Chapter 5 - THE GIRL ROSE NEVER KNEW EXISTED
The name came from an old nurse.
Margaret Dwyer was ninety-one and living in assisted care outside Waukesha.
Carmela remembered her because she had worked maternity at St. Anne’s in 1988.
Margaret remembered Elaine.
“She screamed for her baby.”
Rose sat beside the old woman’s bed.
“What did they tell her?”
“That the infant had respiratory failure.”
“Was that true?”
“No.”
Rose’s eyes filled.
Margaret continued.
“The child was healthy.”
Luca stood near the window.
Quiet.
Rose appreciated that.
This was not his moment.
“Who took her?”
“Attorney.”
“Victor Vance?”
Margaret nodded.
“He brought adoption documents.”
“Where did she go?”
“Family in Illinois.”
“Name?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“I shouldn’t remember.”
Rose’s heart sank.
Then:
“Hart.”
Rose leaned forward.
“First names?”
“Richard and Louise Hart.”
Luca was already searching.
Within two hours, his people found public records.
One adopted daughter.
Birth date matched.
Name:
Serena Hart Vance.
Rose stopped breathing.
“No.”
Luca stared at the screen.
Serena.
His ex-fiancée.
Serena Vance had originally been Serena Hart.
Adopted as an infant.
Later discovered she was related to Victor Vance through Louise’s sister and became close to the Vance family.
The relationships were complicated.
The implication was not.
Rose looked at Luca.
“Serena is my sister.”
He said nothing.
“She’s my half sister.”
“Yes.”
Rose laughed, then covered her mouth because the laugh turned into a sob.
The woman who had walked into her bakery and looked at her with contempt—
was Elaine’s stolen daughter.
“Does she know?”
Luca’s expression told her something.
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
The answer came sooner than expected.
Serena arrived at Rose’s bakery that evening.
No Luca.
No Carmela.
Just Rose and Dana closing.
Serena locked the front door behind herself.
Rose’s pulse jumped.
“You knew.”
Serena’s eyes filled with something close to hatred.
“Yes.”
Rose forgot how to breathe.
“How long?”
“Three years.”
“And you never came to me?”
“For what?”
“I’m your sister.”
“No.”
Serena’s voice sharpened.
“You’re the daughter Elaine kept.”
Rose froze.
There it was.
Not contempt.
Resentment.
“I didn’t know you existed.”
“You got her.”
“My mother died twelve years ago.”
“You still got twenty-five years.”
Rose swallowed.
Serena’s expression cracked.
“I got people who treated me like a legal inconvenience until my adoptive father made money.”
“You think I stole something from you?”
“I think your family did.”
“My family?”
“Stanley knew.”
“Years later.”
“He still stayed with her.”
“Because he loved her.”
“And I was somewhere else.”
Rose’s anger softened despite herself.
Then Serena noticed pity.
“Don’t.”
“I’m not—”
“Don’t look at me like that.”
She stepped closer.
“You opened the box because you want the Benedetti shares.”
“I didn’t know they existed.”
“Liar.”
Rose’s jaw tightened.
“Get out.”
Serena smiled coldly.
“You should listen carefully. Carlo’s memorial is in five weeks.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“Everything.”
She opened her purse and placed a document on the counter.
Carlo’s amended will.
A clause circled in red.
If Stanley Kowalik’s surviving legal heir appears and establishes the original partnership claim, ten percent of Benedetti Distribution transfers to that heir.
Rose looked up.
“Me.”
Serena shook her head.
“No.”
May you like
Then she smiled.
“Us.”
