Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
Damiano stood beside the dead driver's body without saying a word.
The rain had begun outside.
It tapped against the stone windows and made the mansion feel strangely isolated.
Sophia kept Emma behind her.
She didn't want her daughter seeing any more of this.
Damiano removed the ring from the man's finger.
He turned it over.
Inside was a tiny engraving.
E.M. — M.M.
Elena and Marco.
His parents.
Sophia watched him.
“Could it be a fake?”
“Yes.”
“But you don't think it is.”
“No.”
Damiano looked toward Vincent.
“Who had access to my father's ring?”
Vincent answered carefully.
“Three people.”
“Name them.”
“Me. Elena. Margaret.”
Sophia felt the blood leave her face.
“My mother?”
Vincent nodded.
“Marco gave it to Margaret the night he disappeared.”
“Why?”
“To prove he trusted her.”
Damiano's eyes hardened.
“And then she disappeared too.”
“Yes.”
Sophia suddenly remembered something.
“My mother used to talk about a woman named Elena.”
Damiano looked at her.
“She said Elena was kind.”
Sophia swallowed.
“She also said Elena had a daughter.”
Damiano stared.
“Elena had no daughter.”
Sophia shook her head.
“She did.”
“Who?”
“My mother never told me.”
Damiano looked at Vincent.
Vincent closed his eyes.
“That changes everything.”
Before anyone could speak, footsteps sounded behind them.
Isabella appeared.
Her gown was torn at the shoulder.
There was blood on her cheek.
Damiano immediately reached for his weapon.
“Stop.”
Isabella raised both hands.
“I didn't hurt anyone.”
“Where were you?”
“Running.”
“From whom?”
She looked at Sophia.
“From the people who are coming for you.”
Damiano didn't lower his weapon.
“You planted the bomb.”
“No.”
“You knew about it.”
“Yes.”
That answer shocked everyone.
Isabella took a breath.
“I knew someone was planning to kill Damiano tonight.”
“Then why didn't you warn me?”
“Because I didn't know how.”
Damiano's voice turned cold.
“You could have said one sentence.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“You told me everything was ready for the signing.”
“Because someone was listening.”
Sophia stepped forward.
“Who?”
Isabella looked at Emma.
Then lowered her voice.
“Your mother.”
Sophia froze.
“My mother is dead.”
“No.”
Isabella's eyes filled with tears.
“Margaret Hayes is alive.”
Damiano stared at her.
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
Vincent moved closer.
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
“Who does?”
Isabella looked at Damiano.
“Elena.”
Damiano's face went completely blank.
“My mother is dead.”
“I said the name Elena.”
“You mean my mother.”
“Yes.”
Sophia whispered, “That's impossible.”
Isabella shook her head.
“Your mother disappeared with Elena Moretti twenty-eight years ago.”
Damiano stepped backward.
“You're saying Elena survived?”
“Yes.”
“Then who was buried?”
Isabella looked at him.
“No one.”
The words seemed to break something inside him.
All those years.
All those funerals.
All those memories.
A lie.
Damiano sat down slowly.
Sophia understood that he wasn't thinking like a Mafia boss anymore.
He was thinking like a son.
“What happened to her?” he asked.
Isabella hesitated.
“She went into hiding.”
“Why?”
“Because Marco wasn't the only person who was going to be killed.”
Damiano looked up.
“Who else?”
“You.”
Sophia felt Emma move closer.
Damiano stared at Isabella.
“Me?”
“You were six months old.”
He said nothing.
Isabella continued.
“Your mother discovered that someone planned to eliminate the entire Moretti line.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
Isabella reached beneath her torn gown and removed a small chain.
A rosary hung from it.
She placed it in Damiano's hand.
His fingers trembled.
He recognized it immediately.
His mother had worn that rosary every night.
“You stole this,” he whispered.
“No.”
“Then how?”
“Elena gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
Damiano looked at her.
“You saw my mother three years ago?”
“Yes.”
Sophia stared at Isabella.
“Why marry him?”
Isabella's eyes filled.
“Because I was trying to protect him.”
Damiano laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You were going to marry me while keeping my mother alive a secret.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“By lying?”
“By staying close enough to stop the people watching you.”
He looked away.
Then Emma spoke softly.
“Mr. Moretti?”
Damiano turned.
She pointed at the rosary.
“That's the one in the picture.”
Sophia took the photograph.
Emma was right.
In the old photograph, Elena was wearing the same rosary.
Damiano turned the rosary over.
A tiny silver bead was missing.
Something was hidden inside the hollow space.
He opened it.
A small brass key fell into his palm.
Sophia stared.
“What's it for?”
Damiano looked at Isabella.
She shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Then the mansion's security system announced a vehicle approaching.
One vehicle.
No escort.
Damiano looked toward the gates.
The cameras showed an old black sedan.
Sophia stepped closer to the monitor.
The driver's door opened.
An elderly woman stepped out.
Her hair was gray.
Her face was thinner.
But Sophia knew her.
She had seen that face every night in childhood photographs.
Her mother.
Margaret Hayes.
She looked directly into the security camera.
Then raised one hand.
In it was a child's drawing.
The same drawing Emma had made earlier that morning.
Damiano stared at the screen.
Margaret mouthed four words.
May you like
They know about Emma.
Then every camera went black.
