Chapter 4 - THE SECRET MY MOTHER KEPT FOR EIGHTEEN MONTHS
My mother’s name was Elena Bennett.
She had survived a stroke two years earlier.
Since then, her right side had been weak and her speech slower.
I visited every Sunday.
I paid for the medications insurance didn’t cover.
And I told her almost nothing about Dante Falcone.
That changed the moment I showed her Carmela’s photograph.
Mom stared at it.
Then began crying.
My heart stopped.
“You know her?”
Her good hand trembled.
“Carmela.”
I sat beside her.
“How?”
Mom closed her eyes.
For several seconds, she struggled to speak.
Then:
“Hospital.”
“What hospital?”
“St. Anne’s.”
My stomach tightened.
Before her stroke, Mom worked twenty-three years as a medical records administrator at St. Anne’s Hospital.
Carmela volunteered there through the Falcone Foundation.
I’d known that.
What I hadn’t known was that they were friends.
Mom pointed toward the drawer beside her bed.
“Blue… folder.”
I opened it.
Inside were old photographs.
Donation records.
And a sealed envelope.
My name appeared on the front.
For Rosa, if Carmela dies before I can fix this.
My hands began shaking.
“Mom?”
She began crying harder.
“I’m sorry.”
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a copy of a medical billing report.
Hundreds of names.
Charges.
Insurance reimbursements.
Foundation payments.
My mother had highlighted several entries.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Victor Salerno.
Not as a patient.
As an administrator.
I stared.
“Victor worked at the hospital?”
Mom nodded.
“Board.”
I kept reading.
Money from the Falcone Foundation had been paying for surgeries, rehabilitation, and emergency treatment.
But some payments had been redirected into private accounts.
Carmela discovered the discrepancies.
She asked Mom to copy the records before they could be altered.
Then came the final page.
A handwritten note from Carmela.
Elena, if Victor learns you helped me, he will use Rosa.
My skin went cold.
“Use me how?”
Mom shook her head.
“I didn’t know.”
Then she whispered:
“Sophia.”
I stopped breathing.
“What about Sophia?”
Mom stared at me.
Her voice barely carried across the room.
“Carmela knew.”
My heartbeat accelerated.
“Knew what?”
Mom reached toward the drawer again.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Sophia Bennett.
My name listed as mother.
Father:
UNKNOWN.
I stared.
“I know this.”
Mom shook her head.
Then pointed toward another document.
A private paternity test request.
Never completed.
The requested comparison name was one I recognized instantly.
LUCA FALCONE.
My stomach dropped.
Luca Falcone.
Dante’s younger brother.
Dead four years.
I stared at Mom.
“No.”
She began crying.
“Rosa…”
“No.”
Sophia’s father had disappeared before she was born.
His name was Luke Ferris.
At least, that was what he told me.
A quiet man I dated for eight months.
He left Chicago after I told him I was pregnant.
I never saw him again.
Now my mother was telling me Luke Ferris had been Luca Falcone.
May you like
Dante’s brother.
And according to Carmela’s file, Sophia might be Dante Falcone’s niece.
