Chapter 4 - THE SENTENCE ON THE PHOTOGRAPH
Rose read the sentence until the letters blurred.
The child was mine.
There was only one child in the Kowalik house when that photograph was taken.
Rose.
“No.”
The bank employee asked if she needed assistance.
“No.”
Her voice sounded distant.
Rose shoved everything back into the folder and left.
Luca waited outside beside a black sedan.
She walked past him.
“Rose.”
She kept moving.
“What was in the box?”
“Nothing.”
He caught up.
“That’s obviously a lie.”
She stopped so abruptly he nearly collided with her.
“Did you know?”
“Know what?”
She showed him the photograph.
Luca read the back.
His face changed.
“No.”
That mattered.
He had not known.
Rose laughed once.
“You people use that word a lot.”
“Rose.”
“If Carlo Benedetti was my father—”
“He would have been fifty-three when you were born.”
“I can count.”
“Your mother?”
“Twenty-nine.”
Luca looked sick.
“So what am I to you?”
He stared at her.
“If it’s true?”
“Yes.”
“My aunt.”
Rose barked out a laugh.
A passing woman looked at them.
“Fantastic. I’m thirty-seven and apparently the aunt of a man older than me.”
Luca almost smiled.
Neither did.
They drove to Carmela’s house.
Carmela looked at the photograph.
Then said:
“Carlo was not your father.”
Rose gripped the table.
“Then why did he write that?”
“He meant another child.”
Silence.
“What child?”
Carmela closed her eyes.
“Your mother gave birth before she married Stanley.”
Rose stared.
“I don’t have a sibling.”
“You did.”
The room tilted.
Carmela explained.
Rose’s mother, Elaine, worked for Benedetti Distribution when she was twenty-three.
She and Carlo had an affair.
Elaine became pregnant.
The baby was a girl.
Carlo wanted to acknowledge her.
Carmela had nearly left him.
Then the child disappeared from hospital records.
“What does disappeared mean?”
“Elaine was told the baby died.”
Rose’s voice broke.
“Did she?”
“No.”
Rose sat down.
Carmela’s hands trembled.
“Victor Vance arranged a private adoption.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“Why would Serena’s father do that?”
“To protect Carlo’s reputation.”
“Without permission?”
“Yes.”
Rose felt sick.
“What happened to the baby?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Carmela looked at the photograph.
“Stanley learned the truth years later. That was when he tried to expose Victor.”
Everything connected.
The stolen partnership.
The false accounts.
The threats.
Rose’s father had not been fighting only for money.
He had been trying to find the child Elaine lost.
Rose whispered:
“My sister.”
Carmela nodded.
“A half sister.”
Luca leaned forward.
“Do we have a name?”
Carmela looked toward him.
“The adoption file was sealed.”
“By whom?”
“Judge Samuel Vance.”
Serena’s grandfather.
Three generations of one family had helped erase Rose’s sister.
Then Luca’s phone buzzed.
He read the message.
His face hardened.
“What?”
He turned the screen.
A photograph of Rose leaving the bank had already been sent to Serena.
Below it was one message:
SHE OPENED THE BOX.
May you like
Rose felt cold.
Someone had been watching her.
Related Stories
