Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN ABOVE THE LAUNDROMAT
Sophia returned to her apartment shortly after midnight.
The building smelled of detergent, damp concrete, and old pipes.
Emma had fallen asleep against her shoulder.
Sophia carried her upstairs, changed her into pajamas, and tucked her beneath the rabbit blanket.
Then she sat beside the window.
Her hands were still shaking.
Her mother had died four years earlier.
Lucia Bell.
A quiet woman who worked as a seamstress and cleaned hotel rooms.
She loved music.
She taught Sophia to dance in their kitchen.
But she never spoke about her childhood.
Never mentioned wealthy relatives.
Never explained why she sometimes woke from nightmares crying.
Sophia remembered one thing.
A small wooden box.
Her mother kept it beneath her bed.
After Lucia died, Sophia had placed it in the closet.
She hadn't opened it in years.
Now she retrieved it.
Inside were photographs.
A faded ribbon.
A pair of worn ballet slippers.
And a letter.
Sophia unfolded the paper.
The handwriting was her mother's.
My darling Sophia,
If you ever learn who I was before I became your mother, please remember that I did not leave because I stopped loving my family.
Sophia's breath caught.
I left because someone wanted me to disappear.
Her eyes filled.
One day, when you are ready, find Gabriel Bellini. He knows what happened.
Sophia stared at the name.
The violinist.
The man at the engagement party.
She looked toward Emma's bedroom.
Then back at the letter.
May you like
For the first time, she wondered whether her mother had spent her entire life hiding.
And whether the people she'd hidden from had just found them.
