Chapter 4 - THE SECRET INSIDE BUTTONS
Buttons was missing.
Again.
Emma insisted she'd left him in the playroom.
Mrs. Alvarez searched the kitchen.
I checked the staff room.
Luca examined the hallway.
Nothing.
My stomach twisted.
"Emma, sweetheart, think carefully."
She frowned.
"I put Buttons on the chair."
"Which chair?"
"The blue one."
I looked at Mrs. Alvarez.
"The playroom chair?"
Emma nodded.
"Then the lady came."
I froze.
"What lady?"
"The one with shiny shoes."
Luca stepped closer.
"What did she do?"
Emma looked frightened.
"She said Buttons needed a bath."
I swallowed.
"Did you give him to her?"
Emma shook her head.
"She took him."
Alessandro's voice came from the doorway.
"Emma."
My daughter looked up.
He sat in his wheelchair, his expression unusually gentle.
"Can you tell me what the lady looked like?"
Emma thought.
"Pretty hair."
"What color?"
"Yellow."
"Anything else?"
Emma nodded.
"She smelled like flowers."
Luca looked at Alessandro.
"Bianca."
Alessandro's expression hardened.
"Find her."
Within twenty minutes, security located Bianca near the laundry room.
She claimed she'd taken the rabbit to be cleaned.
But when Luca searched the laundry basket with her permission, Buttons wasn't there.
Bianca became nervous.
Then angry.
She insisted Emma was confused.
Alessandro ordered her removed from sensitive duties while the incident was investigated.
Later that afternoon, a groundskeeper found Buttons inside a trash bin near the service entrance.
His fabric pocket had been cut open.
The metal object was gone.
Emma cried when she saw him.
"He's hurt!"
I hugged her.
"We'll fix him."
Alessandro watched from the doorway.
Then said quietly:
"Mrs. Alvarez knows how to sew."
Emma sniffled.
"Can she make him better?"
"Yes."
He paused.
"And I'll help."
Everyone stared.
Alessandro Moretti.
The man who terrified Chicago.
Offering to help repair a stuffed rabbit.
Emma wiped her tears.
"Promise?"
He nodded.
"Promise."
That evening, while Mrs. Alvarez stitched Buttons' pocket, Luca returned with troubling news.
Bianca had disappeared from the estate.
Her car was found abandoned near the river.
And inside it, investigators discovered a photograph.
Not of Alessandro.
Not of his car.
Of me.
Holding Emma outside our apartment.
May you like
On the back were four words.
SHE KNOWS TOO MUCH.
