Chapter 8 - The Housekeeper's MotherClare couldn't speak.
The phone slipped slightly from her hand.
“Your mother?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“Who are you?”
“You've forgotten me.”
“I don't understand.”
“You were four.”
Clare felt dizzy.
“My mother died.”
“That is what they told you.”
Leo moved closer.
“Put it on speaker.”
Clare did.
The woman continued.
“You are in danger.”
“Where are you?”
“Not yet.”
“What does that mean?”
“You were brought to the Rossi estate for a reason.”
Leo's eyes narrowed.
The woman laughed.
“Not by accident.”
Clare's face went pale.
“Mrs. Gable.”
“Yes.”
“She knew you?”
“She worked for me.”
Leo stared.
“How?”
The woman's voice changed.
“I was Rosalia Rossi's nurse.”
Leo froze.
The world suddenly clicked into place.
Clare's mother had worked at St. Jude's.
She had cared for Rosalia.
Clare had visited her.
The song had passed from Rosalia to Clare.
Then Clare's mother had disappeared too.
Two women connected by one secret.
“What did my mother know?” Leo asked.
The woman answered:
“The ledger was never about money.”
Leo's eyes narrowed.
“Then what was it about?”
“Names.”
“Whose names?”
“Children.”
Clare's blood ran cold.
“What children?”
“Children taken from families who owed the Rossi organization.”
Leo stared into nothing.
His family had not only been trafficking money.
They had been trafficking identities.
The woman continued:
“Your father created a system that could erase a child.”
Leo's face hardened.
“Why?”
“Because some children knew too much.”
Clare whispered:
“Was I one of them?”
Silence.
Then:
“Yes.”
Clare felt her knees weaken.
“What happened to me?”
“You survived.”
“Who am I?”
The line suddenly crackled.
The woman whispered one final sentence.
“Ask Leo why your name appears in his mother's diary.”
The call ended.
Leo looked at Clare.
“You have a diary?”
“No.”
“Then my mother did.”
He turned toward his car.
“We're going back.”
“Where?”
“The estate.”
“Why?”
“Because someone wants us to find that diary.”
Clare grabbed his sleeve.
“What if that's exactly what they want?”
Leo looked at her.
For once, he had no answer.
Then his phone buzzed.
A photograph appeared.
It showed the Rossi estate.
Taken from inside the library.
May you like
The caption read:
YOU'RE ALREADY HOME.
