Chapter 10 - The Woman Who Borrowed a Face
Bee read the photograph's timestamp again.
Yesterday morning.
The woman standing behind Arthur had Isabella's silver hair, sharp green eyes, and unmistakable profile. Yet Dominic's reaction was not confusion.
It was recognition.
"My mother died in Palermo," he said. "I identified her body myself."
"Then who is that woman?"
Dominic took the photograph and studied it beneath the lamp.
"Someone who wants us to believe Isabella is alive."
Bee examined the woman's hands. Isabella had worn a thick gold bracelet on her left wrist, engraved with a tiny rose. The woman in the photograph wore it too.
A replica, perhaps.
Or a clue.
Bee searched the desk and discovered a hidden drawer containing passports, cash, and a collection of photographs showing different versions of the same woman. In some, she had dark hair. In others, blonde. Her face changed slightly in each image, but her eyes remained the same.
Beneath the photographs lay a medical report.
The patient was listed as Elena Vescari, a former intelligence operative who had specialized in impersonation, surveillance, and document fraud.
Her photograph matched the woman standing behind Arthur.
"She's been posing as your mother," Bee said.
Dominic's expression hardened.
"Then she's close enough to know things nobody outside the family should know."
A phone rang inside the desk drawer.
Bee answered.
A man's voice spoke immediately.
"Miss Gallagher, you have forty minutes to reach the old stockyards. Come alone, or Michael dies."
Bee recognized her father's voice in the background.
"Don't listen to him, sweetheart!"
A sharp impact followed.
Bee nearly dropped the phone.
The caller continued calmly.
"Bring the ledger. No police. No Rossi men. If I see anyone following you, your father dies."
"Who is this?"
"You already know."
The call ended.
Dominic grabbed her arm.
"You're not going."
"My father is alive."
"And they want you to walk into an ambush."
"Then we'll give them one."
She opened the folder and spread its contents across the desk. Her eyes moved rapidly over account numbers, coded references, and corporate structures.
Then she saw it.
A shipping company listed under the name of a man who had supposedly died six years earlier.
Matteo Rossi.
The company had received millions from the Black Circle, but the payments stopped two days before Matteo's funeral.
Someone had continued using his identity after his supposed death.
Bee looked up.
"Matteo isn't just alive. He's financing this entire operation."
Dominic's face became frighteningly still.
"No," he whispered. "He can't be."
Bee turned the final page toward him.
The signature at the bottom belonged to the man who had raised Dominic.
May you like
His father.
And the date proved the conspiracy had begun before either of them was born.
