Chapter 7 - The Mother Who Never Died
I didn't sleep that night.
The photograph lay on the table beside my bed.
A woman I had never met was apparently my mother.
A woman whose family had spent years threatening us.
A woman who might still be alive.
At seven in the morning, Alessandro knocked on my door.
“Come downstairs.”
I followed him into his office.
Luca was waiting with a laptop.
“We found something,” Alessandro said.
A security recording from a private clinic showed an elderly woman entering a building in Milwaukee three days earlier.
Her face was partially hidden by a scarf.
But around her neck was a silver necklace.
The same sapphire pendant.
“Isabella?” I whispered.
Alessandro nodded.
“Someone has been using her identity.”
“Then she's alive?”
“We don't know.”
He enlarged the image.
A second person appeared behind the woman.
A man with a distinctive limp.
Luca went pale.
“That's impossible.”
Alessandro turned.
“What?”
“That's your uncle.”
I looked between them.
“Your uncle is dead.”
“He was declared dead,” Luca corrected.
Alessandro's jaw tightened.
“Marco.”
The name from the letter.
M.B.
We drove to Milwaukee that afternoon.
The clinic was a small private facility outside the city. Alessandro's contacts had arranged access to its security records.
The receptionist looked terrified when she saw him.
“Mr. Moretti, I don't know anything.”
“I haven't asked you anything yet.”
She swallowed.
A doctor eventually agreed to speak with us.
He confirmed that an elderly woman had been receiving treatment under a false name.
Her real name was Isabella DeLuca.
But she had left the clinic the previous night.
Before leaving, she'd asked the doctor to deliver a message.
He handed Alessandro an envelope.
Inside was a photograph of a lakeside house.
And a handwritten note.
Nerissa, if you want the truth, come alone. Your mother has waited long enough.
I looked at Alessandro.
“I'm going.”
“No.”
“She may be my mother.”
“She may be the person who arranged the attack at the hospital.”
“I need answers.”
“And I need you alive.”
We stared at each other.
Finally, he exhaled.
“You won't go alone.”
The lakeside house stood near Lake Michigan, surrounded by bare trees and snow.
Luca and two guards remained outside while Alessandro and I entered.
The front door was unlocked.
A fire burned in the living room.
An old woman sat beside it.
Her hair was silver, but her eyes were unmistakable.
The same dark eyes as mine.
She looked at me and began to cry.
“Nerissa.”
I couldn't move.
She stood slowly.
“I've waited eighteen years to see you.”
I looked at the sapphire necklace around her throat.
“Are you Isabella?”
She nodded.
“I'm your mother.”
I shook my head.
“My mother was Elena.”
“Your mother loved you more than anyone in this world.”
“Then why did she hide me?”
Isabella wiped her eyes.
“Because I was afraid of what my husband would do.”
“Vittorio?”
She nodded.
“He believed you were his daughter. But he also believed your birth could destroy the family.”
I stepped closer.
“Why?”
Isabella looked toward Alessandro.
“Because Nerissa wasn't the only child born that night.”
Alessandro went still.
“Explain.”
Isabella opened a small wooden box.
Inside were two hospital bracelets.
One read NERISSA.
The other read VIVIENNE.
I stared at them.
“Vivienne?”
Isabella nodded.
“She was born minutes before you. But the truth is that she wasn't my biological daughter.”
Silence filled the room.
“What?”
“Your father was Vittorio. Your mother was me. But Vivienne was the child Elena carried.”
I felt dizzy.
“Then why did she say I was her sister?”
“Because she believed you stole her life.”
Isabella looked at Alessandro.
“And your uncle Marco made sure she believed it.”
A floorboard creaked behind us.
I turned.
A man stood in the doorway.
He was older, with gray hair and a pronounced limp.
Alessandro reached for his weapon.
“Uncle Marco.”
The man smiled.
“Hello, Alessandro.”
Then he raised a gun.
“Step away from the woman.”
Alessandro moved in front of me.
Marco's eyes shifted to my face.
“You look just like your mother.”
I whispered, “What did you do to her?”
His smile vanished.
“Nothing she didn't deserve.”
He pointed his gun at Alessandro.
May you like
“Now, nephew, let's finish the family business.”
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