Chapter 2: The Name the Rain Could Not Wash Away
I did not move for a long moment.
The device sat on the sideboard.
The clock sat open beside it.
The rain kept falling.
"How long ago?" I asked Emma.
She thought about it the way children do — honestly, without strategy.
"Before Christmas.
When you were away."
Before Christmas.
Three months.
Every conversation in that room for three months had been heard by someone else.
Every name spoken.
Every decision made.
Every man I had trusted inside those four walls.
I stood slowly.
Emma watched me with those steady brown eyes.
"Did she see you?" I asked.
The child shook her head.
"I was behind the curtain.
I thought she was fixing it."
She thought she was fixing it.
Four years old.
And smarter than every man I employed.
I crossed to my desk and pressed the intercom.
"Marco.
Find Valeria.
Tell her I want to see her in the study.
Do not tell her why."
A pause.
"Now, Marco."
I looked back at Emma.
She was stroking Señor Bunny's ear again, slow and careful.
"You did the right thing," I said.
She nodded once.
Then, very quietly: "She was on the phone after.
She said your name.
And another man's name."
My hand stopped on the desk.
"What name?"
Emma looked up.
She told me.
And the room went cold in a way the rain could not explain.
---
May you like
What Moretti discovered next — and what Valeria was really planning — is darker than anyone expected.
Click the link below to read the full story.
