Chapter 9 - THE SISTER ELENA NEVER KNEW
Elena’s mother had told her she was an only child.
That was true only after Elena turned three.
Before that, there had been another daughter.
Lucia.
Born eleven months earlier.
Same mother.
Different father.
The family broke apart after a custody battle Elena had been too young to remember.
Lucia went with her biological father.
Elena remained with their mother.
Years later, both women changed names.
Contact disappeared.
Lucia eventually married Gianni Conti.
Which meant Gianni’s interest in Elena predated Michael.
Family history had folded in on itself in the ugliest possible way.
“Does Lucia know?”
Elena asked.
Sofia nodded.
“She knows about you.”
“Then why never contact me?”
“Because Gianni told her you died.”
Elena actually laughed.
That family apparently solved every inconvenience with fictional funerals.
Alessandro looked furious.
“My father told his own wife her sister was dead.”
Sofia opened another file.
Lucia had inherited partial control of DeLuca interests through her father.
When Michael’s biological connection surfaced, the inheritance structure became complicated.
Mila’s existence could alter control.
But there was something even more important.
Lucia had been quietly trying to leave Gianni.
She had discovered his role in Michael’s death.
“She copied his records,” Sofia said.
“Where is she?”
“No one knows.”
Matteo answered:
“She disappeared three weeks ago.”
Elena stared.
“Dead?”
“We don’t know.”
Another missing person.
Another secret.
Another woman trapped inside the same family machine.
Then Sofia gave Elena an envelope.
“It was in Gianni’s file.”
Addressed to:
ELENA CARTER.
Lucia’s handwriting.
Elena opened it.
If you are reading this, then he finally failed to keep us apart.
Tears came instantly.
Lucia explained she learned Elena was alive seven months earlier.
She tried contacting her.
Every message vanished.
Gianni monitored everything.
So Lucia began building an escape.
For herself.
And for Elena and Mila.
There was an account.
Legitimate money belonging to Lucia personally.
Enough to relocate them if necessary.
Elena shook her head.
“I don’t want her money.”
Alessandro looked at her.
“It isn’t charity.”
“Still no.”
She had spent too many years being cornered by money to let another fortune choose her life.
Then she reached the final paragraph.
Lucia wrote:
Do not trust Carlo.
Do not trust Gianni.
And do not assume Alessandro knows what his father did to his mother.
Elena looked up.
Alessandro’s face went blank.
“What does that mean?”
Nobody knew.
Until Matteo said:
“There’s one person who might.”
“Who?”
“Your mother.”
Alessandro’s expression hardened.
“My mother died when I was twelve.”
Matteo said nothing.
Alessandro stared.
Then slowly stood.
“No.”
Matteo looked almost apologetic.
“Her death certificate was issued by a clinic Gianni controlled.”
“No.”
“Her grave was never opened.”
“No.”
Elena had seen denial before.
It sounded like grief trying to protect itself.
Matteo continued.
“I checked immigration records.”
Alessandro’s mother, Bianca Conti, had entered Canada under another name eleven years after her supposed death.
Alessandro grabbed the back of a pew.
Alive.
His father.
His mother.
Lucia.
Every dead person in this family seemed determined to return.
Then Sofia whispered:
“She’s in Boston.”
Alessandro looked at her.
“How do you know?”
Sofia held up a recent photograph.
An older woman standing outside the same Italian restaurant where Elena found Alessandro bleeding.
May you like
Taken two nights earlier.
And beside Bianca stood Lucia.
