Chapter 6 - THE NANNY WHO RAN
Anya Petrov did not look like a woman who had abandoned a baby.
She looked like someone who had survived a war nobody knew was happening.
Her left arm was in a cast.
Purple bruises faded along her throat.
One side of her face remained swollen.
She was twenty-six.
Maybe twenty-seven.
Far younger than Elena expected.
When Matteo entered the private hospital room, Anya started crying.
Not from fear.
From relief.
“Mr. Volkov.”
Matteo stopped several feet from the bed.
“Where did you go?”
Anya wiped her face.
“I tried to call.”
“You disappeared.”
“They took my phone.”
“Who?”
Her eyes moved toward Elena.
Matteo noticed.
“She saved Sofia.”
Anya stared.
“Saved?”
“She was starving.”
The young woman’s face collapsed.
“Oh God.”
Elena stepped closer.
“Sofia is safe.”
Anya cried harder.
“She wouldn’t drink.”
“I know.”
“I thought it was grief.”
“It wasn’t.”
Anya looked at Matteo.
“I didn’t know.”
“Tell me what happened the night Nadia died.”
Anya closed her eyes.
“I put Sofia to sleep around eight.”
“Who was in the house?”
“Mrs. Volkov.”
“Yes.”
“Mrs. Kovac.”
“Yes.”
“Two guards.”
“Names.”
Anya provided them.
“One was transferred three days later.”
Matteo looked at his man.
“Find him.”
The guard left.
“Who else?”
Anya hesitated.
“Mr. Dmitri.”
Matteo’s face became stone.
“What time?”
“Around nine-thirty.”
“Why?”
“He said he needed to speak with Mrs. Volkov.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“About what?”
“I don’t know.”
Anya swallowed.
“But they argued.”
“Words?”
“I heard Mrs. Volkov say, ‘You will not use my daughter to clean your mess.’”
Elena glanced toward Matteo.
His expression did not change.
“What else?”
“Mr. Dmitri said she was being dramatic.”
Anya’s eyes filled.
“Then Mrs. Volkov said, ‘Marco already copied everything.’”
Elena felt the room shift.
Matteo looked at her.
“Marco Rossi?”
Anya nodded.
Elena gripped the back of a chair.
“What happened after that?”
“Mr. Dmitri left.”
“You’re sure?”
“I watched him get into the car.”
Matteo frowned.
“Then who attacked you?”
Anya began trembling.
“Someone came upstairs.”
“Who?”
“I thought it was Mr. Matteo.”
Matteo’s eyes narrowed.
Anya shook her head quickly.
“Not you.”
“Then why?”
“He wore one of your coats.”
The room went silent.
“From behind, I thought…”
She swallowed.
“Then he turned.”
“Did you know him?”
“No.”
“Describe him.”
She did.
Elena recognized the description immediately.
The man from her apartment.
The dead attacker.
“He entered Sofia’s room?”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
“He opened the cabinet with her bottles.”
Anya’s voice shook.
“I asked why.”
“He told me Mrs. Volkov had ordered a change.”
“And?”
“I didn’t believe him.”
“Why?”
“Because Mrs. Volkov never sent men upstairs for baby supplies.”
Anya looked at Elena.
“I tried to stop him.”
Her bruises suddenly made sense.
“He attacked you.”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“I woke in the laundry room.”
“How did you escape?”
“The side door.”
“Where was Nadia?”
“I couldn’t find her.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“She left the house at ten-twelve.”
Anya started crying again.
“She called me.”
“When?”
“Ten-seventeen.”
Matteo’s head snapped up.
“You never told me.”
“My phone was gone.”
“What did she say?”
“Only one sentence.”
Anya looked toward Elena.
“She said, ‘If anything happens, find the nurse.’”
Elena stopped breathing.
“What nurse?”
Anya pointed weakly toward her.
“You.”
No one moved.
Elena stared.
“That’s impossible.”
“I asked which nurse.”
Anya continued.
“She said, ‘Elena Rossi.’”
A cold sensation spread through Elena’s body.
“Nadia knew my name.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Matteo looked as shaken as Elena felt.
Anya swallowed.
“She said one more thing.”
“What?”
“‘Tell Elena Marco was right about the bluebird.’”
Elena sat down.
She had to.
Three months of grief.
Three months of believing Marco’s final words were nonsense.
And now a dead woman she had never met had left a message for her.
Matteo crouched in front of Anya.
“Why didn’t you contact Elena?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Two days after I escaped.”
Elena looked up.
“No one contacted me.”
Anya shook her head.
“I went to her apartment.”
“You went there?”
“Yes.”
“No one answered.”
Elena’s chest tightened.
“I was at my sister’s.”
That week after the funeral, Elena had not been capable of sleeping alone.
Anya continued.
“A car followed me.”
“The same people?”
“I think so.”
“What happened?”
“They forced me off the road.”
Elena looked at the cast.
Anya nodded.
“A truck driver found me.”
“Why use a false name in the hospital?”
“I was scared.”
“Of me?”
Anya looked at Matteo.
“At everyone.”
That answer seemed to hurt him.
Elena understood.
Fear did not care whether someone deserved it.
A knock came.
One of Matteo’s security men entered carrying a tablet.
“Mr. Volkov.”
“What?”
“Dmitri landed in New York forty minutes ago.”
Matteo stood.
“He was in London.”
“Apparently not.”
“Where is he now?”
“We lost the vehicle after the airport.”
Matteo’s expression darkened.
Elena looked at Anya.
“You said Nadia told Dmitri that Marco copied everything.”
“Yes.”
“So Dmitri knew about the ledger before Marco died.”
“Yes.”
Matteo looked toward the window.
“Which means he lied to me.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That he had never heard Marco Rossi’s name.”
Elena stood.
“Then call him.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if he is guilty, I don’t want him knowing what we know.”
“And if he isn’t?”
“Then someone is working very hard to make him look guilty.”
Elena thought about the dying attacker.
Not Viktor.
He had been certain.
Or wanted them to believe he was.
“Your godfather.”
Matteo looked at her.
“What about him?”
“He was in the photograph with Marco and Nadia.”
“Yes.”
“But the attacker denied he was responsible.”
“Yes.”
“What if he wasn’t protecting Viktor?”
Matteo’s eyes narrowed.
“What if he was protecting Dmitri?”
Silence.
Anya whispered from the bed.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
She looked terrified.
“Not Dmitri.”
Matteo stepped closer.
“How do you know?”
Anya swallowed.
“Because when the man attacked me, he said something.”
“What?”
“He said, ‘The brothers will destroy each other for us.’”
The room went completely still.
Elena felt a chill.
For us.
Not for me.
Not for him.
Us.
There was more than one person behind this.
Matteo’s phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen.
His face changed instantly.
Elena noticed.
“What?”
He turned the phone toward her.
A photograph had been sent from an unknown number.
It showed Sofia asleep in the estate nursery.
Taken that morning.
From inside the room.
May you like
Beneath it was one sentence.
YOU STILL HAVE A TRAITOR IN THE HOUSE.
