Chapter 7 - The Revelation of Isabella
I laughed bitterly.
“You disappeared for twenty-two years.”
“To keep you alive.”
“Stop.”
“It’s true.”
“Then explain it.”
She looked at Dominic.
“Your wife discovered Vincent was not simply leaking information. He was building a private network inside your family’s organization.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“Isabella told me she suspected someone.”
“She knew who.”
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“Because she discovered something worse.”
Helena opened an old metal case.
Inside were documents, photographs and a flash drive.
She gave it to Dominic.
“Vincent had help.”
“From whom?”
“Your father.”
Dominic went completely still.
Salvatore Moretti had died three years before Isabella.
“He wanted control transferred to Vincent because he believed you had become weak.”
Dominic’s eyes darkened.
“My father despised Vincent.”
“Publicly.”
Helena looked at me.
“I was assigned to protect Isabella. When she found proof, Vincent discovered we knew.”
“Then why disappear?”
“Because he threatened you.”
My stomach twisted.
“You?”
“You were twelve.”
She swallowed.
“He sent me a photograph of you leaving school. I understood the message.”
I felt anger rising so quickly it made my hands shake.
“So you abandoned me?”
“No.”
“I grew up believing you didn’t want me.”
“I watched you every year.”
“From where?”
“Far enough that Vincent wouldn’t know.”
Tears burned my eyes.
“That isn’t being a mother.”
Her face broke.
“No. It isn’t.”
For the first time, she did not defend herself.
“I made the choice I thought would keep you alive. I have hated myself for it every day.”
Dominic inserted the flash drive into a secured laptop.
Folders appeared.
Financial records.
Names.
Surveillance photographs.
Then one video.
Isabella.
Dominic froze.
His wife appeared on screen sitting in the same library where I had worked for years.
“If you’re watching this,” she said, “something has happened to me.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
Ethan’s mother continued.
“Vincent is not acting alone. Helena has evidence. Trust her.”
Dominic looked away.
I had never seen grief hit a person so silently.
Then Isabella said something that changed everything.
“And Dominic, Maria must never know why Helena was assigned to me.”
My heart stopped.
Dominic looked at Helena.
“What does she mean?”
Helena closed her eyes.
I stepped toward her.
“Why were you assigned to Isabella?”
She did not answer.
“Mom.”
The word escaped me for the first time in decades.
She looked at me.
“Because Isabella and I were sisters.”
The room went silent.
Dominic stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
Helena opened her necklace.
Inside were two photographs.
One of me.
One of Isabella.
“My mother had Isabella after she remarried. We grew up separately.”
Dominic sank into a chair.
Which meant Isabella had been my aunt.
And Ethan—
I looked toward Dominic.
“Ethan is my cousin.”
May you like
Helena nodded.
“And Lily’s cousin too.”
