Chapter 8 - The Signature at the Bottom
Nora chose a diner near a bus station.
She arrived wearing a work uniform beneath her coat and kept checking the clock.
“I have another shift at four.”
She was younger than I expected.
Maybe thirty.
Tired in a way sleep wouldn’t fix.
I went with Mrs. Alvarez.
Luca offered a driver, but I asked Tessa to arrange an ordinary car instead of one of the estate’s black SUVs.
Nora placed a folded letter on the table.
It said she had been terminated for theft.
At the bottom was Luca Moretti’s signature.
“I applied to six places,” she said. “Every time somebody called the estate, the offer disappeared.”
“Did you try to explain?”
“To whom?”
She stirred coffee she didn’t drink.
“My landlord didn’t need the story. He needed rent.”
“What happened to the money they found?”
“Victor said they wouldn’t involve the police if I signed a release and left.”
“Did Isabella plant it?”
“I saw her near my bag. That’s all I can prove.”
Mrs. Alvarez’s hands tightened around her cup.
“I should have said something.”
“Yes,” Nora said.
No comforting lie.
Just the truth.
Then she looked at me.
“Don’t let them make this about jealousy.”
“It started over a scarf.”
“No. It started because she could hurt you and expect everyone else to help her.”
When we returned, Luca was in his office.
I put the letter in front of him.
“Is that your signature?”
He didn’t pretend to study it.
“Yes.”
“Did you investigate?”
“Victor said there was evidence.”
“Did you talk to Nora?”
“No.”
“Did you even ask what happened?”
His silence answered.
I had spent two days waiting for him to discover the truth.
Now I understood that sometimes the truth had been sitting on his desk.
He simply hadn’t looked.
“I can correct this,” he said.
“You can correct a letter. You can’t give her back the months she spent thinking everyone believed she was a thief.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
He looked exhausted.
I didn’t let that become my problem.
That evening, I packed my bag.
Mrs. Alvarez found me folding my uniform.
“Where will you go?”
“I don’t know yet.”
She looked at the crutches leaning against the bed.
“You can barely walk.”
I closed the suitcase.
“Then I’ll leave slowly.”
Bruno rose when I reached the door.
Behind him stood Luca.
May you like
“I found something else,” he said.
And placed my original employment file on the bed.
