Chapter 6: Eleven Years of Silence
Her name had been Giulia Mancini.
She had worked for the Conti household for two years before Emma, and she had left without notice on a Thursday morning in March, eleven years ago — three months after Elena Conti's diagnosis, and four months before Elena died.
Vittorio had not thought about Giulia Mancini in years.
He found Emma in the kitchen, sitting across from Lucy, who had fallen asleep on the bench with her cheek on her folded arms.
Emma looked up when Vittorio and Domenico came in.
She read their faces and stood without being asked.
"Lucy," she said softly.
"Go up to your room and rest.
I'll bring you something to eat in a little while."
Lucy lifted her head, blinked, and obeyed without question.
When her footsteps had faded up the stairs, Emma turned back to them.
"Giulia Mancini," Vittorio said.
Emma was still for a moment.
Then she pulled out a chair and sat down.
"How much did she pay her to leave?" Domenico asked.
Emma looked at the table.
"I don't know the exact amount."
"But you knew she was paid."
"I suspected." Emma folded her hands.
"Giulia came to me before she left.
She was frightened.
She said she had seen something she wasn't supposed to see — a conversation between Miss Elena and a man she didn't recognize.
She said Miss Elena had been crying.
She said the man had left with a folder."
"Did Giulia describe the man?"
"Younger.
Well-dressed.
She said he had an accent she couldn't place."
Vittorio sat down slowly.
"Why didn't you tell me this?"
Emma looked at him directly.
"Because Miss Elena asked me not to."
The kitchen was very quiet.
"She came to me two days after Giulia left," Emma said.
"She said Giulia had been given money to go and that it was better that way.
She said there were things being handled and she didn't want you pulled into them while she was still — while she was still fighting." Emma's voice stayed level.
"She made me promise.
I kept it."
"For eleven years," Domenico said.
"She was dying," Emma said.
"And then she was gone.
And the things she asked me to protect seemed like they were sleeping.
Until Bianca came."
"What changed when Bianca came?" Vittorio asked.
"The first week, she asked me questions.
Friendly questions, I thought at first.
About the house, the routines, your schedule.
Then about Miss Elena.
How long she had been ill.
Who visited her at the end.
Whether she had changed anything in the house before she passed." Emma paused.
"She asked me once if Miss Elena had kept any personal papers in the house.
I told her I didn't know.
She smiled and said it didn't matter."
"But it did matter," Domenico said.
"Yes."
"And that's when you started recording."
Emma looked at him.
"I started recording when I saw what she was doing to Lucy.
But I had already been watching for longer than that."
Vittorio stood up.
He walked to the kitchen window and stood there with his back to them.
"The man Giulia saw," he said.
"The one with the folder." He didn't turn around.
"Did she say anything else about him?"
Emma hesitated.
"She said he reminded her of someone.
She couldn't think of who.
It bothered her." A pause.
"She said he had a way of standing that reminded her of Marcus Hale."
Vittorio turned around.
"Giulia didn't know Marcus Hale," Emma said quickly.
"She had never met him.
She said it was just a feeling.
May you like
A resemblance."
"Or a relative," Domenico said quietly.
