Chapter 4 - The Woman Who LiedAlessandro read the note.
His face became expressionless.
That frightened me more than anger.
“Who gave you that?”
“It was inside the bracelet.”
He took it.
Examined the paper.
Turned it over.
Nothing.
He looked at his guards.
“Do either of you recognize this?”
Both shook their heads.
A flight attendant approached cautiously.
“Mr. Moretti, we're thirty minutes from landing.”
“No.”
She blinked.
“No?”
“We're diverting.”
The cockpit door opened.
The captain emerged.
“Mr. Moretti, we've received instructions from air traffic control.”
Alessandro stared at him.
“What instructions?”
“We've been asked to land in Paris.”
“By whom?”
The captain hesitated.
“French authorities.”
Alessandro's expression changed.
“Which agency?”
The captain looked confused.
“They didn't specify.”
Alessandro's hand slowly moved toward his jacket.
“Close the cockpit door.”
The captain stepped back.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Close it.”
The guards raised their weapons.
The captain looked at them.
Then at Alessandro.
“You're overreacting.”
Alessandro smiled.
It was the first smile I'd seen from him.
And it contained no warmth.
“You just asked me to land my private aircraft in a country without identifying the authority issuing the order.”
The captain froze.
“You expect me to believe that?”
I studied the pilot.
He looked nervous.
But not confused.
That was the problem.
He knew exactly what he was doing.
Alessandro pointed.
“Take him.”
One guard moved.
The captain suddenly grabbed something from his jacket.
A syringe.
He lunged toward Luca.
Everything happened at once.
I screamed.
Alessandro intercepted him.
The syringe flew across the cabin.
The guard tackled the captain.
The other locked the cockpit.
I pulled Luca against my chest.
He began screaming.
The captain was pinned to the floor.
Alessandro crouched beside him.
“Who hired you?”
The captain said nothing.
“Who?”
Nothing.
Alessandro looked at me.
“Emma.”
I knew what he wanted.
I checked Luca.
His breathing was normal.
No needle mark.
Then I saw something.
A tiny red dot behind Luca's ear.
I touched it.
Luca flinched.
I looked at Alessandro.
“This isn't a birthmark.”
His expression darkened.
“What is it?”
“It looks like an injection site.”
The captain smiled.
“Too late.”
Alessandro grabbed him by the collar.
“What did you inject?”
“Nothing.”
“You tried to inject my son.”
The captain laughed.
“Not your son.”
Silence.
The bodyguards froze.
Alessandro stared at him.
The captain looked at me.
Then whispered:
“Ask the mother.”
The cabin door opened.
A woman stood there.
She was perhaps thirty years old.
Dark hair.
Elegant black dress.
A gold wedding ring.
She looked at Luca.
Then at Alessandro.
“Alessandro.”
His entire body went rigid.
The woman smiled.
“Why are you holding someone else's child?”
I looked at him.
He looked at her.
And then, for the first time, I understood why he had been unable to sleep.
Why his wife was supposedly dead.
Because the woman standing in front of us was wearing the exact pendant visible in the photograph attached to his passport.
His wife's pendant.
Her face was identical.
Except for one thing.
A thin scar beneath her left eye.
Alessandro whispered her name.
“Isabella.”
May you like
She smiled.
“Hello, husband.”
