Chapter 3 - Isabella’s Music BoxThe Moretti estate looked less like a home than a private embassy.
Stone walls.
Iron gates.
Security cameras hidden among old sycamore trees.
A driveway long enough to make Emma wonder whether they were still technically in New York.
When the gates opened, Luca’s shoulders tightened.
Emma noticed.
This was supposed to be the place where he felt safest.
Instead, he stared at the mansion as if it contained ghosts.
Maybe it did.
Adrian’s security team moved first.
Four men entered through the front.
Two circled toward the rear.
Another inspected the garage.
Emma stayed inside the SUV with Luca while Adrian issued orders.
“No one enters or leaves without Gabriel’s approval.”
One guard nodded.
“Marco?”
“Denied entry.”
“Even if he insists?”
Adrian looked at him.
“Especially if he insists.”
They entered through a side door.
The mansion was beautiful in the sterile way expensive homes sometimes were.
White stone floors.
Tall windows.
Museum-quality paintings.
Fresh flowers arranged in enormous vases.
But the silence felt wrong.
Emma realized why.
A hearing household naturally filled itself with noise.
Televisions.
Music.
Footsteps.
Dishes.
Voices.
Luca lived in a world where those signals didn’t reach him.
Yet nobody had adapted the house for him beyond flashing doorbells and a few visual alarms.
People still called his name from behind.
Still approached without entering his line of sight.
Still spoke during family meals without signing.
Emma began to understand how a child could disappear emotionally while surrounded by people.
A gray-haired woman appeared at the staircase.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“Teresa, where is Elena?”
“I don’t know, sir. She said she felt ill.”
“When?”
“Just after nine.”
“Who spoke to her before she left?”
Teresa hesitated.
“I’m not sure.”
“Find out.”
“Yes, sir.”
Luca reached for Emma’s sleeve.
Mom’s room.
Adrian saw.
He nodded.
“Upstairs.”
The master suite occupied the west wing.
Adrian stopped outside a set of double doors.
For the first time since Belladonna, uncertainty crossed his face.
“Luca hasn’t been in here since Isabella died.”
Emma looked at him.
“But he said he hid the phone here after the accident.”
“He must have come alone.”
Luca turned the handle.
The doors opened.
Emma expected dust.
Instead, the room looked preserved.
Not abandoned.
Cream curtains framed the windows.
Books remained stacked beside a chaise longue.
A framed family photograph stood on the dresser.
Adrian.
Isabella.
A younger Luca between them, smiling widely.
Emma glanced toward the teenager.
He stared at the photograph but didn’t approach.
Then he crossed to a cabinet near the fireplace.
He opened it.
Inside sat a wooden music box shaped like a small grand piano.
Luca lifted it carefully.
His hands trembled.
Emma signed.
Do you want me to open it?
He shook his head.
He turned a tiny brass key underneath.
The lid released.
Inside were pieces of jewelry.
A silk scarf.
Two photographs.
Luca removed the velvet tray.
Nothing beneath it.
His face changed.
He searched again.
Faster.
Adrian stepped closer.
“What’s wrong?”
Emma didn’t need to ask.
The phone was gone.
Luca dropped to his knees.
He felt beneath the cabinet.
Opened drawers.
Pulled clothing from a nearby chest.
Adrian caught his shoulders.
“Luca.”
The boy shoved him away.
He signed furiously.
It was here.
Emma repeated the sentence aloud.
“I believe him,” Adrian said.
Luca shook his head.
Someone took it.
Adrian looked toward Gabriel.
“Who has been inside this room?”
Gabriel frowned.
“Housekeeping isn’t allowed.”
“Who?”
“I’ll pull access logs.”
The doors to Isabella’s suite had electronic security.
Within ten minutes, Gabriel returned with a tablet.
“There are four entries since Luca’s accident.”
Adrian read the screen.
His expression darkened.
“Me.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Twice.”
“Teresa?”
“Once. She entered with you when the bathroom pipe leaked.”
“And the fourth?”
Gabriel’s mouth tightened.
“Elena.”
Emma looked at Luca.
He saw the name on Gabriel’s lips.
His face went white.
“When?”
Adrian asked.
“Six days after Luca came home from the hospital.”
Exactly when the boy had hidden the phone.
Adrian walked toward the window.
For several seconds he said nothing.
Then he turned.
“Find Elena.”
“We’re already tracking her phone.”
“Not enough.”
“Her vehicle has GPS.”
“Then why are we still standing here?”
Gabriel left.
Emma crouched beside Luca.
He looked devastated.
Daniel trusted me.
Emma signed back.
You were fourteen—
He shook his head.
Thirteen.
She corrected herself.
You were thirteen. You were injured. You protected it as long as you could.
Luca’s fingers moved.
Now there’s no proof.
Emma thought about the music box.
Then something bothered her.
“Mr. Moretti.”
Adrian turned.
“You said Daniel handled your finances.”
“Yes.”
“And Marco knew that?”
“Of course.”
“If Daniel had evidence serious enough to get himself killed, why would everything depend on one phone?”
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
Emma continued.
“Accountants make copies.”
A silence.
Adrian looked at Luca.
Then at the empty music box.
“Daniel was obsessive about backups.”
“Where?”
“That’s the problem.”
He walked toward the dresser as if thinking.
“He had access to hundreds of accounts, servers, cloud systems, corporate records. If he found something, he could have hidden it anywhere.”
Emma noticed Luca studying the old family photograph.
Suddenly he stood.
He pointed.
Not at Adrian.
At Isabella.
Then he signed.
Daniel talked to Mom before she died.
Adrian froze.
“What?”
Emma translated.
Adrian stared at his son.
“When?”
Luca signed.
Hospital.
Isabella had died from ovarian cancer two years earlier.
Daniel apparently visited her during her final weeks.
Luca remembered seeing them signing privately.
Daniel had learned some ASL partly because Isabella insisted everyone close to Luca should.
Luca couldn’t understand all of it from across the hospital room.
But he remembered three words Daniel had signed.
Protect Luca’s future.
Adrian sat down.
A new possibility emerged.
Daniel’s investigation might have started long before his disappearance.
Before Isabella died.
Emma asked Luca whether his mother had responded.
He nodded.
She gave Daniel something.
“What?” Adrian asked.
Luca mimed a key.
Adrian immediately looked toward the wall behind the painting above the fireplace.
He crossed the room.
Removed the painting.
A safe was hidden behind it.
Emma almost rolled her eyes.
Of course there was a safe behind a painting.
Adrian entered a code.
Nothing.
He tried again.
Red light.
“Isabella changed it.”
Emma looked at Luca.
Do you know the number?
He shook his head.
Adrian stared at the keypad.
Then Luca touched his mother’s photograph.
He signed.
My birthday.
Adrian entered the date.
Red.
Mom’s birthday?
Red.
Luca thought.
Then slowly smiled.
He entered six digits himself.
The safe clicked.
Adrian stared at him.
“What was it?”
Emma watched Luca sign.
The day she met Dad.
Something softened in Adrian’s expression.
He pulled the safe open.
Inside were passports, jewelry, legal documents, a pistol, and three envelopes.
One envelope had Luca’s name.
Another had Adrian’s.
The third had a single word.
Daniel.
Adrian picked it up.
His fingers shook as he opened it.
Inside was a brass key attached to a numbered tag.
And a handwritten note in Isabella’s handwriting.
Adrian read silently.
Then read again.
Emma watched the blood leave his face.
“What does it say?”
He handed her the note.
The message contained only two lines.
If Daniel ever asks for this, believe him.
If he is gone, trust Luca before you trust your own blood.
Emma slowly looked toward Adrian.
Luca couldn’t read the note from where he stood.
Adrian crossed the room.
He showed it to his son.
Luca read.
His lower lip trembled.
His mother had known.
Not everything, perhaps.
But enough to leave a warning.
Gabriel entered quickly.
“Sir.”
Adrian folded the note.
“What?”
“We found Elena’s car.”
“Where?”
“Abandoned near Van Cortlandt Park.”
“Her phone?”
“Inside.”
Emma’s stomach tightened.
“And Elena?”
“Gone.”
Adrian swore quietly.
Gabriel continued.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The east gate camera caught a vehicle leaving seven minutes after Elena.”
He turned the tablet.
A black sedan appeared on screen.
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“Whose car?”
Gabriel enlarged the image.
The license plate became visible.
Emma saw Adrian’s face change.
He knew it.
“It belongs to Vincent.”
Emma recognized the name.
Vincent Moretti.
Adrian and Marco’s cousin.
One of the men who had been sitting at Belladonna.
Meaning Elena hadn’t simply fled.
Someone from Adrian’s own table had followed her.
Adrian took out his phone.
“Call Vincent.”
Gabriel dialed.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Luca tugged Emma’s sleeve.
His expression was urgent.
Vincent knows the red bracelet.
Emma frowned.
What do you mean?
Luca signed something she didn’t expect.
Elena showed it to him the night Daniel died.
Emma stared.
You saw that?
Yes.
What kind of bracelet?
Luca thought.
Then formed a shape with his fingers.
A tiny silver charm attached to red string.
A saint.
Adrian had caught enough of the conversation.
“What bracelet?”
Emma explained.
Gabriel suddenly looked uncomfortable.
Adrian noticed.
“You know something.”
Gabriel hesitated.
“Sir…”
“Say it.”
“My men found something inside Vincent’s sedan when we inspected vehicles after the Belladonna incident.”
Adrian’s stare hardened.
“What?”
Gabriel reached into his pocket.
He placed a small clear evidence bag on the dresser.
Inside it lay a torn piece of red string.
Attached to the string was a tiny silver medal.
Emma heard Luca inhale sharply.
The boy pointed.
His hands moved once.
Hers.
Adrian stared at the bracelet.
Then at Gabriel.
“Where is Vincent now?”
Gabriel swallowed.
“That’s the problem.”
“What problem?”
“His car was found abandoned.”
“Where?”
“Beside Elena’s.”
The room went silent.
Two missing people.
Two abandoned vehicles.
One stolen phone.
And a warning from a dead woman telling Adrian not to trust his own blood.
Then Gabriel’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
His face turned grim.
Adrian spoke.
“What is it?”
Gabriel lowered the phone.
“They found blood in Vincent’s trunk.”
Luca couldn’t hear the words.
But once again, he understood the faces.
And this time, he reached for his father’s hand.
May you like
Adrian looked down.
For the first time in eleven months, Luca didn’t pull away.
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