Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN WHOSE NAME WAS ERASED
Vanessa refused to return to the mansion.
She asked Dominic to take her to a small apartment her father had maintained near the lake. The place had been empty for years, but the locks were new, and the security cameras were still functioning.
Inside, she opened a safe hidden behind a bookshelf.
"My father left this for me," she said. "He told me never to open it unless someone mentioned Catherine's first marriage."
Dominic stood beside her.
"What's inside?"
"Everything he was too afraid to tell me."
The safe contained passports, bank records, a stack of photographs, and a sealed envelope addressed to Vanessa in her father's handwriting.
She opened it with shaking fingers.
My daughter, if you are reading this, the Moretti family has finally begun digging into the past. You deserve to know that your mother was not Margaret Sterling.
Vanessa stopped reading.
Dominic took a step closer.
"Keep going."
Your mother was Catherine Moretti. She gave birth to you before marrying Vincent. Your biological father was Richard Sterling, the man I raised you to believe was your uncle.
Vanessa dropped the letter.
For several seconds, she couldn't speak.
Dominic stared at her.
"You're Catherine's daughter?"
She shook her head violently.
"No. No, that's impossible."
He picked up the letter.
It described a secret marriage between Catherine and Richard, arranged before Catherine's family forced her to marry Vincent. When Catherine became pregnant, Richard agreed to let another couple raise the baby temporarily while he worked to find a way to escape the Moretti family's control.
But Vincent discovered the arrangement.
He threatened Richard, and Catherine was forced to marry him to prevent a war between the families.
Vanessa had been raised by Richard's wife, Margaret, who had agreed to protect her identity.
"That's why the locket belonged to Catherine," Vanessa whispered. "My father said it was a family heirloom."
Dominic looked at the photographs.
One showed Catherine holding a baby girl.
Another showed Richard beside a younger version of Vincent.
A third had been torn in half.
Dominic placed the two halves together.
The photograph showed Catherine standing beside Edward, with a handwritten date on the back.
September 18, 1986.
Beneath it were the words:
THE NIGHT WE SAVED BOTH GIRLS.
Dominic read the sentence twice.
"Both girls?"
Vanessa opened another envelope.
Inside was a typed report from a private investigator hired by Richard Sterling in 1991. It stated that two female infants had been removed from the Moretti estate on the night of Catherine's wedding.
One was Edward's daughter, Elena.
The other was Catherine's daughter, Vanessa.
Both children had been assigned false identities.
Both had been placed with families outside the Moretti circle.
But the report contained a handwritten note.
ONE CHILD WAS NEVER DELIVERED TO HER ADOPTIVE FAMILY.
Dominic looked up.
"What does that mean?"
Vanessa shook her head.
"I don't know."
He examined the report's final page.
A name appeared beside the missing child's file.
DR. SAMUEL WHITAKER.
The same doctor who had altered the hospital records.
Dominic called Marco.
"Find every surviving record connected to Whitaker. I want his financial accounts, medical files, and anyone he worked with after 1986."
Marco's reply came quickly.
"Already working on it. There's something else, boss. We found a transfer from an account belonging to your grandfather. It went to a private clinic in Wisconsin three days after the wedding."
"What clinic?"
"Whitaker Medical Center. It closed in 1994."
Dominic looked at Vanessa.
"Your father may have known where the missing child went."
She covered her mouth.
"If Catherine was my mother, why did she never come for me?"
"Maybe she thought you were safe."
"Or maybe she never wanted me."
Dominic recognized the pain in her voice. He had spent years believing his mother loved him more than anything. Now he was discovering that she had carried an entire secret family through her life.
He couldn't imagine the loneliness of growing up without knowing who you were.
Vanessa found another letter in the safe.
This one was addressed to Catherine.
The second child is alive. Whitaker says she will never remember the Moretti name. If Vincent discovers what we have done, he will destroy us all. I am taking the girl somewhere no one will look.
The letter was signed by Richard Sterling.
But the date was from 1998.
Twelve years after the wedding.
Dominic frowned.
"Why would Richard still be moving a child twelve years later?"
Vanessa read the next line.
Her face went white.
The child is old enough to understand the truth. She has begun asking why she has no birth certificate.
Dominic felt a terrible possibility form.
"What if the missing child wasn't a newborn anymore?"
Vanessa looked at him.
"What if someone took her years later?"
Before either could speak, Marco called again.
"We found Whitaker's former assistant. She says he kept a private ledger at a clinic in Wisconsin."
"Get it."
"There's a complication."
"What?"
"The clinic was purchased six months ago by a company owned by a man named Daniel Cross."
Dominic's blood ran cold.
Daniel Cross was a wealthy businessman with no known connection to the Moretti family.
But he had recently announced plans to acquire several properties belonging to the Moretti organization.
And three weeks earlier, he had attended a charity gala where Dominic had introduced Lily to his business associates.
Daniel had spent the entire evening watching her.
Dominic remembered the man's strange question.
Have you ever wondered why some families go to such lengths to hide their daughters?
At the time, Dominic had thought it was an empty remark.
Now he understood that it might have been a warning.
His phone vibrated.
A photograph appeared.
Lily stood beside a hospital bed, holding her stomach.
Behind her was Daniel Cross.
The message beneath the picture read:
THE FIRSTBORN'S DAUGHTER IS SAFE. FOR NOW. COME ALONE IF YOU WANT HER BACK.
Dominic grabbed his coat.
Vanessa caught his arm.
"Don't go alone."
He looked at her.
"Someone has Lily."
"And someone wants you to believe Daniel is the enemy."
Dominic hesitated.
Vanessa lifted the old locket from her neck.
Inside was a tiny photograph of Catherine holding two newborn babies.
Not one.
Two.
She turned the locket over.
A message had been engraved on the back.
May you like
TO MY DAUGHTERS: FIND EACH OTHER BEFORE HE DOES.
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