Chapter 4 - The Secret Hidden in the Mansion
The picture on Alessandro’s phone changed everything.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody moved.
Because the person standing outside the mansion window wasn’t a stranger.
It was someone who had no reason to be there.
Someone who should have been impossible to find.
I watched Alessandro’s face as he stared at the image.
The anger was there.
But underneath it was something else.
Pain.
For the first time, I saw the cost of being Alessandro Moretti.
Everyone thought powerful people had no fear.
They were wrong.
Powerful people were just better at hiding what they were afraid to lose.
"Who is that?" I whispered.
Alessandro didn’t answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the picture.
The person in the photo stood in the shadows outside the mansion, holding a second inhaler.
The same kind.
The same color.
The same medicine that almost killed him.
Then Alessandro locked his phone.
"Everyone leaves this room."
Sofia looked at him.
"Alessandro—"
"Now."
His voice was quiet.
But nobody argued.
Not even his sister.
The security team escorted everyone except me and Emma out of the study.
I expected Alessandro to tell us to leave too.
Instead, he looked at my daughter.
"Emma."
She looked up.
"Yes?"
"Do you remember anything else?"
I immediately stepped forward.
"She’s five years old."
"I know."
"She has already been through enough."
His expression softened.
"I know that too."
Then he lowered himself slightly so he was closer to Emma’s height.
It was strange seeing a man like Alessandro Moretti kneeling in front of a little girl.
The newspapers would never show that side of him.
The world only knew the man who controlled everything.
Not the man who carefully asked a child a question.
"Emma, I need you to tell me the truth."
She nodded.
"Okay."
"When you saw the person outside the door, what were they doing?"
Emma looked down.
She thought carefully.
Then she answered.
"They were holding something."
"What?"
She pointed toward the desk.
"The same thing."
Alessandro followed her finger.
The inhaler.
My stomach tightened.
"What else?"
Emma looked at him.
"They were talking to someone."
"Who?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know."
A pause.
Then she whispered:
"But they said Mama’s name."
My entire body froze.
"What?"
Emma looked at me.
"They said Clara."
The room became silent.
I felt Alessandro’s eyes move toward me.
Not with suspicion.
With concern.
But I still felt a wave of fear.
Because why would someone trying to kill Alessandro Moretti say my name?
I had no enemies.
I had no power.
I was just a maid.
A woman who cleaned rooms and washed clothes.
Someone like me wasn’t supposed to matter.
Unless...
Unless I had been closer to the truth than I realized.
Alessandro stood.
"Where is your employee file?"
I looked at him.
"What?"
"Your file."
"Why?"
"Because someone knows your name."
I shook my head.
"I've worked here for three years. Everyone knows my name."
"No."
His voice became serious.
"Not like this."
He walked toward the desk.
"Someone connected your daughter to me."
I looked at Emma.
The thought made me sick.
Someone had used my child.
Someone had turned a five-year-old girl into a witness.
Alessandro called one of his guards.
"Bring me every record from the last five years."
The guard nodded.
"Every record?"
"Everything."
After he left, I stood near Emma.
She was tired.
Her small fingers were still wrapped around my hand.
"Can we go home now?" she whispered.
I looked at Alessandro.
For a moment, I expected him to refuse.
Instead, he said:
"Yes."
I was surprised.
"Really?"
He nodded.
"But you won’t be alone."
I understood immediately.
Security.
Protection.
A reminder that whatever happened tonight had followed us.
I didn’t want protection.
I wanted my old life back.
A small apartment.
A normal job.
A normal childhood for Emma.
But normal disappeared the moment my daughter saved Alessandro Moretti.
Less than twenty minutes later, the guard returned.
He wasn’t carrying a folder.
He was carrying a box.
A large black box.
Alessandro looked at it.
"Where did you find that?"
The guard hesitated.
"In the archive room."
"Why was it there?"
"Because it was hidden."
My skin went cold.
Alessandro opened the box.
Inside were old documents.
Photographs.
Letters.
Things that looked like they had been collected over years.
I stepped closer.
"What is that?"
He didn’t answer.
He pulled out a photograph.
Then another.
Then another.
Every picture had the same person.
Me.
I stopped breathing.
The photographs weren’t recent.
Some were from years ago.
Before I ever worked at the mansion.
Before Emma was born.
"Why do you have pictures of me?"
Alessandro looked genuinely confused.
"I don't."
He turned the photos over.
On the back of each one was a date.
And the same handwritten mark.
A small letter.
"R."
My hands started shaking.
"I don't understand."
Neither did Alessandro.
Then he found something underneath the photographs.
A sealed envelope.
My name was written on it.
Not Clara Bennett.
My old name.
The name I hadn’t used in years.
My heart dropped.
Because almost nobody knew that name.
Alessandro looked at me.
"You never told me."
"I changed it."
"Why?"
I couldn’t answer.
Because the memories came rushing back.
The reason I left.
The reason I ran.
The reason I never spoke about my past.
A knock suddenly came from the door.
Everyone froze.
Alessandro moved immediately.
He reached for the weapon hidden beneath his jacket.
"Who is it?"
A voice answered from the other side.
"Mr. Moretti."
I recognized it.
It was Marco Bellini.
The man Alessandro had accused.
"What do you want?" Alessandro asked.
"I know who changed the inhaler."
The room went silent.
Alessandro looked at me.
Then at the door.
"How do you know?"
A pause.
Then Marco answered:
"Because I know why Clara Bennett was brought into this house."
My blood ran cold.
Alessandro’s hand tightened.
"Open the door."
The lock clicked.
The door moved slightly.
But before Marco stepped inside, he whispered one final sentence.
"The woman you think you’re protecting is the reason someone tried to kill you."
May you like
The door opened.
And standing behind Marco was someone I never expected to see again.
