Chapter 4: What Lily Remembered
Sophia was awake at five in the morning.
She hadn't slept.
She'd sat in the narrow chair beside Lily's bed in the staff wing, watching her daughter breathe, replaying the night in her head until the images blurred together — the broken plate, the white powder on a stranger's finger, Dominic Moretti kneeling on the ballroom floor asking her three-year-old child a question like she was the only person in the room worth listening to.
Lily stirred.
"Mommy."
"I'm here."
Lily sat up, rubbing her eyes.
Her dark curls were tangled from sleep.
"Is Ethan okay?"
"He's fine, sweetheart.
He's sleeping."
Lily seemed to consider this.
Then: "The man had a watch."
Sophia went still.
"What?"
"The man in the cold room.
He had a gold watch." Lily held up her small wrist and tapped it.
"Right here.
It had a little blue stone."
Sophia leaned forward.
"Lily.
Did you see his face?"
"A little bit.
He was tall.
He had dark hair like Ethan's dad."
Sophia's throat tightened.
"Did he see you?"
Lily shook her head.
"I was behind the big silver door.
I was looking for the juice boxes."
Sophia pulled her daughter close and held her without speaking.
She had said nothing to Dominic about the watch.
She hadn't known.
Lily had only just remembered it now, in the quiet of early morning, the way children sometimes surfaced details hours after the fact, unbothered by the weight of what those details might mean.
A knock at the door.
Sophia opened it.
Marco stood in the hallway.
He looked like he hadn't slept either.
"Mr.
Moretti would like to speak with you and Lily.
When she's ready."
"Now?"
"When she's ready," he repeated.
"He said there's no rush.
But it's important."
Sophia looked back at her daughter, who was already pulling on her sneakers with the focused determination of a child who had somewhere to be.
Twenty minutes later, they were in Dominic's study.
He was seated behind the desk, jacket gone, shirt sleeves rolled to the elbow.
He looked like a man who had been awake all night making decisions.
He stood when they came in.
"Lily." He came around the desk and crouched down to her level.
"Good morning."
"Good morning," Lily said.
"Is Ethan awake?"
"Not yet.
But he asked about you last night before he fell asleep."
Lily seemed satisfied with this.
"I need to ask you something," Dominic said.
"About the man you saw.
Can you tell me anything else about him?
Anything you remember, even something small?"
Lily looked at the ceiling the way she did when she was thinking hard.
"He had a watch," she said.
"Gold.
With a blue stone.
Right here." She tapped her wrist again.
Dominic's expression didn't change.
But his jaw moved slightly.
"Which wrist?"
Lily pointed to her left.
"Was the stone on the top of the watch or on the side?"
Lily thought.
"The side.
Like a little dot."
Dominic straightened slowly.
Sophia watched his face.
Something had shifted behind his eyes — not surprise, exactly.
More like confirmation.
The kind that makes a person feel sick rather than relieved.
"Thank you, Lily," he said quietly.
"You've been very brave."
"I know," Lily said simply.
Despite everything, Sophia almost smiled.
Dominic looked at her over Lily's head.
"I need to ask you something as well," he said.
"In private, when you're able."
Sophia nodded.
After Marco took Lily to the kitchen for breakfast, Sophia stood alone with Dominic in the study.
The morning light came through the tall windows behind his desk.
It made the room look ordinary.
It wasn't.
"The watch Lily described," Dominic said.
"A gold watch with a blue stone set into the left side of the case.
Custom made.
There are fewer than a dozen of them in existence." He paused.
"My father had them made for his sons when each of us turned thirty."
Sophia heard what he didn't say.
"Your brother," she said.
Dominic didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
"What happens now?" she asked.
He looked at her steadily.
"Now I need you to take Lily somewhere safe.
Not the estate.
Not anywhere connected to me." He reached into the desk drawer and placed a card on the surface between them.
"This is Frank Deluca.
My attorney.
He'll arrange everything.
You'll have everything you need."
"I'm not leaving," Sophia said.
Dominic looked at her.
"Lily saw him," she said.
"She can describe him.
If he finds out—"
"That's exactly why I need you to go."
"And if something happens to Ethan while I'm gone?
Who watches him the way Lily did?" Her voice was steady.
She was surprised by that.
"I've been in this house for six years, Mr.
Moretti.
I know every room, every schedule, every person who comes through that door.
You need someone who knows what normal looks like so they can see when something isn't."
The silence stretched.
"You're asking me to let a housekeeper and a three-year-old stay in a house with a target on it," he said.
"I'm telling you that we're already in it," Sophia said.
"And Lily already proved she sees things your cameras don't."
Something moved across his face.
Not quite a smile.
Something older than that.
"I'll have two additional guards on the staff wing," he said finally.
"You don't go anywhere in this house alone.
Neither does Lily."
"Agreed."
He picked up his phone.
Then he stopped.
"Mrs.
Carter." He said it carefully, like he was choosing the words.
"What you're doing — staying — I want you to understand that I don't take it lightly."
"I know you don't," she said.
She left him there with the morning light and the face-down photograph on his desk.
May you like
She didn't look at it.
But she noticed it.
