Chapter 2: Four Words Written in Her Hand
Matteo sent everyone else to the far side of the restaurant.
Just the two of us stood at that table.
"What does the sealed page say?" he asked quietly.
"I haven't opened it," I told him.
"I never thought I needed to."
Something moved behind his eyes.
"Elena, I need you to go home and bring me that notebook tonight."
Before I could answer, Luca stepped forward.
"Sir, we should handle this privately.
Without involving her further."
It was a reasonable thing to say.
But the way he said it made my skin go cold.
Matteo looked at him for a long moment.
Then he turned back to me.
"Go.
Don't tell anyone where you're going."
I grabbed my bag and slipped out through the kitchen.
The night air hit me hard.
I walked fast, then faster, my mind replaying Luca's face when he saw those initials on the fork.
He hadn't looked confused.
He had looked caught.
I reached my building, took the stairs, and pulled the wooden box from beneath my bed.
My hands were shaking as I lifted the blue notebook.
The folded page was still there, sealed with yellowed tape, just as my mother had left it.
I turned it over.
On the back, in my mother's handwriting, were four words I had never understood until this moment.
*He was there too.*
My phone lit up.
Unknown number.
One message.
*Put the notebook down.
Walk away.
Or what happened to Isabella happens to you.*
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Elena just found the warning her mother left behind — and someone already knows she found it.
The full truth is darker than anything she expected.
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