked lions.”
Lorenzo stood so quickly that the chair behind him moved.
Marco stared at him.
“Only Elena knew that.”
“What?” I asked.
Lorenzo looked at the photograph.
“When Sophie was a baby, Elena decorated her nursery with lions.”
My gaze moved to the toy in Sophie's room upstairs.
“No.”
Lorenzo turned.
“What?”
“I bought Leo secondhand.”
“From the charity shop.”
“Yes.”
“What was it called?”
“Second Chances.”
Marco took out his phone.
Lorenzo looked toward him.
“Find out who donated that toy.”
“That could have been years ago.”
“Find out.”
Marco walked away.
I hugged Lily tighter.
“Mr. Moretti, I think we should go home.”
Lorenzo looked at me.
“You can.”
I hadn't expected agreement.
“Thank you.”
“But Lily returns tomorrow.”
I stared.
“You can't order my daughter to come here.”
Something changed in his expression.
Not anger.
Recognition.
“You're right.”
That surprised me even more.
He looked toward the photograph.
“I'm asking.”
I looked at the man people were supposedly afraid to refuse.
For the first time, he didn't look powerful.
He looked like Sophie’s father.
“She spoke because of your daughter,” he said. “One word in seven months.”
“I know.”
“I won't force anything. If Lily doesn't want to come, she doesn't come.”
I studied him.
“And if she does?”
“Then you stay beside her every second.”
That mattered.
“Okay.”
Marco returned before I could say more.
“Lorenzo.”
Something in his voice changed the room.
“What?”
“The charity shop has digital donation records going back eight years.”
“And?”
“The lion was donated six years ago.”
“By whom?”
Marco looked at me.
Then at Lily.
“Elena Moretti.”
Nobody spoke.
Lorenzo took the photograph from the desk.
“That’s impossible.”
Marco showed him the phone.
“The inventory photo matches. Same stitching. Same number.”
“What number?”
“417.”
Lorenzo turned the photograph over.
Nothing.
Then he looked again at the blue door.
I suddenly understood something.
“Maybe the number isn't a room number.”
Lorenzo looked at me.
“What?”
“The lion had it before Lily owned it.”
Marco nodded slowly.
“So Elena marked the toy.”
“Why?”
Nobody knew.
A nurse appeared at the entrance to the first room.
She was breathless.
“Mr. Moretti.”
Lorenzo turned instantly.
“Sophie?”
“She’s fine.”
He relaxed by perhaps one inch.
“She wants Lily.”
Lily lifted her head from my shoulder.
“Sister?”
The nurse nodded.
“She’s asking for her.”
“Asking?”
The nurse's eyes filled.
“Not verbally. She wrote her name.”
We returned upstairs.
Sophie sat upright.
Leo rested on her lap.
Her sketchbook was open.
LILY was written across an entire page.
Lily climbed into the chair.
“I came back.”
Sophie smiled.
Then she looked at Lorenzo.
He approached carefully.
“Sophie.”
She lowered her eyes.
He sat several feet away.
“We found the door.”
Her smile disappeared.
Lorenzo noticed.
“We don't have to talk about it.”
Sophie gripped Leo.
“I only need you to know you're safe.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
Lorenzo's face tightened.
“I promise.”
Sophie looked at him for several seconds.
Then she reached for her pencil.
She wrote slowly.
MOMMY.
Lorenzo stared.
His voice barely worked.
“What about Mommy?”
Sophie pointed at Leo.
Then wrote:
GAVE HIM TO ME.
Lorenzo shook his head.
“No, sweetheart. Your mother donated that lion when you were a baby.”
Sophie shook her head violently.
She wrote again.
SHE GAVE HIM TO ME.
“When?”
Sophie hesitated.
Then wrote:
THE NIGHT.
Lorenzo went still.
“What night?”
Her pencil hovered.
She began another word.
The first letter was D.
Then O.
Then O.
DOO—
A sharp electronic chime sounded from Lorenzo’s pocket.
His phone.
He almost ignored it.
Then he looked at the screen.
Marco saw the name too.
Their expressions changed simultaneously.
“What is it?” I asked.
Lorenzo answered the call.
Nobody spoke on the other end.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then a woman whispered:
“Don't make Sophie remember the door.”
Lorenzo stood.
“Who is this?”
The call ended.
Marco was already moving.
“Trace it.”
Sophie stared at Lorenzo’s phone.
Her face went white.
She began shaking her head.
“Sophie?”
Her breathing accelerated.
Lily reached for her hand.
“It's okay.”
Sophie squeezed it.
Then, for the second time in seven months, she spoke.
Not Lily's name.
Not Daddy.
May you like
Three terrified words.
“She came back.”
