Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS BURIED TWICE
Dominic spent the night reading every document he could find about Catherine Moretti's death.
The official report described a collision on a rural road outside Chicago. Her car had struck a concrete barrier during heavy rain. She was transported to St. Catherine's Hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
But the handwritten note on the certificate contradicted the timeline.
If Catherine had been alive when removed from the vehicle, someone had treated her after the crash. Someone had also decided that the public record should show she died almost immediately.
Dominic called the hospital's former administrator.
The man refused to speak.
He called the detective who had investigated the accident.
The detective claimed not to remember the case.
He called the funeral home.
Its records had been destroyed in a fire twelve years earlier.
Every path led to a locked door.
By sunrise, Dominic understood that someone had spent two decades making his mother's death impossible to investigate.
He returned to Antonio's room.
His father was awake, staring at the photograph of Catherine.
“Dad, I need you to tell me something.”
Antonio looked up.
“Did you ever see your wife's body after the accident?”
Antonio's face tightened.
“Yes.”
“Are you certain?”
“I attended the funeral.”
“That's not what I asked.”
The old man closed his eyes.
“No.”
Dominic felt the floor shift beneath him.
“You never saw her body?”
“The casket was closed. Victor said the injuries were too severe.”
“And you believed him?”
Antonio's voice broke.
“I wanted to believe she was gone. I couldn't bear the thought of her suffering.”
Dominic stepped away.
His father had spent twenty years mourning a woman whose death he had never verified.
And Dominic had done the same.
“Why didn't you investigate?”
“Because Victor told me she had been taken to the hospital too late. He said there was nothing anyone could have done.”
“Did Rose believe him?”
“No.”
“What did she say?”
Antonio looked toward the window.
“She said Catherine had been alive when the ambulance arrived. She said someone had removed her from the hospital before the police could interview her.”
Dominic gripped the bedrail.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Victor threatened to have you killed.”
“You keep saying that as though it excuses everything.”
Antonio's eyes filled.
“It doesn't.”
For the first time, he did not try to defend himself.
“I was afraid, Dominic. I had lost the use of my legs, I had lost my wife, and I believed my brother controlled every person who could help me. I convinced myself that silence was the only way to keep you alive.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Did you love her?”
Antonio's face crumpled.
“More than my own life.”
“Then why did you let her disappear?”
Antonio began to cry.
“Because I thought I was already too late.”
Dominic left the room before he could say something unforgivable.
***
Rachel was waiting outside the library.
She had found another box among Rose's belongings, one that the nursing home had mistakenly labeled as old clothing. Inside were several letters tied with blue ribbon.
Dominic opened the first.
Rose,
If you receive this, then Victor has discovered what happened at the hospital. I am afraid he will use Antonio's condition to force you into silence.
Do not tell Dominic the truth until he is old enough to understand what his family has become.
I know you believe I should leave immediately. I cannot abandon Antonio while he is helpless.
Please forgive me.
The letter was signed Catherine.
Dominic read the next one.
Rose,
I have been moved to another facility. They say it is for my protection, but I am not allowed to make telephone calls. A doctor visits me twice a week, and I have been told that my son believes I am dead.
If you can reach him, tell him I never stopped loving him.
Dominic's hands shook.
The letter was dated six months after Catherine's supposed death.
His mother had been alive.
For at least six months.
He sat down heavily.
Rachel placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I'm sorry.”
He looked at her.
“Where was she?”
“I don't know.”
He turned the letter over.
There was an address written at the bottom, partially obscured by water damage.
A private care facility in northern Wisconsin.
Dominic called Eleanor.
She searched the address and discovered that the facility had closed in 2009. Its records had been transferred to a medical archive in Madison.
Within an hour, Eleanor had located a patient file.
Catherine Moretti had been admitted under the name Catherine Ellis.
She had remained there for fourteen months.
Then the records stopped.
No discharge date.
No death certificate.
No forwarding address.
Dominic stared at the screen.
“She's alive.”
Eleanor sounded cautious.
“We don't know that.”
“She survived the crash. She was moved. Someone kept her hidden.”
“Dominic, the records are twenty years old.”
“Then we find the people who signed them.”
Eleanor hesitated.
“One of the physicians is still alive.”
“Name?”
“Dr. Samuel Reed.”
Dominic went cold.
“Reed is dead.”
“Apparently not. The man killed in Milwaukee was identified through dental records, but the family has requested an independent review. There's a possibility the identification was wrong.”
Dominic stared at the photograph of the doctor.
The scar across his neck.
The black SUV.
The receipt from the laboratory.
Someone had wanted them to believe Samuel Reed was dead.
Someone had also wanted to erase the trail to Catherine.
“Find him,” Dominic said.
“I'll try.”
***
That evening, Vanessa came to Dominic with a small package.
“I found this in Victor's office,” she said.
Dominic opened it.
Inside was a hospital bracelet, yellowed with age.
The printed name was Catherine Ellis.
Beneath it was a date and a patient number.
Vanessa watched him.
“Victor told me your mother died twenty years ago. But three months ago, I saw him looking at this bracelet. He was crying.”
Dominic looked up.
“Victor cried?”
“I had never seen him do that before.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't know what it meant.”
Dominic examined the bracelet.
A second name had been written inside the band in blue ink.
ROSE.
He stared at Vanessa.
“Why would Rose's name be on my mother's hospital bracelet?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Dominic turned toward the window.
The pattern was becoming clearer.
Rose had protected Antonio. She had preserved Catherine's letters. She had been accused of poisoning the man she loved, then disappeared while the family believed she had stolen from them.
Catherine had survived the crash, but someone had concealed her identity.
And Victor had kept a hospital bracelet bearing both women's names.
Dominic called Margaret Ellis's former neighbors.
One of them remembered a woman who had lived nearby under a different name.
“She had a limp,” the neighbor said. “Silver hair. She used to sit on the porch every afternoon. A man came to visit her once a month.”
“What did he look like?”
“Tall. Dark hair. Expensive suits.”
“Did you recognize him?”
“No. But she called him Antonio.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
His father had known where Catherine was.
Or at least, he had visited someone he believed was Catherine.
He returned to Antonio's room.
The old man was asleep.
Dominic stood beside the wheelchair for a long time, wondering whether the man who had raised him had spent twenty years protecting his wife or hiding the truth from his son.
Then Antonio stirred.
“Dominic?”
“I'm here.”
His father looked up at him.
“Did you find Catherine?”
Dominic froze.
“What did you say?”
Antonio's eyes filled.
“Your mother.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“Dad, do you know where she is?”
Antonio's trembling fingers reached for his hand.
“I saw her last year.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
“Where?”
Antonio whispered an address in northern Wisconsin.
Then he closed his eyes.
May you like
“Please don't let Victor find her first.”
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