Chương 9 - The Key
They met Evelyn at her office before dawn.
Alina refused Dante’s private lawyer.
“I want someone whose paycheck doesn’t depend on you.”
Dante accepted that without argument.
Evelyn examined the letter, the birth certificate, and the files.
She wrote down who had handled each item.
She asked for original devices.
She made copies Alina could keep.
Then Alina showed her the brass key.
“My mother said to find Sister Agnes.”
Evelyn nodded.
“She runs a community center near Saint Brigid’s.
Marisol volunteered there.”
“Why didn’t Mom tell you everything?”
“She was trying to find Sofia first.
She wanted to be certain before she brought you into it.”
Alina looked away.
Her mother had been dying and still trying to do everything alone.
By eight, they were at the community center.
Sister Agnes was a small woman with square glasses and no patience for Dante’s reputation.
“You wait outside,” she told him.
He did.
Alina followed her into a back office.
“Your mother made me promise I would ask one question,” Agnes said.
“Ask.”
“What did she call you when you couldn’t sleep?”
Alina swallowed.
“My little lighthouse.”
Agnes opened a cabinet.
Inside sat a metal box with a brass lock.
The key fit.
There were letters.
Old account statements.
A hospital visitor log.
And a photograph of a young Vittorio standing beside Carlo Rosselli.
Between them was a frightened little girl.
Sofia.
Alina stared until the image blurred.
Agnes laid a hand on the desk.
“Your mother brought this here after she found the nanny who witnessed the handoff.”
“Where is she?”
“Gone.
But she wrote a statement.”
Alina unfolded it.
Vittorio had told the nanny he was moving Sofia to protect her.
Carlo had collected the child.
Marisol had been threatened with Alina’s disappearance if she reported it.
At the bottom was a detail that made Alina sit back.
Sofia had been hidden under a false name because Marisol had discovered Carlo stealing from the foundation.
Outside, Dante’s phone rang.
May you like
Alina heard his voice through the office door.
“What do you mean the custody petition was filed yesterday?”
