Chapter 4 - Rosa’s Missing Phone
I slept for twenty minutes in Luz’s guest room.
In my dream, my mother was sewing a white dress.
Every time I tried to speak, thread filled my mouth.
At five, Elena drove me to Rosa’s sister’s house.
Rosa opened the door wearing a wrist brace.
She started apologizing.
I took her good hand.
“Don’t.”
“I should have stopped them.”
“You took that photograph.”
“It wasn’t enough.”
“It brought me here.”
She sat between us on a worn sofa.
Her niece brought coffee nobody touched.
“Start with the phone,” Elena said gently.
Rosa swallowed.
“I used the spare household phone. My own camera wasn’t working.”
“Where is it now?”
“Mr. Leo broke it.”
“Did he see the photograph?”
“No. I sent it to myself first. Then I printed it at the pharmacy.”
“What happened afterward?”
“He asked why I had the phone. I told him I was checking the grocery list.”
Rosa touched the brace.
“He said I was spying.”
I stood so fast the coffee rattled.
Elena caught my hand.
“Mia.”
I sat down.
Rosa watched me with frightened eyes.
“He told me you had approved everything.”
“I didn’t.”
“Miss Claire said you were having problems. That you forgot things.”
A new kind of fear moved through me.
“What problems?”
“She said you weren’t sleeping. That you were confused after traveling.”
Elena’s pen stopped.
“Did she say that to anyone else?”
“The driver. The cook. Two men who came to the house.”
“What men?”
“One wore a dark suit. The other carried a folder.”
“Names?”
Rosa shook her head.
Then she looked toward the hallway.
“There is something.”
She returned with a small cloth shopping bag.
Inside was my mother’s silver letter opener.
And a brass key.
“They were throwing things away.”
I picked up the key.
It belonged to the cabinet in my office.
“Why would they throw this out?”
“They had a locksmith open it.”
My chest tightened.
“The papers?”
“Packed in blue archive boxes.”
“Where did they take them?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena asked about dates, vehicles, and anything Rosa had overheard.
I kept turning the key in my hand.
Finally, Rosa whispered, “He said something else.”
“What?”
“He told Miss Claire you would sign once they showed you the photographs.”
I looked at Elena.
“What photographs?”
May you like
Rosa’s eyes filled again.
“I heard him say, ‘She’ll do anything to protect her mother’s name.’”
