Chapter 3 - THE SISTER I NEVER KNEW EXISTED
Isabella had never told me she had a sister.
Eleven years of marriage.
Eleven Christmases.
Eleven anniversaries.
Thousands of nights sleeping beside her.
And I didn't know the name Lucia.
I sat alone in Isabella's study, surrounded by things I'd never bothered to notice.
Her books.
Her handwritten notes.
The photographs she kept beside the window.
In one picture, Isabella was sixteen.
A younger girl stood beside her, laughing.
Same dark hair.
Same gray eyes.
Same unmistakable smile.
On the back, someone had written:
ISABELLA AND LUCIA, SUMMER 2005.
I stared at the date.
Twenty-one years ago.
Lucia couldn't have been older than thirteen.
My heart tightened.
I contacted Rebecca.
"Find everything you can about Lucia."
An hour later, she returned with a preliminary report.
Lucia Romano.
Born in 1992.
Reported missing in 2007.
Presumed dead several years later.
Her mother had worked for the Moretti family's medical charity.
Her father was a bookkeeper.
Both died under suspicious circumstances.
I looked toward the window.
"Isabella's parents?"
Rebecca nodded.
"Yes."
I closed my eyes.
Isabella had always told me she grew up without family.
I assumed she meant her parents died.
I'd never asked how.
Never asked whether she had siblings.
Never asked what she carried inside herself.
I was beginning to understand that I'd spent eleven years loving an idea of Isabella without making enough effort to know the real woman.
Rebecca continued.
"Lucia was last seen near a private medical facility owned by one of your father's companies."
I opened my eyes.
"Which facility?"
"Saint Catherine's Rehabilitation Center."
The name struck me.
My father had funded Saint Catherine's for years.
It treated children and young adults with serious medical needs.
After Antonio died, the facility closed.
Or so I'd believed.
Rebecca placed another document before me.
A corporate filing.
Saint Catherine's had never actually closed.
Its ownership had moved through several companies.
One belonged to Marco Bellini.
Another to Richard Salvatore.
And the third was controlled by Valentina's father, Carlo Russo.
I stared.
The same names.
Again.
My father.
My adviser.
My mistress's family.
And now Isabella's missing sister.
"What happened to Lucia?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"We don't know."
Then she slid another document toward me.
A recent medical invoice.
Dated six weeks earlier.
Patient: Lucia Romano.
Facility: Saint Catherine's.
My heart stopped.
"She's alive?"
Rebecca answered carefully.
"Someone used that identity recently."
I stared at the invoice.
A woman who was supposedly dead had been receiving medical care under her own name.
And my wife had apparently discovered it.
I reached for my phone.
Before I could dial, a message appeared.
Unknown number.
A photograph.
Isabella stood beside a hospital bed.
Her hand rested against the cheek of a young woman.
The woman's face was pale.
Her hair was dark.
And her wrist carried a bracelet marked:
LUCIA ROMANO.
Beneath the photograph was one sentence.
SHE FOUND HER SISTER.
May you like
Then another message arrived.
NOW WE'RE GOING TO TAKE THEM BOTH.
