Chapter 4 - THE BODY MY SISTER DIDN'T WANT EXAMINED
Victoria knew Dad was sick.
Heart disease.
High blood pressure.
Stress.
What she did not know was why his private physician disappeared two days after the funeral.
I did not know any of it.
I had been in Zurich with Leo.
I attended the funeral by video.
Cowardly?
Maybe.
Necessary at the time.
Now forensic authorities obtained permission to inspect records before relocation.
The death certificate:
Cardiac arrest.
No autopsy.
Medication list incomplete.
One prescription stood out.
Digoxin.
Dad had never mentioned taking it.
Toxicology from preserved hospital blood was still possible.
Results:
Elevated levels.
Potentially fatal.
My father might have been poisoned.
By whom?
Dante suspected Salvatore.
Victoria suspected Marcus.
I suspected everyone.
Then Dad’s coffin was opened.
No secret ledger.
No weapon.
Nothing dramatic.
Until the mortuary specialist noticed the jacket.
An inner pocket had been sewn shut.
Inside:
A small brass key.
And a strip of paper.
ELENA - 417 W. MONROE.
My name.
I stared.
“He wanted me to find this.”
Or wanted someone to think that.
The address belonged to an old storage building downtown.
Unit 417.
The key fit.
Inside:
Five banker boxes.
Photos.
Contracts.
Medical records.
And one envelope addressed to me.
My father’s handwriting.
Elena,
If you are reading this, then either I failed to fix what I helped create or I finally found the courage to tell you.
I sat on the concrete floor.
Dante remained by the door.
Victoria beside me.
Dad confessed to cooperating with Salvatore Moretti for twenty years.
Money laundering.
Property transfers.
Political bribery.
But he denied ever wanting me dead.
He claimed Salvatore threatened me first.
The guardianship papers were not meant to steal my child.
They were meant to create legal standing for Dad to remove the child from Moretti control if Dante died.
I looked at Dante.
He said nothing.
Good.
Then Dad wrote:
I made one unforgivable mistake. I believed control was the same as protection.
That sentence sounded familiar already.
Then came the truth about the wedding.
Dad had not demanded Dante marry Victoria.
Salvatore had.
Why?
Because Victoria carried something Elena did not.
A legal claim through our mother’s family.
Our mother, Marianne Carter, had secretly been born Marianne Bellori.
The Bellori family had co-founded part of the Moretti legitimate empire generations earlier.
Victoria, as eldest daughter, inherited dormant voting rights.
By marrying Victoria, Dante consolidated those rights and blocked Salvatore.
The marriage was not only camouflage.
It was a legal weapon.
Then Dad’s final line:
Dante did not choose your sister over you.
He chose a structure he believed could keep you alive.
But if he never tells you the truth, then one day you should leave him anyway.
I cried.
Not because Dad absolved Dante.
Because he didn’t.
Then another document slipped from the envelope.
Marriage termination agreement.
Signed by Dante.
Signed by Victoria.
Dated eight months ago.
May you like
Their marriage had already ended.
And neither had told me.
