Chapter 7 - THE MOTHER'S LAST CONFESSION|
Dominic had buried his mother when he was twenty-three.
At least, that was what his father had told him.
Isabella Moretti had supposedly died overseas after a long illness. Dominic had received a brief telephone call, a sealed death certificate, and instructions not to travel because the authorities had already completed the arrangements.
He had been devastated.
Vincent had been equally devastated, or so it appeared.
Now Dominic stared at the photograph of Isabella standing beside Elena.
The picture was dated two days after the official date of his mother's death.
He looked at Margaret.
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe my mother died, was buried, and somehow appeared in a photograph taken years later?”
Margaret shook her head desperately.
“Your father said she had been dead for years. But I saw her with my own eyes. She was in the west wing the night Mrs. Moretti disappeared.”
Dominic turned toward Marcus.
“Find every record associated with Isabella Moretti. Medical, financial, travel, anything.”
Marcus left immediately.
Dominic returned to Noah's room.
He didn't want his son waking up to another empty house, another unexplained absence, or another adult whispering behind closed doors.
Noah was sitting beside Lily, coloring a dinosaur green.
“Daddy?”
Dominic knelt beside him.
“Hey, buddy.”
“Did you find the bad person?”
“Not yet.”
“Are you going to leave?”
Dominic looked at the drawing.
“No. I'm going to stay here tonight.”
Noah handed him the green dinosaur.
“This one's a protector.”
Dominic accepted it.
“Then I guess I need him.”
The boy smiled faintly.
Lily watched them quietly.
When Noah went to wash his hands, Dominic turned toward her.
“You knew my mother was in that photograph.”
“I recognized her,” Lily said. “I didn't know she was supposed to be dead.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I wasn't sure what I'd seen. And because every time someone in this house tried to speak about the past, they became afraid.”
Dominic nodded.
He couldn't blame her for being cautious when he had spent years making silence seem safer than honesty.
That evening, Marcus returned with a preliminary report.
Isabella's death certificate had been issued in a small town in Switzerland. No autopsy had been recorded. The cremation authorization bore a signature that did not match the one on her passport.
The cremation itself had never been independently verified.
But the financial records revealed something more recent.
For three years, a private account had been paying for an apartment in Montreal under the name Isabelle Martin.
The account was linked to the same shell company that had paid Adrian.
Dominic stared at the address.
“Book a flight.”
Marcus shook his head.
“Sir, we don't know if she's there. This could be bait.”
“Then we verify it before we go.”
Samuel contacted a local investigator, who confirmed that an older woman matching Isabella's description had been living in the apartment.
She rarely left.
She received groceries through a delivery service.
And every month, a black sedan parked across the street for approximately twenty minutes.
The vehicle was registered to a company owned by Richard Sterling.
Dominic's stomach tightened.
His mother had been alive for three years, hidden in another country, under a false name.
And Richard had been watching her.
Dominic traveled to Montreal with Marcus and a small security team. He left Noah in Lily's care, explaining that he would return before the weekend.
Before he departed, Noah gave him a folded drawing.
It showed a house with three people standing in the windows.
A man.
A woman.
And a little boy.
Above them, Noah had written:
COME HOME.
Dominic put the drawing in his coat pocket.
The apartment building was quiet when they arrived. The investigator had arranged for the landlord to open the unit after confirming the woman's identity.
Dominic entered alone.
An elderly woman sat beside the window, wrapped in a gray cardigan. Her hair had turned silver, and deep lines crossed her face.
But when she looked up, he recognized her.
“Mom?”
Isabella stood.
For a moment, she seemed unable to breathe.
Then she crossed the room and touched his face with trembling fingers.
“Dominic.”
He held her.
He had imagined this moment a thousand times over the years, but never like this.
“Why didn't you come home?”
Isabella closed her eyes.
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of whom?”
She looked toward the window.
“Your father. Richard. And the person who gave them orders.”
“Who?”
Isabella drew back.
“I don't know the whole truth. But I know Elena discovered something that could have destroyed them all.”
“What happened to her?”
“She was taken from the clinic. I helped her escape the house, but she was too weak to travel far. Clara took her to a safe location.”
“Where?”
“An old property near Lake Champlain.”
Dominic felt a flicker of hope.
“Is she alive?”
Isabella's face crumpled.
“I don't know.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Vincent said he would kill you if I did. He said the family would be safer if everyone believed we were dead.”
Dominic stepped away.
“You let me bury you.”
“I know.”
“You let me believe my mother was gone. You let me believe my wife was dead. And you let my son grow up afraid in his own bedroom.”
Tears rolled down Isabella's face.
“I know.”
“Then why?”
“Because I thought I was saving you.”
Dominic laughed bitterly.
“That's what everyone says.”
He turned toward the door.
Isabella caught his arm.
“Wait. There's something else.”
She opened a small drawer and removed a photograph of a newborn baby.
The baby wore a hospital bracelet.
The name on it was not Noah's.
It read ELENA MORETTI — FEMALE INFANT.
Dominic stared.
“Elena had a daughter?”
Isabella nodded.
“She gave birth to a little girl before you met her. She told everyone the baby had died.”
“Why would she hide that from me?”
“Because she believed someone was watching her.”
Dominic looked at the photograph.
“How old would the girl be now?”
“Twenty-six.”
He felt the room tilt.
Lily was twenty-six.
He remembered the way she had recognized his mother. The way Elena's letter had named her. The way Lily had always seemed to know when Noah was afraid before anyone else noticed.
He looked at Isabella.
“What's the girl's name?”
Isabella's voice broke.
“Lily Bennett.”
Dominic couldn't speak.
The maid who had protected his son was the daughter Elena had hidden from the world.
The daughter Dominic had never known existed.
He took a step back.
“Does Lily know?”
“No,” Isabella whispered. “Elena believed the truth would put her in danger.”
Dominic immediately called Marcus.
“We're returning to New York. Now.”
But before he could leave, Isabella grabbed his hand.
“There's one more thing you must understand. Lily wasn't the only child Elena tried to protect.”
Dominic froze.
“What do you mean?”
Isabella opened another drawer and pulled out a second photograph.
It showed Elena standing beside a man in a hospital corridor.
The man wore a surgical gown.
His face was partly turned away.
But Dominic recognized the ring on his hand.
It belonged to Richard Sterling.
Isabella's voice dropped.
“Richard wasn't helping Elena escape.”
May you like
She looked at Dominic with terror in her eyes.
“He was helping her hide the child she had with another man—and that child is the reason your father ordered her disappearance.”
