Isabella Had Never Gone to Boston
Chapter 02 - Isabella Had Never Gone to Boston
Vanessa’s first answer was technically true.
“I didn’t do anything to Isabella.”
Luca stared at her.
“Then where is she?”
Vanessa looked at the guests.
“Not here.”
“Everyone leaves.”
No one argued.
Within ten minutes the ballroom emptied.
Catering remained.
Security closed the front gates.
I stayed because Luca told me to.
Not as an employee.
Vanessa had fired me.
He said:
“You brought the piano in. You stay until I understand why.”
I stood near the wall.
Vanessa sat at the long table with the locket between them.
Luca unfolded his mother’s note.
The paper was old, the creases nearly white.
He read aloud.
Isabella,
If you ever feel everyone is speaking for you, remember that silence is not consent.
The seventh key is yours.
If Luca agrees to sell the Ashland building without showing you the ledger, give him the key and make him read what is underneath.
Luca stopped.
“Ashland building?”
Vanessa said nothing.
I had heard the name.
Moretti House staff sometimes referred to the Ashland property.
A four-story brick building on the West Side.
Former music school.
Now warehouse and rehearsal space.
Luca continued.
Do not let anyone tell you your father bought it alone.
My money is in those walls too.
E.
The note ended.
No kidnapping accusation.
No hidden murder.
Just an instruction.
Luca looked at Vanessa.
“Where is the seventh key?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where is Isabella?”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
“She’s at Havenwood.”
I had never heard the name.
Luca had.
His face changed.
“Havenwood?”
“It’s a private recovery residence in Wisconsin.”
“Recovery from what?”
Vanessa’s voice lowered.
“Anxiety. Pills. Whatever word you want.”
Luca stood so suddenly his chair moved backward.
“My sister has been sober three years.”
“She had a setback.”
“How do you know?”
“She called me.”
“Not me.”
“She didn’t want to call you.”
Silence.
That sounded possible.
Luca and Isabella were close in photographs.
Not in the house.
In eleven months, I had seen her twice.
Both visits ended with doors closing hard.
Vanessa continued.
“Isabella panicked after finding the bench open. She took something. She called me because she did not want you turning it into security, doctors, and twenty men asking questions.”
“Did she go willingly?”
“Yes.”
“Can she leave?”
“Yes.”
“Does she have her phone?”
Vanessa hesitated.
Luca saw it.
“Does she have her phone?”
“Havenwood limits devices for the first seventy-two hours.”
“When did she arrive?”
“Yesterday.”
The same day Vanessa ordered the piano removed.
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“Who drove her?”
“Bellini security.”
Of course.
“Why did you tell me Boston?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“Because she asked me not to tell you she had slipped.”
Luca did not believe her.
Not entirely.
Neither did I.
“Call Havenwood.”
Vanessa did.
Speakerphone.
A receptionist answered.
Luca identified himself.
The receptionist would not confirm a resident without authorization.
Luca’s name did not make medical privacy disappear.
That frustrated him.
Vanessa gave a code.
The receptionist confirmed Isabella had authorized Vanessa Bellini and Dr. Mara Levin for contact.
Not Luca.
That hurt him visibly.
Then Isabella came on the phone.
Her voice sounded tired.
“Luca?”
He sat.
“Bella.”
A pause.
“I’m okay.”
“Are you there because you want to be?”
“Yes.”
That answer changed the room.
Luca closed his eyes.
“Did Vanessa force you?”
“No.”
“Did she tell me you were in Boston?”
Silence.
Then:
“I told her not to tell you about Havenwood.”
Different.
“Did you tell her to lie about Boston?”
“No.”
Vanessa looked down.
Luca’s face went still.
“Did you find Mom’s note?”
“Yes.”
“The seventh key?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
Isabella inhaled.
“I gave it to someone.”
“Who?”
“I can’t tell you yet.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t trust the people around you.”
Luca looked toward Vanessa.
Then perhaps toward himself.
“Bella, what is under the key?”
“Not under the piano key.”
“What?”
“The ivory.”
She sounded more awake now.
“Mom wrote on the back.”
“What did she write?”
A longer silence.
Then:
“Seven numbers.”
Luca frowned.
“What numbers?”
“I didn’t know until I checked the old Ashland plans.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
Luca saw it.
“So you know.”
She said:
“I know Isabella has been digging through things that upset her.”
Isabella heard.
“Vanessa?”
“Yes.”
“You told me the Ashland building was already Luca’s.”
“It is.”
“No.”
Isabella’s voice sharpened.
“Mom owned half the company that bought it.”
Luca stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“Ask Marco.”
Different Marco? We should avoid same as prior story? Can use family attorney named Vincent Hale. But source no names. Let's introduce "Peter Russo", longtime accountant. Better.
Isabella continued.
“Ask Peter Russo for the 1998 partnership ledger.”
Luca looked at his security chief.
“Get Peter.”
Then:
“Bella, come home.”
“No.”
The answer landed.
“I’m not asking you to move into my house.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
“Because you still think home is wherever you can watch me.”
No one spoke.
Luca’s face changed.
Isabella continued.
“I’m staying the full week. I agreed to it. I need it.”
He swallowed.
“Okay.”
Then:
“Can I visit?”
“Not tonight.”
A pause.
“Tomorrow maybe.”
He accepted.
That mattered.
Then Isabella said:
“Emma is there?”
I looked up.
How did she know me?
Luca said:
“Yes.”
“Put her on.”
I took the phone.
“Hello?”
“Emma, I need you to check the piano.”
“For what?”
“Count the screw holes under the missing seventh key.”
I looked at the keyboard.
Luca lifted the fallboard.
We found the bare wood.
Two small screw marks.
And one tiny blue number written near the back edge.
314.
I read it aloud.
Isabella exhaled.
“That’s the first part.”
“First part of what?”
“A safe-deposit box.”
Luca looked at Vanessa.
Isabella continued.
“Mom hid the rest in the other six keytops.”
Every eye moved to the ivory comb.
May you like
Vanessa had not merely cut apart a piano.
Without knowing it, she had been wearing six pieces of a code in her hair.
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