Chapter 5 - The Woman Who Taught Emma to Sleepwalk
Emma wanted to open her eyes.
She did not.
Teresa stood beside the bed for almost one minute.
Then Emma felt something press lightly against her wrist.
A drop of liquid.
Lavender smell.
Clean lotion had been replaced again.
Teresa whispered:
“Fourteen.”
Emma sat up.
Slowly.
Eyes half-open.
Pretending.
Teresa stepped backward.
“Daniel is waiting.”
Emma stood.
The terror was almost unbearable.
Not because Teresa might kill her.
Because Teresa had fed her soup.
Fixed a torn hem.
Left extra blankets outside her room.
Called her “sweetheart” when she first arrived.
Betrayal rarely wore villain clothes.
Sometimes it wore an apron.
Emma walked into the corridor.
Teresa followed at a distance.
Hidden cameras recorded everything.
Lucian watched from a security room with Marco.
His face had gone completely blank.
Marco whispered:
“Wait.”
Lucian said nothing.
Emma entered the west corridor.
Token fourteen waited on the floor.
Teresa had placed it there earlier.
Emma picked it up.
Hidden door.
Black suitcase.
Inside was a sealed envelope.
Emma took it.
Then continued toward Lucian’s private floor.
Exactly as conditioned.
Teresa remained behind.
Interesting.
She was directing Emma but not entering secure areas herself.
Emma reached Lucian’s bedroom.
Door unlocked.
She entered.
Lucian was not there.
The bed deliberately unmade to look occupied.
Emma placed the envelope beneath his pillow as the speaker had trained her.
Then she walked back.
Teresa guided her into bed.
Covered her.
Whispered:
“You remember nothing.”
Then left.
Marco waited.
“Now?”
Lucian stared at Teresa disappearing down the corridor.
“No.”
Marco looked shocked.
“She drugged Emma.”
“Yes.”
“You’re letting her walk?”
“For ten minutes.”
“Why?”
Lucian’s eyes turned cold.
“Because Teresa isn’t the person collecting the envelope.”
They waited.
At 2:38, the hidden door inside Lucian’s closet opened.
A man entered through Daniel’s old room.
Black gloves.
Dark clothes.
Face covered.
He moved straight to the pillow.
Removed the envelope.
Then turned.
Lucian’s security team closed both exits.
Lights came on.
The man froze.
Lucian stepped from the bathroom.
“Take off the mask.”
The intruder did not.
Instead, he reached for a weapon.
Marco hit him before he could draw.
Two guards forced him down.
Mask removed.
Lucian stared.
“Father Paul?”
Emma, watching through the security feed from her room, stopped breathing.
Father Paul Santoro.
Sixty-four.
Family priest.
He had baptized Lucian.
Presided over his parents’ funerals.
He visited the estate every Sunday.
No one searched him.
No one questioned him walking through old chapel corridors.
The perfect person to know forgotten architecture.
But Teresa?
Lucian had her brought in.
She entered the study at dawn.
Not restrained.
Emma insisted on being present.
Teresa looked at her and immediately began crying.
“I am sorry.”
Emma felt anger rise.
“Why me?”
Teresa sat.
“Because of your brother.”
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
Emma froze.
“What does Daniel have to do with the Morettis?”
Teresa looked toward Lucian.
“Everything.”
Emma’s brother Daniel Carter had not died in a random car accident.
He worked part-time during college as a records clerk for the Boston Historical Preservation Office.
Eleven years earlier, he helped digitize old estate plans.
Including the Moretti property.
Daniel noticed one room had been removed from revised blueprints.
Curious, he searched archived police records.
Found Anna Moretti’s disappearance.
Found Daniel Moretti’s death.
Found something else.
A sealed report from 1983.
Anna had been found once wandering miles from the estate carrying financial documents.
Police returned her to Lorenzo Moretti.
Report buried.
Daniel Carter began investigating.
Father Paul was already protecting old family secrets.
He confronted Daniel.
Days later, Daniel died.
Emma stared.
“No.”
Teresa’s face collapsed.
“I did not know they would kill him.”
“They?”
“Father Paul and Lorenzo’s surviving loyalists.”
“Lorenzo was dead.”
“His system wasn’t.”
Emma could barely hear.
“You knew my brother?”
“He came here once.”
Teresa remembered him.
Twenty-three.
Curious.
Stubborn.
He asked about Anna.
Teresa warned him to leave it alone.
He did not.
After Daniel died, Teresa spent years carrying guilt.
Then Father Paul approached her again six months ago.
He knew Lucian was restructuring the family business and closing several old cash routes.
Paul believed Lucian was destroying Lorenzo’s legacy.
He wanted information.
Teresa initially refused.
Then Paul showed her Emma’s employment application.
Daniel Carter’s sister.
“You chose me because of him.”
Teresa shook her head.
“Paul chose you.”
“Why?”
“Cruelty.”
The answer was simple.
Father Paul knew Emma had childhood sleepwalking episodes after Daniel’s death.
He purchased Dr. Keller’s files through Meridian.
Then he decided to recreate Anna’s conditioning using Daniel Carter’s name as the trigger.
“Why would you help?”
Teresa wept.
“Because Paul said he had proof of who killed Daniel.”
Emma stared.
“He promised me the truth if I cooperated.”
“And you drugged me.”
“Yes.”
“You planted speakers.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me walk into Lucian’s bedroom.”
Teresa covered her face.
“Yes.”
Emma’s voice broke.
“You could have gotten me killed.”
“I knew Lucian wouldn’t hurt you.”
Lucian’s expression turned furious.
Emma raised one hand.
“This is mine.”
He stopped.
Emma looked at Teresa.
“You used his decency as part of your plan.”
Teresa cried harder.
That sentence hurt because it was true.
Father Paul finally spoke from the other side of the room.
“You’re all being sentimental.”
Lucian turned.
Paul smiled.
“The girl is alive.”
Emma stood.
“My brother isn’t.”
Paul’s smile faded slightly.
“Your brother asked questions that endangered people.”
“Did you kill him?”
Paul said nothing.
Emma walked closer.
“Did you?”
“No.”
She stopped.
“Who did?”
Father Paul looked at Lucian.
“Ask his father.”
Lucian’s face emptied.
His father, Victor Moretti.
The man who supposedly knew nothing about the forgotten room.
The man Lucian had spent his entire life trying to become better than.
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And according to Paul—
The man who ordered Daniel Carter’s death.
