Chapter 5 - THE SECRET HER MOTHER TOOK TO THE GRAVE
Ivy read the letter three times.
Each time, the words became harder to understand.
Her mother had never spoken about her biological father. When Ivy was little, she had been told that he left before she was born. As she grew older, the explanation changed: he had died, then he had been a stranger, then the subject had simply disappeared.
Ivy had stopped asking.
Now she wished she had never stopped.
The letter continued.
I loved you from the moment I knew you existed. Nothing in this letter changes that. But there are people who may try to use your birth to hurt you, and I have spent your entire life trying to keep you safe.
Elena helped me once, when I had nowhere to go. I promised her I would never expose what happened that night. I thought silence would protect everyone.
I was wrong.
The remaining pages had been torn away.
Ivy sat on the edge of the bed, holding the letter against her chest.
Mrs. Bennett stood by the door, visibly shaken.
“Your mother must have been carrying an enormous burden.”
Ivy laughed once, without humor.
“She carried it alone. She let me believe she was just tired. She let me believe our debts were ordinary debts and our problems were ordinary problems.”
“She was trying to protect you.”
“From what? My own life?”
Mrs. Bennett had no answer.
A car door slammed outside.
Daniel entered the apartment a moment later.
“Mr. Bellandi wants to speak with you.”
Ivy wiped her face.
“Of course he does.”
At the estate, Carmine waited in the private study. Victor Hale sat beside a laptop, a stack of financial records spread before him.
Ivy placed the photograph on the desk.
“My mother knew your wife. She left me this letter.”
Carmine examined the image.
For a long moment, he looked almost young.
“Elena rarely smiled for photographs,” he murmured. “She used to say cameras stole the truth from people's faces.”
“Do you know what happened between them?”
“No.”
“Then why did you tell me my mother was the last person to see her alive?”
“Because the hospital records show your mother visited Elena the night before the accident.”
Ivy's voice rose.
“Then why did nobody tell me?”
“Because nobody knew you were connected to her.”
Hale cleared his throat.
“There is another issue. We traced the unauthorized transfers to a company controlled by Rocco's cousin. The company received money from an account connected to the hospital where both women were treated.”
“That's not proof of anything,” Ivy said.
“No,” Hale replied. “But it suggests someone paid to alter records.”
Carmine studied the photograph again.
“Did your mother ever mention Elena's death?”
“Never.”
“Did she mention a man named Thomas Vale?”
Ivy frowned.
“No.”
Hale turned his laptop toward them.
A scanned document showed a signature beneath a medical authorization form.
Thomas Vale.
The form had been dated the night Elena died.
Carmine's face hardened.
“Thomas was my driver. He disappeared after the accident.”
“And Rocco was following my mother,” Ivy said. “So either he knew where Thomas was, or he was trying to find out what my mother knew.”
“Possibly.”
Ivy looked at the silver pendant from the music box.
Its back bore a tiny engraved symbol: a crescent moon surrounded by three stars.
Carmine stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
“It was inside the compartment.”
He reached toward it, then stopped himself.
“Elena wore one exactly like it.”
Ivy looked down at the pendant.
“Maybe my mother gave it to her.”
“Maybe.”
“Or maybe you already know why it was in her possession.”
Carmine's gaze lifted.
“Ivy—”
“No. You've spent years collecting information about everyone around you. You know where they live, what they owe, and who they speak to. But when I ask about my mother, you give me fragments.”
He accepted the accusation without defending himself.
“You're right. I don't know enough.”
It was an unsettling thing to hear from a man who seemed accustomed to knowing everything.
He picked up his phone.
“Bring Rocco in.”
Ten minutes later, Rocco appeared between two guards, his hands cuffed in front of him.
He looked tired, but the confidence had returned to his face.
His eyes moved immediately to Ivy.
“So this is what you want now?” he asked. “Family secrets?”
Carmine placed the pendant on the desk.
“Tell me what you know about Elena Bellandi.”
Rocco's smile disappeared.
“I don't know anything.”
Carmine slid the photograph across the desk.
“Your company received three payments connected to the hospital where she died.”
Rocco stared at the photograph.
Then he looked at Hale.
Something like recognition flashed across his face.
“Ask your accountant where the money really came from.”
Hale's expression remained composed.
Carmine turned slowly toward him.
“What does he mean?”
Rocco leaned back in his chair.
“You think I'm the one who has been stealing from you? I've been following orders for years. You just never asked who was giving them.”
Carmine stepped toward him.
“Whose orders?”
Rocco's gaze returned to Ivy.
“Her father's.”
The room went silent.
Ivy felt the floor disappear beneath her.
Carmine's voice became dangerously quiet.
“Explain.”
Rocco smiled without humor.
“Ask Victor Hale who signed the original payment authorization.”
Every eye in the room turned toward the accountant.
Hale slowly closed his laptop.
Then he reached into his jacket and placed a second photograph on the desk.
It showed a younger Carmine standing outside a hospital room.
Beside him was a woman holding a newborn baby.
May you like
On the back, someone had written a date.
The date of Ivy's birth.
