Chapter 13 – The Return Without Sara
Eleven days after leaving Italy, Cemal, Leyla and Murat returned to Modena.
Sara did not.
At the airport, officers questioned them.
Their answer was simple.
Sara had chosen to stay.
“She is twenty,” Murat said.
“She can make her own decisions.”
It was almost exactly the argument Sara herself had used months earlier.
Matteo heard about it through Giulia.
He laughed when she told him.
Not because anything was funny.
“She can make her own decisions?”
Giulia said nothing.
“They finally believe that now?”
No answer would have helped.
Investigations continued.
Requests moved between jurisdictions.
Statements were compared.
Relatives contradicted one another.
One said Sara had gone to another city.
Another said she had married.
Another insisted she did not want to return.
No verified call came from Sara.
No video call.
No independent meeting.
Only messages occasionally appeared from one of her accounts.
Please stop looking for me.
I need space.
I chose this.
Matteo did not believe them.
Her parents said the messages proved she was alive.
Authorities could not publicly confirm who had written them.
