Chapter 4 - The Promise Elena Never Explained
For several seconds, Luca didn't move.
Then he looked at Mrs. Carter.
“Are you telling me Elena wanted her mother to take my daughter?”
Mrs. Carter shook her head.
“Not exactly, sir.”
“Then explain it.”
Lily was still sitting beside him, her teddy bear resting against her plate.
I watched Luca notice her frightened expression.
He immediately softened his voice.
“Sweetheart, would you let Sophie take you into the sitting room for a few minutes?”
Lily hesitated.
“Are you coming?”
“Right behind you.”
“Promise?”
Luca knelt.
“Promise.”
I took Lily's hand.
But before we reached the doorway, she stopped.
“Daddy?”
He turned.
“Mommy loved you.”
His expression crumpled.
“I know, baby.”
“She told me.”
Luca covered his mouth.
I led Lily toward the adjoining sitting room, leaving the doors partly open.
Mrs. Carter began explaining.
Elena had been seriously ill during the final months of her life.
She worried about Lily growing up without her.
But she worried about something else, too.
Luca's dangerous responsibilities.
The late-night absences.
The men who appeared at the mansion demanding meetings.
The way Luca sometimes believed providing everything meant being present enough.
“Elena loved you deeply,” Mrs. Carter said. “But she was afraid grief would make you retreat into work.”
Luca stared at the table.
“She should have told me.”
“She tried.”
That silenced him.
Mrs. Carter continued carefully.
“During her final week, she asked Eleanor to make sure Lily was protected if you couldn't manage things alone.”
“Protected how?”
“By staying with her grandmother temporarily, if necessary.”
Luca looked up.
“Temporarily?”
“Yes, sir.”
Vanessa interrupted.
“Exactly. That's what I've been trying to explain.”
Luca turned toward her.
“Then why did you tell Lily she wasn't coming back?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Mrs. Carter lowered her eyes.
“Elena never said Lily should lose her father. But Eleanor was already angry with you.”
“Because she blamed me for Elena getting sick.”
“Because she believed you hadn't been there enough while Elena was suffering.”
Luca exhaled slowly.
His wife had died from complications after a severe infection.
No amount of money or influence had changed the outcome.
But grief had left everyone searching for someone to blame.
And Eleanor had chosen him.
Three years earlier, she'd tried to convince a court that Lily needed to live with her instead.
The dispute had frightened six-year-old Lily so badly that she began asking whether her father would disappear too.
Luca had ended contact afterward.
Now he looked at Mrs. Carter.
“Why didn't you tell me about Elena's promise?”
“I was afraid you'd believe I had taken Eleanor's side.”
“You should have trusted me.”
Mrs. Carter wiped her cheeks.
“Yes, sir. I should have.”
I could hear Lily moving quietly in the sitting room.
Then she appeared at the doorway.
“Daddy, I'm done waiting.”
Luca crossed the room immediately.
He picked her up.
“I'm sorry, princess.”
“For what?”
“For making you wait when I promised I wouldn't.”
She rested her head against him.
Something in his face changed.
He'd just learned that Elena had feared he might become an absent father.
And tonight, Lily had been afraid he didn't want her.
The connection was impossible to ignore.
Vanessa approached.
“Luca, I really did think Eleanor could give Lily something this house couldn't.”
He looked at her.
“What?”
“Normality.”
Luca didn't respond.
“A home without guards,” Vanessa continued. “Without strangers coming and going. A grandmother who has time for her.”
“Lily has a home.”
“A home where you leave before breakfast half the week!”
The accusation hurt because there was truth in it.
I had seen Lily saving drawings to show her father.
Sometimes they waited days on the kitchen counter.
Luca looked down at his daughter.
“Have I been gone too much?”
Lily studied his tie.
“Sometimes.”
“Does it make you sad?”
“A little.”
His jaw tightened.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
She shrugged.
“You're busy.”
Those two words were worse than any accusation Vanessa could have made.
Luca sat with Lily on the sofa.
“Being busy isn't a reason for you to feel alone.”
Lily leaned against him.
“I like when you make pancakes.”
He gave a shaky laugh.
“I'm terrible at pancakes.”
“They're funny shapes.”
For the first time that evening, she smiled.
I looked away before anyone noticed my tears.
Later, Daniel brought the chauffeur's instructions to the sitting room.
Lily's departure had been scheduled for seven the following morning.
There was no return pickup arranged.
No school transportation.
No indication Luca had authorized anything.
Vanessa had personally instructed the driver.
Luca studied the itinerary.
“Months, Vanessa?”
She looked away.
“I assumed we'd work out the details later.”
“You planned to send her away and decide afterward whether she came back?”
“I believed eventually you'd see I was right.”
Luca folded the itinerary.
“No one gets to make that decision for my daughter.”
He instructed Daniel to cancel the trip completely.
Then he turned to Mrs. Carter.
“Tomorrow, I want to speak with Eleanor.”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“Luca, please don't.”
“Why?”
“She's never forgiven you.”
“That's her decision. But she isn't going to make promises about Lily without me.”
Mrs. Carter hesitated.
“There's one more thing, sir.”
She crossed to the sideboard and removed a framed photograph that had been placed facedown behind the silver serving dishes.
I recognized Elena immediately.
She was sitting in the mansion garden.
Lily, much younger, rested on her lap.
Beside them sat an elegant older woman with gray hair.
Eleanor Hart.
Luca stared.
“I've never seen this photograph.”
Mrs. Carter swallowed.
“Vanessa asked me to put it away.”
“Why?”
“She said it would only upset you.”
Luca touched the glass.
His wife looked thinner than in their wedding pictures, but she was smiling.
He turned the photograph over.
A date was written on the back.
Luca whispered it aloud.
Then looked at Mrs. Carter.
“That's impossible.”
“Sir?”
“Elena told me she hadn't seen her mother for years.”
May you like
Mrs. Carter's eyes filled.
“That photograph was taken here, Mr. Moretti. Eight days before your wife died.”
