Chapter 6 - THE MAID WHO DISAPPEARED|
Elena read the note four times before showing it to Alessandro.
He arrived at the guest wing within minutes. When he saw the handwriting, his expression became difficult to read.
“Did anyone see who left it?”
“No.”
“Did you touch anything else in the hallway?”
“Only the note.”
He called Marco, who arranged for the security team to review the cameras. While they waited, Elena asked the question that had been burning inside her.
“Who was the woman who worked here before me?”
“Her name was Maria Santos.”
“What happened to her?”
“She left.”
“That's all?”
“That is what I was told.”
Elena heard the careful wording.
“You don't believe it.”
“I believe someone wanted me to stop asking questions.”
Maria had worked as a housekeeper for the Morettis for four years. She disappeared shortly after Alessandro's father died, taking none of her belongings and leaving no forwarding address.
Alessandro had been twenty-nine at the time. He was managing a family business in crisis and trying to prevent rival groups from exploiting the chaos.
He admitted that he had accepted the explanation without investigating it properly.
“I was busy protecting the empire,” he said. “I forgot that people can disappear inside it.”
Elena felt an unexpected sadness.
“You can't fix what you don't know.”
“No. But I can stop pretending ignorance is the same as innocence.”
Marco returned with the security footage. A staff member had entered the guest wing shortly before the note appeared, but the camera had been deliberately turned toward the wall.
The person wore a maintenance uniform.
Mrs. Bennett identified him as Paul Dwyer, a contractor who had worked at the mansion for several months.
When security contacted the company, they learned that Dwyer had submitted his resignation that morning.
He had left behind a locker containing a prepaid phone.
The phone held one photograph: Maria Santos standing beside Thomas Vale outside a downtown office building.
On the back of the photograph was a date from six years earlier.
Alessandro recognized the building.
It had once housed a private financial office connected to his father's business.
“Someone wants us to look at Maria,” Marco said. “Maybe to distract us from Northbridge.”
“Or Maria is the reason Northbridge exists,” Elena replied.
Both men turned toward her.
She pointed to the dates on the ledger.
“The payment in the household accounts was made six weeks ago. If someone wanted to hide a financial connection, they wouldn't leave it in a routine expense file unless they believed nobody would notice.”
Alessandro studied the document.
“You're right.”
The simple acknowledgment surprised her more than praise would have.
For the next hour, they compared the dates with public business filings and the information already provided to police. A pattern began to emerge. Northbridge had received payments from several companies that had once been controlled by Alessandro's father.
One of those companies had also paid Ryan Mercer.
Elena's stomach tightened.
“Why would a man like Thomas Vale care about me?”
“We don't know,” Alessandro said.
“But he knows Ryan. Ryan knows me. And someone in this house knows what happened to Maria.”
Before Alessandro could respond, a guard appeared at the door.
“Sir, the contractor has been found.”
“Where?”
“Outside the west gate. He asked to speak with Miss Carter.”
Elena stood.
“Why me?”
The guard hesitated.
“He said he knows what Ryan did to your mother.”
For the first time in months, Elena forgot to breathe.
May you like
Her mother had died after a sudden medical emergency. Elena had always believed that was the end of the story.
Now a stranger was claiming it wasn't.
