Chapter 12 - MY MOTHER WALKED THROUGH THE DOOR
I reached the seventy-second floor before Adrien could stop me.
The elevator doors opened.
A woman stood inside the boardroom.
Gray streaks ran through dark hair I remembered as brown.
She was thinner.
Older.
A faint scar crossed one side of her forehead.
But I knew her hands.
I knew the way she tilted her head when frightened.
“Mom?”
She turned.
For nineteen years, I had imagined what I would say if I got one more minute with my mother.
I said nothing.
Neither did she.
Then she crossed the room and wrapped her arms around me.
I broke.
Not gracefully.
Not quietly.
Every birthday, funeral, heartbreak, wedding dress fitting, and lonely phone call I had wished she could answer crashed through me at once.
“I’m sorry,” she kept whispering.
I couldn’t stop crying.
“Why?”
Thomas had kept her isolated for years after the crash.
At first because she had severe memory loss.
Later because her memory returned.
He threatened me.
Threatened Daniel.
Threatened to expose evidence making Margaret appear responsible for financial crimes Alessandro had committed.
By the time she escaped the facility eight years later, Thomas had convinced her that approaching me would put me in danger.
“Then why now?”
“Because he contacted me three days ago.”
My hand moved toward my stomach.
She noticed.
Her eyes widened.
“Oh, Elena.”
“You know?”
“Thomas knows.”
Adrien entered quietly behind me.
My mother looked at him.
For one long second, I saw anger.
Then recognition.
“You look like Alessandro.”
Adrien stiffened.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“My father.”
Margaret studied him.
“You are not your father.”
Something in Adrien broke open.
He looked away.
My mother took the original ledger from inside her coat.
“I came because Thomas believes I still fear him.”
She placed it on the table.
“I don’t.”
The ledger documented everything.
Fraudulent mergers.
Shell corporations.
Blackmail.
Payments.
Thomas had used Alessandro’s secrets for decades.
But one entry caught Adrien’s attention.
Five years ago.
The date of our wedding.
PAYMENT AUTHORIZED: A.M.
Recipient:
Thomas Vale.
Five million dollars.
I stared at Adrien.
“You paid him?”
Adrien looked genuinely confused.
“No.”
The initials could mean Adrien Moretti.
Or Alessandro Moretti.
Except Alessandro had been dead by then.
Vanessa examined the transaction signature.
“It came from Adrien’s executive credentials.”
I stepped back.
Adrien’s face hardened.
“I didn’t authorize it.”
My mother opened another page.
“This payment bought something.”
“What?”
She looked at me.
“Your marriage certificate.”
My blood went cold.
Adrien whispered, “What?”
Margaret shook her head.
“Elena, I don’t think you and Adrien are legally married.”
Before anyone could respond, every light in Moretti Global went out.
Emergency power failed too.
May you like
Then Thomas Vale’s voice came through the boardroom speakers.
“Now we can finally discuss the divorce.”
