Chapter 3 - THE CRUMPLED MONSTER
The ringing in my left ear was completely drowned out by the pounding of my own pulse.
I stood in the center of my small, dimly lit bedroom, my eyes locked on the louvered doors of my closet. The air in the room felt impossibly heavy.
Another sniffle. Faint, terrified, and undeniably human.
I took a slow step forward. The floorboards beneath the worn carpet creaked loudly in the silence.
If Vanessa had taken the boy, why would he be in my room? The servant's quarters were strictly off-limits to the family. Vanessa wouldn't be caught dead in this wing of the house. Unless, of course, she needed a place to stash a child while the mansion swarmed with wealthy guests and catering staff. She knew I was working a double shift downstairs. My room was supposed to be empty until midnight.
I reached out, my fingers trembling as they closed around the cool brass knob of the closet door.
"Hello?" I whispered, keeping my voice as gentle as possible.
No answer. Just the sound of a breath hitching, someone desperately trying to stay quiet.
I pulled the door open.
Sitting on the floor, wedged between my work shoes and a stack of folded winter blankets, was a little boy. He couldn't have been more than four years old. He was wearing faded pajamas, and one of his feet was entirely bare. On the other foot, he wore a small, blue canvas shoe.
Matteo.
He didn't look up at me. He had his knees pulled tightly to his chest, his face buried in his arms, trembling like a leaf in a storm.
"Hey," I said softly, dropping to my knees so I wouldn't tower over him. I didn't reach out to touch him. I knew what it felt like to be cornered. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. My name is Sophie."
Matteo slowly peeked out from behind his arms. He had his mother’s dark hair, but his eyes—wide, intelligent, and filled with tears—were a striking, piercing hazel.
"Where is my mommy?" he whispered, his voice hoarse.
My heart shattered into a thousand pieces. I thought of Isabella, broken and crying on the dusty floor of the music room.
"Your mommy is safe," I promised, and it was the first true thing I had said all night. "She is with your Uncle Luca. He's taking care of her."
At the mention of Luca’s name, Matteo flinched violently, pressing himself further into the back of the closet.
"No," the little boy cried softly. "The bad man. The monster."
Answer one: Vanessa hadn't just poisoned Isabella against Luca; she had brainwashed this child to fear his own blood.
"No, sweetie," I said, shaking my head. "Uncle Luca isn't a monster. He's looking for you right now."
Matteo vigorously shook his head. He reached into the pocket of his pajama pants and pulled out a piece of paper. It was crumpled and worn, as if he had been clutching it for hours. He pushed it toward me with a shaking hand.
I took the paper and carefully smoothed it out on my knee.
It was a child's drawing, done in heavy, frantic strokes of black and red crayon.
I stared at the image, a cold spike of adrenaline hitting the base of my neck.
It didn't show a monster with dark hair. It showed a monster with bright, yellow hair. The monster was holding a key, standing in front of a cage. And inside the cage were two stick figures—one big, one small.
Vanessa.
"The lady with the yellow hair," Matteo whispered, pointing a tiny, trembling finger at the drawing. "She said if I make a sound, the monster will come take my mommy away forever. She said I have to hide in the dark."
The sheer, calculated cruelty of it took my breath away. Vanessa had used the boy’s love for his mother as a weapon to keep him compliant.
"Matteo," I said, my voice hardening with a fierce, protective instinct I didn't know I possessed. "That lady lied to you. She is the only monster in this house. And I am not going to let her hurt you or your mommy ever again."
I reached out, and this time, he didn't pull away. I gently lifted him from the closet, settling his small, warm weight against my hip. He immediately wrapped his arms around my neck, burying his face in my shoulder. He smelled like baby shampoo and fear.
"We're going to go find your mommy," I told him, turning toward the door.
I took exactly one step before the brass handle of my bedroom door slowly turned.
I froze.
The door pushed open.
Vanessa Bellini stood in the doorway.
She had changed out of her elegant engagement gown and was now wearing a sleek, dark pantsuit. Her perfect blonde hair was pulled back into a severe knot. She looked entirely different from the charming hostess who had been sipping champagne thirty minutes ago. She looked like a predator that had just found its prey.
Her cold eyes flicked from my face down to the little boy clinging to my neck.
She didn't gasp. She didn't look surprised. She just let out a slow, deliberate sigh, stepping into my room and quietly closing the door behind her.
"I told you to go to the doctor, Sophie," Vanessa said, her voice dripping with manufactured disappointment. "You really have a terrible habit of being exactly where you shouldn't be."
I took a step back, tightening my grip on Matteo. The boy whimpered, hiding his face completely in my neck.
"Mr. Moretti knows," I said, my voice shaking but my gaze locked onto hers. "He opened the music room. He found Isabella."
For a fraction of a second, Vanessa’s mask slipped. A flash of genuine panic crossed her features, but she smoothed it over with chilling speed.
"Did he?" Vanessa murmured, taking a slow step toward me. "How unfortunate. It seems my timeline has to be accelerated."
She reached into the deep pocket of her blazer.
My muscles tensed. I prepared to drop to the floor to shield Matteo, expecting her to pull a weapon.
Instead, she pulled out a heavy, shimmering object and casually tossed it onto my narrow twin bed.
It was a necklace. Three strands of flawless, luminous pearls secured by a massive diamond clasp. Even in the dim light of my room, I knew exactly what it was. It was the Moretti family heirloom, the necklace Luca’s mother had worn on her wedding day. It was worth more than a city block.
"Take it," Vanessa commanded.
I stared at her, utterly bewildered. "What?"
"Take the necklace, take the back stairs to the garage, and take my car," Vanessa said, her voice clipping with urgency. "Take the brat with you. Drop him at a fire station, a church, I don't care. Just get him off this estate. The pearls are your payment. You'll never have to work another day in your pathetic life."
The reversal made my head spin. She wasn't trying to silence me with violence. She was trying to buy me.
"Why are you doing this?" I demanded. "If Luca found Isabella, it's over. You can't hide this!"
Vanessa laughed, a harsh, grating sound.
"Oh, you stupid, poor girl," Vanessa sneered. "Luca finding Isabella changes nothing. Because he has absolutely no legal right to touch her, or that child."
May you like
She reached into her blazer again and pulled out a folded piece of heavy legal paper. She held it up, tapping the thick black signature at the bottom.
"I have complete legal conservatorship over Isabella and Matteo," Vanessa smiled, her eyes flashing with malice. "Signed by a judge. And authorized by Luca’s own signature. If he tries to stop me from taking the boy, I will have him arrested for kidnapping."
