Chapter 2 - THE PHOTOGRAPH FROM A FORGOTTEN NIGHT|
Ettore Moretti held the photograph between two fingers. It was old, its edges softened by time, and a pale crease ran through the middle. In it, a young woman with dark hair stood beside a handsome man outside a small church. She held a baby wrapped in a yellow blanket. The man's hand rested protectively on her shoulder.
Donatella stared at the woman.
Her heart seemed to stop.
"Where did you get that?" she whispered.
Ettore studied her face. "Tell me the woman's name."
She could barely breathe. "Isabella Mancini. My mother."
A murmur spread across the restaurant. Gavin looked from Donatella to the photograph, suddenly realizing that his victim was connected to something far more dangerous than an accounting dispute.
Ettore's expression changed. The cold authority remained, but beneath it lay a grief he had hidden for nearly thirty years.
"Your mother told you nothing about the Moretti family?"
"She told me to stay away from men who believed money made them untouchable." Donatella swallowed. "She died when I was sixteen. Whatever you're trying to tell me, I don't understand."
Ettore turned toward his bodyguard, Marco.
"Take Mr. Vogle into the private office. Nobody touches him. Nobody lets him leave."
Gavin immediately protested.
"Don Ettore, this is a misunderstanding! She stole confidential files, and I was disciplining an employee who—"
"You struck a woman with a whip in front of forty witnesses," Ettore interrupted. "You can explain your version after a doctor examines her shoulder."
Two guards escorted Gavin away. His expensive shoes scraped against the marble as he struggled to maintain his dignity.
Ettore then faced the employees.
"Everyone who witnessed this incident will be protected from retaliation. Anyone who lies to protect that man will answer to my legal team. Until we finish our investigation, this restaurant is closed."
Nobody dared argue.
When the dining room finally emptied, Ettore motioned toward a chair.
"Please sit down, Donatella."
"I would rather stand."
Something resembling respect crossed his face.
"Your mother used to say the same thing."
Donatella's eyes filled, but she refused to let the tears fall.
"You knew her?"
"Very well."
"Then why weren't you at her funeral?"
The question struck him harder than any accusation Gavin could have made. Ettore lowered the photograph.
"Because I was told she had betrayed my family and disappeared with something that belonged to us. By the time I learned the truth, she was gone."
"What truth?"
He did not answer immediately. Instead, he opened a slim leather folder and removed another photograph. This one showed a much younger Ettore beside Isabella, both standing outside a modest apartment building. On the back, someone had written a date and two words: Our promise.
Donatella recognized her mother's handwriting.
She took a shaky step backward.
"My mother never mentioned you."
"She may have been trying to protect you."
"From you?"
Ettore accepted the accusation without protest.
"Possibly."
That honesty unsettled her more than a denial would have.
Before she could ask another question, Marco returned with a sealed evidence bag. Inside lay a small silver locket recovered from Gavin's office. Donatella recognized it immediately. It had disappeared from her locker the previous evening.
"Why would he steal this?" she asked.
Ettore opened the bag carefully. The locket contained a tiny photograph of Donatella as a child, sitting on her mother's lap.
But there was something else inside: a narrow strip of paper folded behind the photograph.
Ettore unfolded it.
His face turned ashen.
The message contained only eight words.
THE GIRL IS ALIVE. FIND HER BEFORE THE LEDGER SURFACES.
Donatella looked at him.
"What girl?"
Ettore slowly raised his eyes.
"You, Donatella. And if this message is genuine, someone has known who you are for a very long time."
Before he could explain further, every light in the restaurant went out.
May you like
A gunshot cracked from the kitchen.
And Marco shouted, "DON! GET DOWN!"
