Chapter 3 - UPSTAIRS WITH THE MORETTIS
By nine o’clock, the Moretti estate looked normal from the road. Gardeners trimmed hedges, delivery
vans waited at the service gate, and sunlight flashed across the mansion’s limestone façade as if
nothing had happened. Inside, every routine had changed. Guards occupied corners where flower
arrangements had stood the day before. Kitchen staff passed through metal detectors. Guest access
was suspended. Marco’s team moved through the house with tablets and sealed evidence bags, building
a timeline minute by minute while Dominic canceled three meetings and refused every request to leave
the property.
Anna tried to make herself useful. Work had always been the safest answer to fear, so she went
downstairs before breakfast and began checking linen schedules. Marco stopped her halfway to the
service elevator. “You’re not working today.” Anna almost laughed. She had been head housekeeper for
six years and could not remember a morning when the estate had not needed something from her.
Marco’s expression remained serious. Dominic had ordered that Anna and Lily stay on the family floor
until security cleared the residence. The instruction made her feel protected and trapped at the
same time.
Back upstairs, Lily and Ethan had built a fortress from sofa cushions. Ethan, usually reserved
around staff, crawled beneath a blanket roof and announced that no villains could enter because Lily
was the guard captain. Lily accepted the promotion immediately and armed herself with a wooden spoon
from the breakfast tray. Their laughter filled the sitting room. Anna stood in the doorway watching
them and felt a painful gratitude. Children could return to play before adults had finished being
terrified.
Dominic entered carrying two cups of coffee. He handed one to Anna without asking how she took it.
It had one sugar and a small amount of milk, exactly right. She looked at him in surprise. “You’ve
worked in my house six years,” he said. “I notice more than you think.” The words were simple, but
they landed strangely. Anna had spent years learning everyone else’s preferences—the temperature of
Ethan’s bath, the flowers Dominic disliked, which guests required decaf, which towels belonged in
which rooms. She had never considered that anyone upstairs had learned hers.
They stood by the windows while the children played. Dominic explained that Marco’s team had
identified the symbol in Lily’s drawing. It resembled the crest used by Bellatori Shipping before
the company merged with Moretti Maritime twelve years earlier: a black falcon surrounding a compass.
Several former Bellatori executives still wore commemorative rings. The merger had been hostile.
Fortunes had been made and lost. Some people had never forgiven Dominic’s father for taking control.
“That was twelve years ago,” Anna said. Dominic looked toward Ethan. “People can carry hatred longer
than children carry memories.” He told her that three guests at the party had ties to the old
company. One was retired and arrived with oxygen equipment. One was a woman whose late husband had
served on Bellatori’s board. The third was Vincent Moretti, Dominic’s cousin and current chief
operating officer, who had worked for Bellatori before joining the family firm. Anna knew Vincent.
Everyone did. He was charming, generous with tips, and one of the few relatives who spoke to staff
as if they were people.
Anna immediately regretted the direction of her thoughts. “You think Vincent did this?” Dominic’s
expression closed. “I think nothing yet.” He did not sound convincing. Family photographs covered
the wall beside him: Dominic and Vincent as boys on a sailboat, Dominic’s late father between them;
Ethan as a baby in Vincent’s arms; Christmas dinners, charity events, summer trips. Suspicion was
easy when aimed at strangers. Against family, it became a knife that cut both ways.
At noon, Dr. Harris examined Lily, not because she was sick but because Anna admitted she had barely
eaten. The physician sat on the carpet with her and turned the appointment into a game. He asked
what she remembered from the cold room without repeating Dominic’s questions. Lily described the
silver box, the white powder, the man’s shiny black shoes, and a smell like “Grandma’s old church.”
Anna frowned. Her mother had burned a particular incense during holidays—frankincense mixed with
cedar oil. Dr. Harris wrote it down.
The detail seemed useless until Marco returned an hour later. Security had searched the ballroom
coatroom and found a folded handkerchief beneath a bench near the service corridor. It carried
traces of cedar-based cologne and a tiny fragment of silver-colored metal. Lab work would take time,
but the handkerchief bore no initials. More interestingly, the coatroom had been used by guests, not
staff. Anna watched Dominic absorb the information without reacting. Each clue narrowed the circle
around people he knew.
That afternoon, an argument erupted in Dominic’s study. Anna heard Vincent’s voice before she saw
him. He had arrived at the gate furious that his access had been suspended. Through the partially
open study door, Anna saw him standing across from Dominic in a dark blue suit, silver at his
temples, hands spread in disbelief. “You’re treating family like suspects,” Vincent said. Dominic
answered, “Until I know who tried to kill my son, everyone is a suspect.” Vincent stared at him for
a long moment, hurt hardening into anger.
Then Vincent noticed Anna in the hallway. The anger vanished instantly, replaced by concern. He
stepped out and asked whether Lily was all right. Anna said yes. He crouched when Lily approached
and praised her for being brave, but Lily did not smile. She moved behind Anna’s leg and clutched
the fabric of her skirt. Vincent appeared not to notice. Dominic did. So did Anna.
After Vincent left, Dominic asked Lily whether he was the man she had seen. Lily shook her head.
“No.” Relief passed through Anna before she could stop it. Dominic did not relax. “Did you see him
with the cake man?” he asked. Lily stared at the floor. For several seconds she said nothing. Then
she pointed toward the front door Vincent had just used. “He talked to the bird man before the
music,” she whispered.
Dominic’s face drained of color.
Anna knelt beside Lily. “Where?” Lily thought carefully. “By the flowers. The big pink ones.” The
ballroom had contained six enormous arrangements of pink roses, but only one stood near the private
corridor leading to Dominic’s study. Anna remembered seeing Vincent there before dinner. He had been
speaking with someone, but she had been carrying a stack of place cards and had not looked twice.
Dominic called Marco and ordered every photograph from the first hour of the party enlarged.
Hundreds of images appeared on the study screens: guests arriving, champagne being poured, Ethan
opening gifts, waiters passing beneath chandeliers. At first there was nothing. Then Marco froze one
frame taken by the event photographer at 6:42 p.m. Vincent stood beside the pink roses, half turned
away from the camera.
Across from him stood a tall man in a tuxedo.
His face was hidden behind another guest.
But on his left wrist, caught in the camera flash, was a black falcon wrapped around a silver
compass.
Anna felt Lily’s fingers tighten around hers.
Dominic stared at the image for a long time. “Find him,” he said.
Marco enlarged the photograph again.
The man’s face remained hidden.
But one thing was now certain.
May you like
Lily had been right from the beginning.
====================================================================================================
