Chapter 3 - The Blue Room Had Been Sealed for Seven YearsThe old Moretti estate sat beside Lake Michigan.
It was abandoned after the family moved north.
The windows were boarded.
Vines covered the stone.
The air smelled like wet leaves.
Alessandro walked through the front door with a flashlight.
I carried Sophia.
Marco was absent.
That alone made the house feel safer.
We found the red door in the basement.
Locked.
Alessandro used a key.
Behind it was a narrow staircase.
At the bottom was the blue room.
The walls were painted faded blue.
A child's bed sat in one corner.
A wooden desk in another.
Photographs covered the walls.
I stopped.
The pictures showed Tobias.
Not alone.
With a woman.
My mother.
I dropped the photograph.
Alessandro picked it up.
He stared.
“Your mother?”
“Yes.”
“How did she know Tobias?”
“I don't know.”
He turned another photograph over.
On the back:
Mara is not who they think she is.
My hands went numb.
“My mother died when I was sixteen.”
Alessandro looked at me.
“You told me she died when you were fifteen.”
I frowned.
“No.”
He studied me.
“Then who told me?”
I remembered my employment application.
The staff had interviewed me.
I had given them my identity information.
Something was wrong.
I took out my wallet.
My identification card.
Mara Bennett.
But under the plastic was something else.
A photograph I'd never seen.
My mother.
Tobias.
And a baby.
Me.
Alessandro went silent.
“You were here.”
“I don't remember.”
“You were a baby.”
“What happened?”
He stared at the photograph.
“Tobias wasn't simply hiding from us.”
“From whom?”
“Our father.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“Our father had another son.”
My stomach dropped.
“Who?”
Alessandro said:
“Your father.”
I stared.
“My father?”
“Tobias wasn't your father's employer.”
“He was his partner.”
“Yes.”
“And my mother?”
“She knew.”
The blue room suddenly felt freezing.
Then we heard a sound.
The telephone.
Three notes.
I looked up.
There was an old receiver on the desk.
It rang.
Alessandro answered.
Nobody spoke.
Then a voice.
Tobias.
“Al.”
Alessandro's face broke.
“Where are you?”
“Not where you think.”
“Are you alive?”
“Yes.”
I felt tears in my eyes.
“Why did you leave?”
A pause.
“Because they had already taken Mara.”
I froze.
Alessandro looked at me.
“Tobias?”
“What did you say?”
“They took her mother first.”
My heart stopped.
“My mother.”
“She discovered what Father was doing.”
“What?”
“Human trafficking.”
The word hung in the room.
Tobias continued.
“Father was moving people through shipping routes.”
Alessandro closed his eyes.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I tried.”
“You disappeared.”
“I was protecting Mara.”
“Then why did you stay gone?”
“Because your father believed I had the ledger.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In the blue room.”
Alessandro looked around.
“What ledger?”
“The one that proves everything.”
The line clicked.
“Wait.”
I shouted.
“Tobias!”
Silence.
Alessandro searched the desk.
We found a false bottom.
Inside was a ledger.
Pages of names.
Payments.
Shipping routes.
Dates.
My father's name.
My mother's name.
Tobias's name.
And several government officials.
Then one name appeared repeatedly.
Marco Bell.
Alessandro froze.
“Marco.”
The same man who had worked for the family for twenty years.
The man who had been beside him every day.
The man who knew the security systems.
The man who told me the phone was dead.
The man who had controlled Delaney's care in other versions of this story.
I looked at Alessandro.
“It's him.”
“He was working for my father.”
“Then where is Tobias?”
A voice came from the stairs.
“You really should stop asking questions.”
Marco.
He stood above us.
Gun in hand.
Sophia grabbed my leg.
Alessandro stepped in front of us.
“You killed my father.”
Marco smiled.
“No.”
“You killed Tobias.”
“No.”
“You imprisoned him.”
Marco shook his head.
“He's alive.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere you'll never find.”
Alessandro raised his weapon.
Marco laughed.
“You won't shoot.”
“Try me.”
“Because your father left you something else.”
“What?”
Marco smiled.
“Your sister.”
I froze.
Alessandro did too.
“What sister?”
Marco looked at me.
May you like
Then at Sophia.
“You still don't know.”
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