Chapter 3 - VANESSA’S VISIT TO ELENA
Security footage solved the first lie.
Vanessa had claimed she had never seen Elena Russo.
Marco found a camera across from Elena’s apartment building.
Eleven months earlier, three days before Elena’s death, Vanessa stepped from a black sedan and entered the building.
She stayed forty-seven minutes.
Dominic watched the footage from his hospital bed.
Once.
Then again.
Lucia stood behind him.
“She knew.”
“Yes.”
“You were already engaged.”
“Yes.”
Grace was adjusting his medication when Vanessa’s voice came through the suite intercom.
She had returned.
Dominic almost refused.
Then changed his mind.
“Let her in.”
Vanessa entered without her father.
That was unusual.
She looked immaculate.
That was not.
Her eyes went directly to Grace.
“You’re still here.”
“I work here.”
“You work for the hospital.”
Dominic interrupted.
“Why were you in Elena’s apartment?”
Vanessa stopped.
Grace watched the lie form.
“I wanted to know whether she had contacted you.”
“How did you know where she lived?”
“My father had investigators.”
“Why?”
“Because Elena disappeared with information that belonged to our families.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“What information?”
Vanessa looked toward Grace.
“She should leave.”
“No.”
“Dominic.”
“She stays.”
Grace wished for once he had said the opposite.
Vanessa exhaled.
“Elena contacted my father six years ago.”
Dominic sat straighter despite the pain.
“While she was pregnant?”
Vanessa nodded.
“She wanted protection.”
“From me?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Your father.”
Dominic’s face went still.
Salvatore Moretti had died four years earlier.
Vanessa continued.
“Elena believed Salvatore would take the baby if he discovered she was pregnant.”
Lucia whispered:
“He would have.”
Dominic closed his eyes briefly.
They all knew it.
Salvatore had believed heirs belonged to the family before they belonged to their mothers.
“Elena asked Carlo Bellini for money and new documents,” Vanessa said.
“My father helped her disappear.”
Dominic’s eyes opened.
“And never told me.”
“He promised her.”
“For six years?”
Vanessa’s voice softened.
“She was afraid of you too.”
That hurt him.
Grace saw it.
“What changed eleven months ago?” Dominic asked.
“Elena contacted my father again.”
“Why?”
“She wanted to come back to New York.”
“For Leo?”
“Yes.”
“And you went to see her.”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To convince her not to destroy everything.”
Dominic laughed once.
Cold.
“Everything meaning your wedding.”
“Our families.”
“No. Say what you mean.”
Vanessa’s composure cracked.
“Yes. Our wedding.”
She stepped closer.
“I spent years building a life with you while she hid your son.”
“You knew Leo existed.”
“Not until that week.”
Dominic stared.
Vanessa continued.
“My father told me because Elena threatened to contact you directly.”
“What did you do?”
“I offered her money.”
Grace felt sick.
“How much?” Lucia asked.
“Enough to leave.”
Dominic’s voice dropped.
“Did she take it?”
“No.”
For the first time, Vanessa sounded bitter.
“She laughed at me.”
Grace could almost picture Elena.
“What happened next?”
“She told me she had proof.”
“Of what?”
Vanessa looked toward the brass key on Dominic’s table.
Then realized her mistake.
Her eyes remained there one second too long.
Dominic noticed.
“What does the key open?”
“I don’t know.”
He smiled without warmth.
“You just proved you do.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
Dominic leaned back.
“What did Elena have?”
Silence.
Marco stepped closer.
Vanessa finally whispered:
“Letters.”
“From whom?”
“Your father.”
Dominic stopped moving.
“What letters?”
She looked at him.
“The ones proving Salvatore didn’t simply help Elena disappear.”
Lucia frowned.
“What did he do?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“He paid my father to make sure Dominic never found her.”
The silence that followed seemed to swallow the hospital machinery.
Dominic’s own father had separated him from Elena.
But Vanessa wasn’t finished.
“And according to Elena, Salvatore made one more payment.”
Dominic stared at her.
“To whom?”
May you like
Vanessa’s voice dropped.
“The man who caused her first car accident six years ago.”
