Chapter 2 - THE ROOM ROMAN SEALED
Roman had spent three years calling Elena dead because the alternative was worse.
No body had ever been recovered.
The fire began at the Vance summer estate overlooking Lake Como.
Elena disappeared.
A bloodstained scarf was found near the water.
Investigators concluded she had been injured in the fire, fallen into the lake, and drowned.
Roman never accepted the conclusion privately.
Publicly, he did.
Because three weeks after Elena vanished, he received a photograph.
Leo asleep in his bedroom.
Taken from inside the house.
Attached were five words.
STOP LOOKING OR LOSE HIM TOO.
Roman stopped looking.
Maya stared at him.
“You gave up on your wife?”
Roman's eyes became cold.
“I chose my son.”
“You don't know that was the choice.”
“I knew exactly what they wanted me to believe.”
“Then why didn't you investigate secretly?”
“I did.”
“And?”
“Three investigators disappeared.”
Maya stopped.
Roman continued.
“The fourth came home without two fingers.”
She said nothing after that.
That evening, Leo led Maya upstairs.
Not toward his room.
Toward Elena's.
Roman stopped them.
“No.”
Leo pointed.
“No.”
The boy stamped his foot.
Maya looked at Roman.
“Why is it locked?”
“Because it is.”
“That is an excellent answer if you're five.”
Roman glared.
Leo almost smiled.
Roman noticed.
That seemed to defeat him.
He unlocked the door.
Elena's room had been preserved exactly as she left it.
Perfume bottles.
Books.
A half-finished embroidery hoop.
A green silk robe.
Maya stopped near the vanity.
The scent.
Orange blossom.
Rosemary.
Something warm underneath.
She knew it.
Her grandmother's house had smelled exactly the same.
Leo walked to the wardrobe.
Behind dresses, he pressed a carved panel.
A compartment opened.
Roman stared.
“You knew about this?”
Leo reached inside.
A child's drawing.
Three women.
One labeled MAMA.
One labeled BELLA.
One labeled MAYA.
Maya's knees weakened.
The drawing was dated four years earlier.
A year before Elena vanished.
Leo had drawn Maya before ever meeting her.
Roman turned slowly.
“Who are you?”
“I don't know anymore.”
Inside the compartment was also an envelope.
For Roman.
He opened it.
Elena's handwriting.
Roman,
If you're reading this, Isabella failed to keep Maya away.
Do not blame her.
Maya is not my daughter.
But she is the reason Leo is alive.
Roman read that sentence twice.
Maya whispered:
“What does that mean?”
The next line answered.
Ask Maya what happened in Florence when she was six.
Maya went cold.
Because she remembered almost nothing about being six.
Except waking in a hospital.
May you like
And her grandmother telling her she'd fallen down the stairs.
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