Chapter 3 - THE ROOM UNDER THE STAIRS
Nell didn’t scream.
She photographed the note, slipped it into her pocket, and checked the window.
Painted shut.
Of course it was.
She had painted it herself last spring.
Downstairs, a car engine started.
She stuffed cash, her mother’s photograph, and a small blue recipe notebook into her bag.
Then someone knocked.
“Nell. It’s me.”
Odette.
“Go away.”
“Vittorio sent a driver around back. He says you’re upset and should stay at a hotel.”
Nell stared at the door.
“Did he?”
“Yes. Open up.”
For three years, Odette had scolded her for crooked towels and dusty baseboards.
Tonight, the woman sounded frightened.
“Tell him I’m changing.”
A pause.
Then footsteps.
Nell waited until they faded before leaving through the back staircase.
She knew this house better than the men who owned it.
She knew which floorboards complained.
Which doors stuck.
Which security camera had been broken for six months because nobody listened when a maid reported something.
She slipped into the old linen room beneath the stairs.
The door opened again before she could lock it.
Odette stepped inside.
Nell swung the bag.
Odette caught it against her shoulder with a muffled cry.
“Don’t get in that car.”
“Then why did you tell me to?”
“Because he was standing behind me.”
Nell backed against a shelf.
Odette’s eyes dropped to the blue notebook protruding from the bag.
Her face crumpled.
“Rose kept it.”
“You knew my mother?”
Odette nodded.
“Before you came here.”
“You recognized me?”
“Not at first.”
“How long?”
Odette’s silence answered.
Nell’s stomach turned.
“How long?”
“Eight months.”
Eight months of folded uniforms.
Eight months of complaints about soap.
Eight months beside someone who knew her real name.
“You watched me scrub his floors.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“By saying nothing?”
“I’ve made worse choices.”
Odette reached into her apron.
Nell stiffened.
But the woman produced a brass key tied with faded red thread.
“Your mother left something in the old garden apartment. Behind the kitchen clock.”
“When?”
“The night she ran.”
Nell stared at the key.
“Why didn’t you give it to Carmine?”
“Because I gave Vittorio the first letter she left.”
Above them, the service door slammed.
A man called Nell’s name.
Odette put the key into her hand.
“Whatever you think happened that night, it wasn’t the whole thing.”
Then she opened the door and stepped into the hallway.
“There you are,” a man said.
Odette answered calmly.
May you like
“She went out through the garage.”
A second later, Nell heard the sound of someone hitting her.
