Chapter 11 - THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK|
The security team traced the signal from the boathouse screen to a warehouse near the river.
They found the room where Sophie had been filmed, but it was empty. A blanket lay on the floor beside a bottle of water and a small plate of untouched food.
There were no signs of a struggle.
The kidnappers had left deliberately.
Luca stood in the middle of the room, trying to control the fear building inside him.
Marco approached.
“We found a receipt from a medical supply company. The bandage used on Sophie's ankle was purchased yesterday.”
“Can you trace the buyer?”
“It's linked to a company owned by Richard Bellini.”
Luca nodded.
“Keep looking.”
Claire examined the room from the doorway.
“Mr. Moretti, Sophie wouldn't have been quiet for this long unless someone convinced her that cooperating would protect you.”
Luca looked at her.
“You think she was told I was in danger?”
“Maybe. Or that she would be sent away if she didn't cooperate.”
He closed his eyes.
That was exactly the kind of fear Vanessa had taught her to carry.
Then Marco's phone rang.
He listened, his expression changing.
“Sir, we've located Vanessa.”
“Where?”
“At the private marina. She was seen entering a building with a man matching Richard Bellini's description.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“Bring her in.”
Within an hour, Vanessa was sitting in a secure room at the Moretti estate.
She looked exhausted and frightened.
“I didn't know he was going to take Sophie,” she said.
Luca remained standing.
“You knew Richard was alive.”
She looked away.
“Yes.”
“You knew he was involved in the academy arrangement.”
“Yes.”
“And you never thought to tell me?”
Vanessa began crying.
“He promised he would help me secure my future with you.”
“By taking my daughter?”
“He said Sophie would be safer somewhere else until the wedding.”
Luca stared at her.
“What wedding?”
“Our wedding.”
“We suspended the engagement.”
“He told me you would change your mind.”
Luca leaned forward.
“Did you help him take Sophie?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Then she whispered, “I gave him the security schedule.”
The room went silent.
Luca's face became unreadable.
“You gave a man access to my daughter's bedroom.”
“I thought he was going to frighten you into signing the agreement. I didn't know he would actually take her.”
“You gave him the information that made it possible.”
Vanessa covered her face.
“I was desperate.”
“For what?”
She lowered her hands.
“Your family. Your name. A future where I wasn't always second to a dead woman.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“Caroline is not your competition. She is Sophie's mother.”
Vanessa looked at him with sudden bitterness.
“You still love her.”
“I will always love the mother of my child. That doesn't mean I cannot love someone else.”
“But you never chose me.”
“I chose to trust you. You made that choice impossible.”
Vanessa began to sob.
Then Luca asked the question that mattered most.
“Where is Sophie?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I don't know. Richard told me she would be moved before dawn.”
“Where?”
“I swear I don't know.”
Luca studied her.
“Did Richard mention Caroline's accident?”
Vanessa's tears stopped.
“He said the same person who arranged the accident was the only person who could protect him now.”
Luca felt his pulse quicken.
“Who?”
Vanessa looked directly at him.
“He called that person the family doctor.”
Luca went still.
His father had died years earlier.
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The family doctor who had treated Caroline after the crash had retired shortly afterward.
And nobody had ever explained why the official medical report contained a signature that did not match the doctor's handwriting.
