Chapter 1 - The Girl at the End of the Table)
Three days earlier, Ruby Moretti sat alone at the far end of the breakfast table and counted the white flowers.
There were thirty seven.
She had counted them twice.
Counting made it easier not to hear Valentina speaking on the telephone in the adjoining room.
"No, Marcus. Tonight won't work."
Ruby pushed a strawberry around her plate.
Valentina's voice became quieter.
"Domenico changed his flight. We still have time."
Ruby stopped moving.
Her father was supposed to be in Chicago until Friday.
Today was Tuesday.
She did not understand flights or meetings or why Valentina became angry whenever Daddy's plans changed.
She only knew that the house felt different whenever he was gone.
Doors closed harder.
People whispered more.
Marcus visited more often.
And Ruby was told to stay upstairs.
Valentina entered the breakfast room twenty seconds later wearing an ivory blouse and black trousers.
Her face looked beautiful.
Her eyes did not.
"Why aren't you eating?"
Ruby picked up her fork.
"I'm not hungry."
Valentina sat opposite her.
"You embarrass your father when you act strange."
Ruby looked at her plate.
"I'm not strange."
Valentina smiled.
"You rub your hand constantly. You stare at people. You hide things. You cry when someone raises their voice. What would you call that?"
Ruby pressed both hands beneath the table.
Valentina leaned closer.
"Your father has enough problems without a difficult child."
Ruby's eyes filled.
She did not cry.
She had learned that crying made Valentina patient.
And Valentina was most frightening when she became patient.
A door opened in the hallway.
The housekeeper, Rosa Bellini, entered carrying fresh towels.
Rosa was sixty two and had worked for the Moretti family since before Ruby was born.
She saw Ruby's expression.
She saw Valentina.
Then she saw Ruby's hands hidden under the table.
Rosa said nothing.
But later, when Valentina left for a charity luncheon, Rosa found Ruby sitting inside Lucia's old dressing room.
No one used the room anymore.
Domenico had never ordered it locked.
He simply avoided it.
Ruby was sitting on the carpet beside a cedar chest.
Her mother's pink blanket rested across her knees.
Rosa closed the door behind her.
"Little bird?"
Ruby looked up.
That had been Lucia's nickname for her.
Rosa was the only person who still used it.
"Miss Valentina says I'm difficult."
Rosa sat beside her.
"Miss Valentina says many things."
"She says Daddy is tired of me."
Rosa's expression tightened.
"Your father would burn this entire house to the ground before he stopped loving you."
Ruby considered that.
"Would the flowers burn?"
"Especially the flowers."
Ruby almost smiled.
Then she remembered something.
"Uncle Marcus was looking in Mommy's room yesterday."
Rosa became very still.
"What was he looking for?"
"A key."
"What kind of key?"
Ruby reached beneath the blanket and pulled out a small silver object.
Rosa's breath caught.
It was an old key with a tiny blue bird engraved near the top.
"Where did you get that?"
"Mommy gave it to me."
Rosa stared at her.
"Ruby."
"Before she went away."
Rosa's skin turned pale.
Ruby had been two when Lucia died.
Children remembered fragments from that age. Colors. Voices. Sensations.
But this was not a fragment.
The key existed.
"When did she give it to you?"
Ruby touched her palm.
"At night."
"Where?"
"In my room."
"What did she say?"
Ruby frowned with the effort of remembering.
"She said it was our secret."
"Anything else?"
Ruby nodded.
"She said when Daddy was ready, I should show him the blue bird."
Rosa looked toward the closed door.
"Has anyone else seen this?"
Ruby shook her head.
Then she whispered, "Valentina knows."
Rosa's eyes snapped back to her.
"How?"
"She asked me where Mommy's blue key was."
"When?"
"Yesterday."
Rosa stood so fast that the blanket slipped from Ruby's knees.
"Listen to me carefully. Do not show this key to Valentina. Do not show it to Marcus. Put it somewhere nobody will find it."
Ruby looked frightened.
"Why?"
Rosa knelt.
"Because your mother trusted you."
"But I'm little."
"Yes."
Rosa touched Ruby's cheek.
"Sometimes adults hide important things with children because cruel adults never imagine children can understand."
Ruby looked at the blue bird carved into the silver.
"What does it open?"
Rosa did not answer.
Because she suddenly remembered something from three years earlier.
The morning before Lucia's accident, Lucia had entered the kitchen carrying a black leather folder.
She had asked Rosa a strange question.
If something happened to me, would you make sure Domenico looks closely at what everyone calls an accident?
Rosa had laughed nervously and told her not to speak like that.
Lucia had not laughed.
That afternoon she died when her car went through a guardrail on a mountain road.
Police blamed wet pavement.
Domenico blamed himself for allowing her to drive alone.
And within ten months, Valentina Russo had begun appearing beside him at charity events.
Rosa looked at Ruby.
"Where is the black folder?"
Ruby blinked.
"What folder?"
"The one your mother had."
"I don't know."
A floorboard creaked outside.
Rosa turned.
The door handle moved.
Marcus entered.
He looked from Rosa to Ruby.
Then to the silver key in Ruby's hand.
His entire expression changed.
"Well," he said softly.
Ruby immediately closed her fist.
May you like
Marcus smiled.
"There it is."
