Chapter 2 - The Blue PhoneNobody spoke while Vincent studied the location.
Dominic was the first to move.
“I’ll get the cars.”
“No.”
Vincent looked toward the ballroom entrance.
“Seal the estate first.”
Dominic nodded.
Guards rushed into the corridors.
Isabella remained beside the marble table.
She had stopped touching her pendant.
That made Vincent notice it even more.
“Take it off.”
She looked at him.
“What?”
“The necklace.”
Her face tightened.
“You don't seriously believe that recording.”
“I believe Sofia's voice.”
“You haven't heard her in three years.”
Vincent stared at her.
“And yet I recognized her in one second.”
Isabella's lips parted.
No answer came.
Grace grabbed Emily by the shoulders.
“Go upstairs.”
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
“Emily.”
“I want to stay with Mr. Moretti.”
Vincent looked at the child.
“Why?”
“Because Mommy is scared.”
Grace looked away.
Vincent noticed the tremor in her hands.
He had seen fear before.
But Grace wasn't afraid of him.
She was afraid of what might happen if he discovered the truth.
Vincent walked toward her.
“Tell me everything about that phone.”
Grace's voice broke.
“I don't know everything.”
“Then tell me what you do know.”
“It was given to me.”
“By whom?”
She hesitated.
“A woman.”
Vincent's heartbeat quickened.
“Sofia?”
“I don't know.”
“You don't know?”
“She never told me her name.”
Charles suddenly laughed.
A strange, nervous sound.
“You see?” he said. “This is absurd. We're letting a frightened child and an unidentified recording destroy—”
Vincent looked at him.
Charles stopped.
“Continue,” Vincent said to Grace.
Grace swallowed.
“Three years ago, I worked nights in the east wing.”
“You were a housekeeper.”
“Yes.”
“And Sofia was already missing.”
Grace nodded.
“One night, I heard someone knocking beneath the laundry stairs.”
“Beneath?”
Grace nodded.
“There was a maintenance door. It had been sealed for years.”
Vincent's brow furrowed.
“I've never seen it.”
“Most people hadn't.”
Grace looked at Charles.
“But he had.”
Everyone turned.
Charles's face hardened.
“Careful.”
Grace trembled.
“One night I opened it.”
“What did you find?”
“Blood.”
Vincent's jaw tightened.
“And?”
“A woman.”
“Alive?”
Grace nodded.
“She was tied to a chair.”
The room went silent.
Vincent's hand closed into a fist.
“Who?”
Grace whispered:
“She looked like Sofia.”
Charles said:
“That is impossible.”
Grace looked at him.
“I thought so too.”
Vincent stepped closer.
“Did you see her face?”
“Not clearly. Her head was covered.”
“Then you don't know it was Sofia.”
“No.”
“Did she speak?”
Grace nodded.
“She said your name.”
Vincent's breathing slowed.
“What else?”
“She told me not to rescue her.”
“Why?”
“Because someone was watching.”
Vincent glanced around the ballroom.
Every guard.
Every servant.
Every guest.
Someone had known.
Someone had been protecting the secret.
Grace continued.
“She gave me the phone and said that someday, you would need proof.”
“Why didn't you give it to me?”
Grace began crying.
“Because the next morning, my brother disappeared.”
Vincent stared at her.
“Your brother?”
“He worked security here.”
“What happened?”
“They said he stole money.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“What happened to him?”
Grace shook her head.
“I never saw him again.”
Emily quietly said:
“Mommy told me not to talk about the blue phone because bad people might hear.”
Vincent looked at Charles.
The attorney's face had become rigid.
Dominic walked in.
“The gates are locked.”
Vincent nodded.
“Good.”
Dominic lowered his voice.
“We also found something.”
He handed Vincent an envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
A grainy security image.
A woman being carried through a hallway.
Her face was turned away.
But the silver pendant around her neck was unmistakable.
Sofia's pendant.
On the back of the photograph was a date.
Three years earlier.
Two days after Sofia supposedly disappeared.
Vincent's stomach turned.
He stared at Charles.
“You said she left this estate alone.”
“She did.”
“You said no one saw her afterward.”
“We searched.”
“You searched?”
“Yes.”
Vincent held up the photograph.
“Then why was this never in the investigation?”
Charles didn't answer.
Dominic stared at him.
“You're sweating.”
Charles loosened his tie.
“This is circumstantial.”
Vincent stepped forward.
“Three years.”
Charles backed away.
“Vincent, listen to me. There are reasons I kept certain information from you.”
“Reasons?”
“Yes.”
“What reasons justify hiding evidence that my wife may have been alive?”
Charles looked toward Isabella.
That tiny movement was enough.
Vincent followed his eyes.
Isabella stood completely still.
“Why did you look at her?”
Charles said nothing.
Vincent turned toward Isabella.
“Where did you get Sofia's necklace?”
She swallowed.
“You gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
“No.”
Her face changed.
Vincent remembered.
He had never given it to her.
Isabella had worn it when he first met her.
She had told him it belonged to her mother.
Vincent stepped closer.
“Who are you?”
Isabella's eyes filled with tears.
“Vincent…”
“Who are you?”
She whispered:
“You've never asked that question before.”
He froze.
Then she reached behind her neck.
Her fingers touched the clasp.
But before she could remove the pendant, the ballroom lights went out.
Total darkness.
A gunshot cracked through the room.
Someone screamed.
Then another shot.
Dominic shouted:
“DOWN!”
Glass shattered.
When the emergency lights flickered back on, Vincent was standing behind the marble table.
The phone was gone.
May you like
Emily was gone.
And Charles Bellamy had disappeared.
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