Chapter 2 - THE INHERITANCE MY MOTHER NEVER MENTIONED
I opened the hotel door with the security chain still attached.
A woman in her late fifties stood outside wearing a navy wool coat.
Silver hair.
Calm eyes.
A leather briefcase pressed against her side.
She looked nothing like the kind of person Nico would send after me.
That didn't make her safe.
“Show me identification,” I said.
She did.
I studied the card.
Then her face.
“How did you find me?”
Evelyn Cross hesitated.
“Your mother arranged for me to be notified if certain financial accounts became active.”
I frowned.
“What accounts?”
“Accounts connected to Nico Moretti.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why would my mother know anything about Nico?”
Evelyn looked toward the hallway.
“May we speak somewhere private?”
I almost refused.
Then I remembered my mother's final weeks.
The strange phone calls.
The way she begged me never to trust powerful men who offered everything except honesty.
And the little blue notebook she'd insisted I keep.
I removed the chain.
Evelyn entered.
She placed a sealed envelope on the table.
My name was written across the front.
Not Hannah.
Not Miss Bennett.
My mother's nickname for me.
My little sparrow.
My throat closed.
Only she called me that.
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a letter.
My darling Hannah,
If this reaches you, then someone connected to the Moretti family has finally entered your life.
My hands began shaking.
There are things I never told you about your father.
I stopped breathing.
My father had died before I was born.
At least, that was what Mom always said.
I continued.
He worked for a company controlled by the Morettis. When he discovered what they were doing, he tried to stop it.
Tears filled my eyes.
He paid a terrible price.
I looked toward Evelyn.
“What happened to him?”
She lowered her eyes.
“That's what your mother wanted you to discover.”
I stared.
“Why didn't she just tell me?”
“Because someone threatened you both.”
I felt sick.
Three years with Nico.
Three years sleeping beside the son of the family my mother feared.
Had it truly been coincidence?
Then Evelyn opened her briefcase.
She removed a photograph.
It showed my mother standing beside a younger man.
Dark hair.
Kind eyes.
A familiar smile.
My father.
And beside him stood someone I recognized immediately.
Nico's late father.
Salvatore Moretti.
My stomach tightened.
Evelyn pointed to the photograph.
“Your father was named Daniel Bennett.”
I nodded weakly.
Then she said:
“He was Salvatore Moretti's financial investigator.”
I stared at her.
“And?”
Evelyn's expression darkened.
“He discovered that millions were being moved through charities that existed only on paper.”
I swallowed.
“What happened?”
She turned over the photograph.
On the back was a handwritten date.
September 18.
Twenty-seven years earlier.
And one sentence.
Daniel knows what happened to Lucia.
I frowned.
“Who's Lucia?”
Evelyn looked directly at me.
May you like
Then whispered:
“Lucia Moretti was Nico's mother. And she's the reason your father disappeared.”
