Chapter 7
Audrey remembered Natalie.
Not enough for chronology.
Enough for images.
I asked gently.
No pressure.
Mrs. Keller stayed nearby.
“What did Mommy show you?”
Audrey touched the bracelet.
“Blue door.”
The hidden panel.
“What else?”
“Picture.”
“What picture?”
She pointed toward the underground room.
A photograph.
We found it behind the old drawing.
Natalie holding Audrey.
Behind them, reflected in a mirror, stood Vivienne.
And another man.
Not Damian.
Matteo.
He had been there.
He lied.
I called him back.
This time I showed the photograph first.
His face hardened.
“You said you never entered the room.”
He said nothing.
“Again.”
Silence.
Finally:
“I went once.”
“For what?”
“To convince Natalie to stop.”
“Stop what?”
“Digging.”
There.
Not stop running.
Stop investigating.
Natalie had found something beyond reserve crews.
“What?”
Matteo resisted.
I waited.
He broke under silence before threat.
“Property transfers.”
My jaw tightened.
Not legal paperwork for its own sake.
Territory.
Three old Moretti holdings had been shifted into private control structures managed by men loyal to Matteo and Damian.
Slow.
Quiet.
Enough to create independent money.
Natalie noticed because one property belonged to Audrey’s trust.
My daughter’s future had been touched.
That was why she kept digging.
Not politics.
Protection.
“She was going to tell me.”
“Yes.”
“So you stopped her.”
“We bought time.”
“You stole three years.”
Matteo’s mouth tightened.
“Not me.”
I looked at him.
“Then who moved her after she escaped?”
Silence.
Important.
The room was only the first prison.
Natalie got out.
May you like
Someone found her again.
And that someone had kept her hidden far longer than four days.
