Chapter 13 - THE MOTHER WHO DISAPPEARED
Elaine Hayes had been living in Vancouver under another name.
She returned to Chicago forty-eight hours after Henry Pierce's arrest.
Noelle waited inside Gabriel's penthouse.
When the elevator opened, she didn't recognize the woman immediately.
Then Elaine smiled.
Noelle became twenty-three again.
"Mom?"
Elaine started crying.
Noelle didn't know whether to slap her or hug her.
She did neither.
"Nine years."
"I know."
"You let me bury you."
"I know."
"Everybody keeps doing that."
Gabriel quietly left the room.
Elaine explained.
She had worked as a bookkeeper for the original property trust.
Years earlier, she discovered Henry Pierce was attempting to acquire the warehouse through fraudulent liens.
She gathered evidence.
Henry found out.
After threats against Noelle and Charles, Elaine staged a boating accident and disappeared.
Noelle felt sick.
"Dad knew?"
"No."
"You left him too?"
"It was safer."
Noelle laughed bitterly.
"Everyone keeps calling abandonment protection."
Elaine cried.
"I deserve that."
"Why come back now?"
"Because Henry is finally in custody."
"And because I'm worth seventy million dollars?"
Elaine flinched.
Noelle regretted the words immediately.
But years of grief had sharp edges.
Elaine reached into her bag.
"I didn't come back for the property."
She handed Noelle a ledger.
"This is why Henry wanted the land."
Noelle opened it.
Buried beneath the warehouse were environmental reports proving Henry's companies had illegally dumped industrial waste along the river decades earlier.
If redevelopment began, the contamination would be discovered.
The cleanup liability could exceed hundreds of millions.
"He wasn't trying to make money," Noelle whispered.
"He was trying to bury evidence."
Elaine nodded.
Gabriel returned after Noelle called him.
He reviewed the documents.
"This can destroy the entire Pierce organization."
Noelle looked at her mother.
"Did Vittorio Russo know?"
Elaine's expression changed.
"Yes."
Gabriel went still.
"How?"
"Your father helped me disappear."
Gabriel stared.
Elaine continued.
"He promised Henry would never find me."
"And my father died shortly afterward."
"Yes."
Gabriel's face hardened.
Noelle suddenly understood.
Their families had been connected long before either of them knew.
Then Elaine turned to Noelle.
"There's something else."
Noelle almost laughed.
"Of course there is."
Elaine took out an old envelope.
It was addressed to Noelle in Vittorio Russo's handwriting.
Gabriel stared at it.
"My father wrote to you?"
Elaine nodded.
"He asked me to keep it until Henry was exposed."
Noelle opened the letter.
May you like
The first line made her heart stop.
NOELLE, IF GABRIEL EVER FINDS YOU, PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT I SENT HIM.
