Chapter 3 - The Child Who Wasn’t in the Pictures
Claire took Noah into the kitchen and turned on a cartoon.
We could still hear him asking whether anybody wanted toast.
That nearly undid me.
Upstairs, somebody had packed his life into a small suitcase.
Downstairs, he was offering strangers breakfast at nine at night.
Luca waited until the kitchen door closed.
“Start talking.”
Vanessa sat on the edge of the couch.
“Noah’s father was Adrian Cole.”
Sal went motionless beside the doorway.
I noticed.
So did Luca.
“Adrian worked for the foundation,” Vanessa continued.
“He died in a car accident three years ago.”
“The Bellini Children’s Foundation?”
She nodded.
Luca stared at her.
“You told me Adrian was a family employee.”
“He was.”
“And?”
“My husband.”
Nobody spoke.
Vanessa pressed her palms together.
“We married at the courthouse.
My father hated him.
After Adrian died, Claire helped with Noah.”
“Helped?” Claire said from the doorway.
She closed the kitchen door behind her.
“I’ve raised him for three years.”
Vanessa flinched.
“I came.”
“On Tuesdays.
When your father’s driver wasn’t watching.”
Luca looked toward the suitcase.
“Where was Noah supposed to go?”
“A school in Canada,” Vanessa said.
Claire’s mouth tightened.
“She told me they would leave together.
Tonight she said Noah would go first.”
“For how long?” Luca asked.
Vanessa didn’t answer.
He stepped closer.
“How long?”
“Until things settled down.”
“Until I married you.”
Her eyes filled.
“My father said if you knew—”
“Your father didn’t answer when I asked whether you had children.
You did.”
The kitchen door creaked open.
Noah stood there holding a family photograph from the mantel.
It showed Vanessa at a charity dinner beside her father.
Luca stood on her other side.
“Are you the man Mom’s marrying?”
Luca crouched again.
“I was planning to be.”
Noah studied him.
“Would I be allowed in your pictures?”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Luca took a slow breath.
“Yes,” he said.
“You would.”
My phone vibrated.
An unfamiliar number.
The message contained a photograph of me opening Luca’s dining room doors.
Sal stood beside me with his box.
Underneath it were six words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE CAB MONEY.
I showed Luca.
He read it once.
Then looked through the front window.
May you like
A black van had stopped across the street.
Its headlights went dark.
