Chapter 10 - THE WRONG WOMAN
Sofia Bellandi looked like Alina.
Not enough that strangers would immediately assume they were related.
But once you knew, you couldn't stop seeing it.
The same eyes.
The same way they tilted their heads when suspicious.
The same hands.
Alina stood across the hospital room, unable to move.
Sofia didn't approach.
Didn't demand an embrace.
She simply said:
“You look like Jonathan when you're angry.”
Alina's voice was cold.
“Why did everyone tell me you were dead?”
Sofia closed her eyes.
“Because we thought I would be.”
Evelyn sat beside her with a bruised wrist but otherwise unharmed.
Alina looked between them.
“You knew she was alive?”
“Not until yesterday,” Evelyn said.
“What?”
“Sofia contacted me.”
Sofia continued.
“I spent twenty-eight years under another identity.”
I stared at her.
“Why return now?”
“Because someone reopened the old accounts.”
“The codicil?”
She nodded.
“And because Alina was tested.”
My jaw tightened.
“Who ordered it?”
Sofia looked directly at me.
“Not Caterina.”
“Her signature is on the laboratory request.”
“Forged.”
Luca stepped forward.
“By whom?”
Sofia's expression became grim.
“Samuel Klein.”
My attorney.
The man who had controlled my contracts for twelve years.
I thought about the missing original marriage agreement.
His fear.
His excuses.
“Why?”
“Because Samuel worked for your father.”
“He still does.”
“No.”
Sofia's voice hardened.
“He worked against your father.”
The room went silent.
She explained.
Samuel had been a junior legal adviser when she first discovered the missing money.
He helped Caterina structure legitimate family trusts.
But behind the scenes, he created shell corporations that made it look as though Caterina controlled suspicious transfers.
“Then Mother was framed?” Luca asked.
“Partly.”
“Partly?”
Sofia looked tired.
“Caterina knew money was missing. She concealed some irregularities because she believed exposing them would destroy the company and send Vittorio to prison.”
I felt betrayal settle in layers.
“So she lied.”
“Yes.”
“But she didn't poison Alina?”
“No.”
Alina whispered, “Then who did?”
Sofia looked toward Evelyn.
Evelyn began crying.
“Oh God.”
“What?” Alina asked.
Evelyn took her daughter's hand.
“The nurse at your house.”
“What about her?”
“Sofia recognized the description.”
Sofia nodded.
“Her name is Celeste Klein.”
I felt the name register.
Klein.
Samuel Klein.
“His daughter,” I said.
Sofia nodded.
“She works as a private nurse under her married name.”
“Why Alina?”
Sofia's eyes moved toward my wife.
“Because Samuel needed the marriage to end.”
I frowned.
“What does divorce give him?”
“He doesn't care about your money.”
“Then what?”
Sofia's voice dropped.
“The archival materials.”
I remembered the clause.
Upon dissolution, jointly protected archival materials transferred to Alina.
Samuel expected Alina to leave.
Then he could approach her through the Hartwell side, obtain the documents, and destroy the original evidence.
“But why damage her fertility?” I asked.
Sofia's face filled with disgust.
“To make her believe she could never give you what you wanted.”
Alina's fingers went cold inside mine.
He had weaponized the one fear most likely to make my wife leave me.
Then Sofia whispered:
“And he knew it would work because someone inside this house told him Alina loved you.”
I turned toward Luca.
He looked offended.
“Not me.”
Sofia shook her head.
“No.”
Then she looked toward the door.
A familiar woman stood there.
Our housekeeper.
Maria.
The woman who had worked in my family home since I was fifteen.
She was crying.
May you like
And she said:
“I told him.”
