Chapter 6: Sofia’s Unopened Letter
Vanessa’s lips parted.
“You weren’t supposed to hear that.”
Eleanor pushed the phone toward Luca.
“There are twelve recordings.
Play all of them.”
Martin grabbed the device, but Daniel’s voice came through Emma’s phone.
“It won’t help.
Everything is backed up.”
Martin froze.
“You said there was a second recording,” Luca said.
“There are security files from the garage,” Daniel replied.
“Vanessa ordered the cameras disconnected, but she forgot the system uploads before it shuts down.”
Vanessa pointed at Emma.
“She still has my bracelet.
Are you all ignoring that?”
Eleanor opened a video on the old phone.
The screen showed Vanessa in the servants’ hall, glancing over her shoulder before slipping the bracelet into Emma’s coat.
Emma covered her mouth.
“You knew I would be blamed,” she said.
“You were useful,” Vanessa replied.
“That is all.”
Luca stepped between them.
“You locked Bruno away, framed Emma, and tried to take Sofia’s foundation.”
“I tried to build a future with you!”
“You tried to erase my past and purchase my future with my own money.”
Martin edged toward the side door.
One of the security officers blocked him.
“You are not leaving with that briefcase, sir.”
Martin forced a smile.
“You have no authority to detain me.”
“No,” Luca said, “but I have authority to stop you removing documents from my house.”
Vanessa pulled a folded envelope from her handbag.
Sofia’s handwriting crossed the front: LUCA.
“Let us leave,” she said, “and you can have this.”
Luca’s face crumpled at the sight of the writing.
Eleanor moved toward her daughter.
“Give him the letter.”
“Not until Daniel deletes the recordings.”
Emma touched Luca’s sleeve.
“Don’t trade the truth for something she stole.”
Vanessa laughed.
“What would you know about him?”
“I know Bruno trusted him enough to come home.”
“He didn’t come home,” Vanessa snapped.
“A maid dragged him into a room where he doesn’t belong.”
Bruno growled softly.
Luca knelt beside him, but Vanessa’s next words stopped his hand.
“Sofia was leaving you, Luca.
The letter proves it.”
His shoulders folded.
“I spent three years wishing I had one more hour to hear her voice.
You had her last words in your handbag.”
Emma crouched beside him.
“Then hear them now—but not on Vanessa’s terms.”
Eleanor held out her hand.
“Give me the letter.”
Vanessa tore the top corner of the envelope.
Her mother gasped.
“Don’t.”
“Delete the files.”
Daniel answered through the speaker.
“No.”
Vanessa tore farther.
Eleanor crossed the space between them and took her daughter’s wrist.
The envelope fell, and Emma caught it before it reached the spilled wine.
Luca stared at the sealed flap.
“Read it to me.”
Emma handed it to him.
“It should be your choice.”
“My hands won’t stop shaking.”
Eleanor sat across from him.
“Then I will read it, if you want me to.”
Luca nodded.
She opened the letter carefully.
“Luca,” Eleanor read, “I am not leaving because I stopped loving you.
I am leaving for a while because you keep carrying everyone except yourself, and I no longer know how to reach you.”
Luca covered his eyes.
Eleanor continued, her voice breaking.
“If you come after me, come as my husband—not as the man who believes money can repair every wound.
Bruno will know where I am.
He always finds the person who needs him most.”
Bruno placed his head against Luca’s chest.
Luca held the dog and wept into his wet fur.
Emma rested a hand on his shoulder.
“She wanted you to follow her.”
“I never had the chance.”
“No,” Eleanor said.
“And my daughter stole the chance to understand why.”
Sirens sounded beyond the front gates.
Martin looked at Vanessa.
“You said nobody had called them.”
“I didn’t.”
Luca rose, Sofia’s letter in one hand and Bruno’s collar in the other.
May you like
“I did,” Eleanor said.
“And I gave them access to the cloud files.”
