CHAPTER 5 — THE WOMAN WHO WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE ALIVE
The next morning, Matteo ordered his private investigators to reopen every file connected to Elena's death.
Police reports.
Coast Guard records.
Insurance documents.
Autopsy photographs.
For five years, nobody had questioned the official story.
Storm.
Boat accident.
Body never recovered.
Case closed.
Until now.
By noon, an elderly investigator named Vincent Romano arrived carrying three dusty archive boxes.
"I found something strange," he said quietly.
Matteo looked up.
"The Coast Guard searched exactly where they were told."
"And?"
"They searched the wrong location."
Silence.
"The emergency coordinates came from Alessandro."
Karen frowned.
"Meaning?"
Vincent slid a satellite photograph across the table.
"The boat never sank where everyone believed."
Matteo stared at the image.
His breathing slowed.
Vincent continued.
"If these coordinates are correct..."
"...someone deliberately redirected the rescue."
The room fell silent.
Karen suddenly remembered something Sofia had whispered weeks before.
"Mommy cried on the island."
She had assumed the child was describing a dream.
Now...
It sounded like a memory.
Matteo immediately ordered helicopters into the Atlantic.
Twelve hours later...
One pilot radioed in.
"We found something."
Everyone crowded around the communication screen.
"What is it?"
"A small abandoned lighthouse."
"And?"
"There are signs someone lived here."
Matteo's pulse quickened.
"What kind of signs?"
The pilot hesitated.
"Recent ones."
Then came words no one expected.
"We also found a woman's scarf."
Karen stared at the monitor.
Matteo slowly closed his eyes.
May you like
For the first time in five years...
Hope hurt more than grief.
