The Woman in Room Twelve

Frankie stared at me, his scarred face twisting with a mixture of greed and disbelief.

“Tommy told me he burned the ledger,” Frankie muttered, lowering the gun just a fraction of an inch from Leo’s head.

“He lied,” I said, keeping my voice dead steady.

I had no idea what ledger I was talking about. I was pulling fragments of whispered arguments I had overheard in my childhood kitchen.

“Where is it?” Frankie demanded.

“Let the boy walk to his mother. Then I’ll tell you.”

Luca didn’t move a muscle. He let me play the hand.

Frankie hesitated. The Commission would kill him for losing the boy, but the legendary Sullivan ledger—a rumored book containing the blackmail secrets of every boss in the Midwest—was worth a kingdom.

He pushed Leo forward.

“Go.”

Leo stumbled, then ran as fast as his little legs could carry him.

Sofia dropped to the floor, catching him in her arms and burying her face in his neck, sobbing uncontrollably.

Luca instantly stepped between Sofia and Frankie, raising his weapon again.

“Now,” Frankie snarled at me. “Where’s the book, Emma?”

I looked him dead in the eyes.

“I don’t know.”

Frankie roared in rage and raised his gun.

A shot rang out in the narrow hallway.

But it didn’t come from Frankie.

Luca had fired.

A single, perfect shot to Frankie’s shoulder.

The massive man dropped his weapon, screaming in pain as he collapsed against the cabin door.

Luca walked forward, kicking Frankie’s gun down the hallway. He grabbed the bleeding man by the collar and slammed him into the wooden paneling.

“You tell the Commission,” Luca growled, “that the Moretti bloodline is back together. And if they ever come near my sister or her son again, I will burn their houses to the ground with them inside.”

He dropped Frankie to the floor.

Luca turned back to us.

He looked at Sofia, holding her son tightly against her chest.

Then, he looked at me.

The intense, unreadable expression on his face made my stomach flutter.

“Let’s go home,” Luca said softly.

We drove back to the mansion in silence, the heater blasting to warm Leo, who was fast asleep in his mother’s arms.

When we pulled through the iron gates, the estate was entirely locked down.

The dinner guests had been sent away. Vanessa was locked in the basement wine room, exactly where she had tried to keep Dr. Mercer.

We walked into the quiet foyer.

Dr. Mercer was sitting by the fire in the living room, waiting.

He stood up when he saw Sofia.

The old doctor took his glasses off, his eyes shining with tears.

“You look exactly like Elena,” he whispered.

Sofia smiled weakly. “Thank you for keeping my secret, Dr. Mercer.”

Luca instructed Marco to set up a secure guest suite for Sofia and Leo.

Once they were safely upstairs, Luca turned to me in the firelight.

“Emma.”

I crossed my arms, suddenly feeling very much like a housekeeper who had overstepped.

“I’m sorry I lied about the ledger, Mr. Moretti. I just needed him to lower the gun.”

Luca stepped closer. The space between us suddenly felt very small.

“You didn’t lie, Emma,” he said quietly.

I looked up at him, confused.

“What?”

He reached into his jacket pocket.

He pulled out a heavy, tarnished silver necklace. It was a large locket, the kind that held two pictures.

“My father left this for me in his safe. He told me never to open it unless I was ready to end the family business.”

Luca handed it to me.

“Open it.”

My hands trembled as I pried the small silver clasp apart.

Inside the locket, there were no pictures.

There was a tiny, tightly folded piece of paper.

I carefully unfolded it.

It was a note, written in a sharp, masculine scrawl.

“The ledger is real. I gave it to Thomas Sullivan for safekeeping. He is the only man I trust to watch over my daughter from afar. He is a good man, Luca. If you ever find this, protect his family the way he protected ours.”

The note was signed by Antonio Moretti.

I stared at the paper, the breath knocked completely out of my lungs.

“My father,” I whispered.

“He didn’t just work for my family,” Luca said, his voice thick with emotion. “He was my father’s best friend. He was the man who took Sofia that night. He hid her. He watched over her.”

I looked up at Luca, tears blurring my vision.

“He never told me.”

“He was protecting you,” Luca said softly.

Then, Luca reached out and gently wiped a tear from my cheek with his thumb.

His touch sent a shockwave through my chest.

“You didn’t just stumble into a job here, Emma,” he said, his dark eyes searching mine. “You belong here.”

Before I could reply, the heavy oak doors of the study slammed open.

Marco stood there, his face pale.

“Boss. Vanessa isn’t in the wine cellar.”

Luca turned, his hand dropping from my face. “What do you mean?”

“She broke the emergency hatch,” Marco said. “She’s gone. But she left something behind.”