Chapter 2 - THE PHOTOGRAPH THAT SHOULD NOT EXIST
"Who was my mother supposed to have betrayed?"
Penelope's question echoed through the apartment.
Dominic didn't answer immediately.
He stood by the window, watching the street below.
"Your mother's name was Isabella Russo, wasn't it?"
Penelope nodded.
"She died when I was twelve."
Dominic turned.
"That's what your father told you?"
Something about his tone made her stomach tighten.
"What are you implying?"
Before he could respond, Lorenzo entered the apartment.
He carried an old photograph inside a clear evidence sleeve.
Dominic took it.
Penelope stepped closer.
The picture showed two women standing outside a mansion.
One was Dominic's mother, Sophia Vitiello.
The other—
Penelope's heart skipped.
"That's my mom."
Isabella Russo was younger in the photograph, smiling beneath a white summer hat.
But what caught Penelope's attention was the little girl standing between them.
She wore a red dress.
And around her neck was a gold necklace shaped like a butterfly.
Penelope unconsciously touched her throat.
She owned that necklace.
Her mother had given it to her before she died.
"Where did you get this?"
Dominic studied her expression.
"My father kept a collection of photographs from before my mother disappeared."
Penelope looked up sharply.
"Disappeared?"
Dominic's voice dropped.
"She didn't die the way the newspapers reported."
Lorenzo moved toward the window.
"Boss, we need to leave. The man downstairs wasn't working alone."
Dominic ignored him.
"Penelope, when your mother died, did you see her body?"
She shook her head.
"There was a closed casket."
"And your father?"
"He said the accident was too terrible."
Dominic exchanged a look with Lorenzo.
Penelope felt anger rising.
"Stop looking at each other like that. Tell me what's going on."
Dominic finally spoke.
"Fifteen years ago, my mother discovered someone was stealing money from the Vitiello family. She arranged to meet Isabella Russo."
"Why?"
"Because Isabella had the evidence."
Penelope stared at the photograph.
"My mother worked at a bakery."
"Before that, she worked for my father."
Silence.
Then Dominic took a second photograph from the sleeve.
It showed Isabella entering a hospital.
She was carrying an infant wrapped in a pink blanket.
Penelope frowned.
"Who is that baby?"
Dominic hesitated.
"The photograph was taken eighteen years ago."
Penelope did the math.
She was twenty-six.
Her younger sister, Amelia, had died as an infant.
At least, that was what her father had always said.
Dominic looked directly into her eyes.
"Penelope, I think your mother had another daughter."
Penelope's hands began trembling.
"That's impossible."
Then Lorenzo checked the back of the photograph.
His face turned pale.
"Boss."
"What?"
"There's a name written here."
Dominic took the picture.
Underneath the hospital's name were three words.
Amelia Vitiello Russo.
May you like
And beside the name was a date.
A date from only three weeks earlier.
