Chapter 7 - THE LITTLE GIRL WHO REMEMBERED EVERYTHING
Millie had always been different from other children.
She remembered conversations after hearing them once.
She could recognize a face she'd seen briefly months earlier.
She arranged her toys in precise patterns and became upset when someone moved them without asking.
Clara had never treated these traits as tricks.
She had simply learned how her daughter thought.
When Millie was frightened, Clara gave her patterns to remember.
When she was overwhelmed, they played matching games.
When the world felt too loud, Clara told her to count the blue things in the room.
That was how Millie had survived the night she ran into Lorenzo's suite.
At Isabella's house, Millie sat at the kitchen table arranging colored pencils.
Lorenzo watched from the doorway.
"Can I sit?"
She nodded.
He sat beside her.
"Millie, do you remember the lady with silver shoes?"
"Yes."
"What did she look like?"
Millie frowned.
"Brown hair. Red lipstick. A little moon necklace."
Lorenzo leaned forward.
"Did she tell you her name?"
"Evelyn."
"Anything else?"
Millie thought carefully.
"She smelled like oranges."
Lorenzo smiled faintly.
"Oranges?"
"Like Mommy's soap."
He nodded.
"Thank you."
Millie returned to her pencils.
Then suddenly looked up.
"Uncle Lorenzo?"
"Yes?"
"Are you mad at Daddy?"
The question startled him.
"No."
"Mommy says Daddy made somebody angry."
Lorenzo swallowed.
"Your daddy tried to help people."
Millie considered.
"Then why didn't he come home?"
Lorenzo looked at the little girl.
He had no answer that would not hurt her.
So he told the truth.
"I don't know yet."
Millie nodded.
Then placed a blue pencil in his hand.
"Blue means hope."
He stared at it.
She smiled.
"Mommy says we keep blue until the end."
Later that day, investigators identified Evelyn.
Her full name was Evelyn Marchand.
She had once worked as a nurse at the medical facility where Matteo had been held.
And she had recently contacted Clara.
Lorenzo felt a surge of hope.
Evelyn might know where his brother was.
But when investigators arrived at her apartment, they found it empty.
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On the kitchen table lay a note.
BELL KNOWS. DON'T TRUST THE RIVER.
