Chapter 7 - The Woman Who Forgot Her Own Name
Elena's mother had spent seventeen years inside a private medical facility under another name.
The thought was almost impossible to comprehend.
Seventeen years.
While Elena moved between foster homes.
While Isabella mourned her daughter.
While Aleandro grew into a man feared throughout New York.
Lucia had been somewhere in Pennsylvania.
Alive.
Alone.
And hidden.
Detective Mitchell arranged for an independent investigation into the facility's records.
Rebecca obtained the necessary authorizations.
Elena insisted on attending every meeting she was legally allowed to join.
She wasn't going to let powerful strangers decide what information she deserved.
Three days later, the investigators uncovered a troubling medical history.
Laura Mills had been admitted following a serious head injury.
She reportedly experienced memory loss, confusion, and difficulty identifying herself.
The original admission form listed no next of kin.
Elena stared at the document.
"She had a mother."
Rebecca nodded.
"And a daughter," Elena whispered.
Aleandro sat beside her.
His expression was grim.
"Someone deliberately separated her from both."
The records included payments from a company connected to Antonio Moretti.
But the payments stopped after his death.
Five years earlier, the facility transferred Lucia to a community care program.
Then the trail went cold.
Elena felt desperate.
"She could be anywhere."
Detective Mitchell nodded.
"We're contacting the program and reviewing its records."
That evening, Elena returned to her Queens apartment.
Basil curled against her legs.
She sat beside the window holding the locket.
For twenty-two years, she'd believed her mother didn't want her.
Now she wondered whether Lucia had spent those same years wondering where her daughter had gone.
Elena began crying.
"I'm here, Mom," she whispered.
"I'm still here."
The next morning, Isabella Moretti called.
Her voice trembled.
"Elena, would you come to the house?"
Elena hesitated.
"Why?"
"I found something that belonged to Lucia."
"What?"
"A diary."
Elena's heart tightened.
"Her diary?"
Isabella nodded.
"I haven't opened it in twenty-two years."
Elena agreed to come.
The Moretti estate stood behind tall iron gates in Westchester County.
Elena had never seen anything like it.
A long driveway.
Stone fountains.
Ancient trees.
A mansion that looked more like a museum than a home.
But inside, Isabella welcomed her with a trembling embrace.
"Thank you for coming."
Elena nodded.
She still wasn't comfortable calling Isabella her grandmother.
Not yet.
The DNA results hadn't arrived.
And she needed proof.
Isabella seemed to understand.
She led Elena into a sunlit sitting room.
On the table lay a small leather notebook.
Lucia's diary.
Elena touched the cover.
The pages smelled faintly of old paper.
She opened it carefully.
The first entries were ordinary.
Family dinners.
Arguments with Antonio.
Dreams about traveling.
Then the writing changed.
Lucia had discovered money disappearing from her charity.
She suspected her brother.
And she was frightened.
One entry made Elena stop breathing.
Antonio thinks I don't know what he's doing.
But I found the original accounts.
If he discovers what I've copied, he may never let me leave.
Elena turned the page.
The next entry was dated shortly before her disappearance.
My daughter deserves a life beyond this family.
I won't let Antonio turn her into another bargaining chip.
Tears filled Elena's eyes.
Then she reached the final entry.
The handwriting was shaky.
If anything happens to me, Elena must never be brought back to this house until the truth is known.
Elena froze.
"Elena?"
Isabella leaned closer.
"What?"
"My mother wrote my name."
Aleandro, who had been standing near the window, approached.
Elena held up the diary.
"She called me Elena."
Not Sofia.
Elena.
Her real name might have been the one she'd carried all along.
Then she noticed something written in the margin.
A short sentence.
Margaret knows the truth.
Elena's heart pounded.
Margaret Vale.
The woman who had called her.
The woman who had worked at Saint Jude's.
And according to the final diary entry, Margaret hadn't simply helped hide Elena.
She knew what happened to Lucia.
Elena looked toward Aleandro.
"We need to find her."
He nodded.
Then his phone rang.
Tomas, his security chief.
Aleandro answered.
Listened.
And went completely still.
"What do you mean she's dead?"
Elena's blood turned cold.
He looked toward her.
"Margaret Vale was found this morning."
Elena whispered, "What happened?"
Aleandro's face hardened.
May you like
"She was killed last night."
And the last person seen entering her apartment was someone who worked for the Moretti family.
