Chapter 3: What the Message Said
Luca stared at his phone.
He did not move.
He did not speak.
His thumb hovered over the screen without pressing anything.
"What is it?" I asked.
He turned the phone so I could see.
It was a text from a number with no name attached.
Seven words.
*She knows you found the clinic files.*
I read it twice.
"Who sent that?"
"I don't know the number." His voice was very quiet.
"But I have a guess."
"Who?"
He looked up.
"My mother's assistant.
A woman named Petra.
She's worked for my mother for eleven years." He paused.
"She called me last week.
Said she needed to speak with me privately.
I thought it was about a charity event."
"Did you meet with her?"
"No.
My mother found out she had called me.
Petra was let go two days later."
The cold from the sidewalk seemed to move up through my shoes.
"She was fired for trying to warn you."
"That's what I think now."
Eli appeared at my elbow.
"Mom.
My ears are cold."
I put my hand on his head without looking away from Luca.
"One more minute."
Mara pressed against my side.
She had folded her horse drawing into a small square and was holding it in both hands.
Luca watched them.
Something moved through his expression that I could not name and did not want to examine.
"I need to find Petra," he said.
"That's your problem to solve."
"Nia."
"I mean it, Luca.
Whatever your mother did, whatever Petra knows — that is your family's mess.
Not mine."
"It became yours the moment someone forged your medical records."
I had no answer for that.
He stepped closer.
Not crowding.
Just near enough that his voice stayed low between us.
"I am not asking you to trust me.
I know I don't have the right to ask that.
I'm asking you to let me fix what my family broke."
"You can't fix six years."
"No." His jaw tightened.
"But I can make sure whoever did this faces what they did."
Mara tugged my coat.
"Mom, who is he really?"
I looked down at her.
Her dark eyes — his eyes — were patient and completely serious.
"He's someone I used to know," I said.
"Is he good or bad?"
Luca went very still.
I looked at my daughter for a long moment.
"I don't know yet."
She considered this with the gravity of a six-year-old weighing an important verdict.
Then she looked at Luca.
"Okay.
But you made Mom sad before."
Luca crouched to her level.
His voice was careful.
"Yes.
I did."
"Are you going to do it again?"
He held her gaze.
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because now I understand what I lost."
Mara studied him.
Then she held out her folded horse drawing.
"You can have this.
It has six legs so it's extra fast."
Luca took it with both hands.
Like it was something fragile.
Like it was the most important thing anyone had handed him in years.
He looked at me over her head.
I looked away first.
"I need to get them home," I said.
"I know." He stood.
"Can I call you tonight?"
"Not tonight."
"Tomorrow."
I said nothing.
"Nia.
Please."
Eli had been listening to all of it with the focused attention of a child storing information for later use.
He looked at Luca.
"Our number is in the book," he said helpfully.
"Under Carter."
Luca almost smiled.
It didn't quite make it.
"Thank you, Eli."
I steered both children toward the curb and raised my hand for a cab.
One pulled over almost immediately.
I got the twins inside and turned back one last time.
Luca was still standing on the sidewalk.
He had not moved.
The folded horse drawing was in his hand.
He looked like a man standing at the edge of something he had not known was there until he had already fallen.
The cab door closed.
I did not look back again.
But that night, after the twins were in bed and the apartment was quiet, I sat at my kitchen table and thought about Petra.
A woman fired for trying to warn Luca.
A woman who had worked for Vittoria Moretti for eleven years and had finally decided she could not stay silent.
I thought about what that decision must have cost her.
And I thought about what she might still know.
My phone was on the table in front of me.
I did not pick it up.
But I did not go to bed either.
Because somewhere across the city, a woman named Petra had been watching Vittoria Moretti for eleven years.
And she had tried to warn Luca before anyone knew there was something to warn him about.
May you like
Which meant she had not just found out recently.
She had known for a long time.
