Chapter 5
My younger sister had disappeared twelve years earlier.
Our father claimed Elena betrayed the family by stealing documents and giving them to a federal prosecutor. He had forbidden us from searching for her.
Two months after her disappearance, the prosecutor was found dead.
Elena was blamed.
My father declared her an enemy of the Moretti name.
I had never believed she murdered anyone.
But I had never found proof of her innocence.
“What did Elena want with you?” I asked.
“She wanted help.”
Isabella reached into her handbag and removed an old photograph.
She placed it on the table between us.
The picture showed Elena standing beside a hospital window. Her dark hair was shorter than I remembered, and fear had hollowed her cheeks. In her arms, she held a newborn wrapped in a white blanket.
On the back, someone had written five words.
Protect my daughter from the Morettis.
My gaze moved slowly from the photograph to Lily.
The shape of her eyes.
The small dimple in her left cheek.
The faint silver ring around her gray irises.
Elena had possessed all three.
“No,” I whispered.
Lily leaned forward.
“Is that me?”
May you like
Isabella swallowed.
“Yes.”
