Chapter 9 - THE DAUGHTER WHO CONTROLLED THE MONEY
The Boston address led to an old private bank that had once handled the Moretti family's legal affairs.
Samuel Whitmore arranged a meeting with the bank's retired records officer, a woman named Margaret Ellis. She agreed to speak only after Dominic promised that no one would threaten her or interfere with her testimony.
They met in a small office above the bank's former records department.
Margaret studied the photograph of Giovanni and the unidentified woman.
“I remember him,” she said. “He came here under a different name after the accident.”
“Which name?” Dominic asked.
“John Mercer.”
Adrian exchanged a glance with his brother.
“Did he open an account?”
“No. He accessed an existing trust. The account was established by your mother and had three beneficiaries.”
Clara leaned forward.
“Three daughters?”
Margaret nodded.
“Each beneficiary had a separate authorization. One controlled the money, one controlled the records, and one held the power to release the evidence.”
Dominic frowned.
“Why divide it that way?”
“Your mother believed that no single person should be able to use the trust to control the others. She wanted the daughters to work together.”
Clara looked at the ledger.
“Then why did Arthur say I had the authority to expose the network?”
“Because you were the records beneficiary. You could identify the transactions and prove how the money moved. But you couldn't release the original evidence without the third authorization.”
“Who controls the money?”
Margaret opened a file.
“Catherine.”
Dominic sat back.
“And the third daughter?”
Margaret hesitated.
“She was listed as missing before the trust was finalized.”
“Her name?”
Margaret turned the page.
“Rebecca Anne Moretti.”
Eleanor began to cry quietly.
Clara looked at her.
“You knew?”
“I suspected there was another child, but I never knew her name. Your mother told me she had lost someone she couldn't protect.”
Margaret slid a document across the table.
It contained a photograph of a little girl standing beside Giovanni Moretti.
The girl was perhaps seven years old. Her dark hair was tied with a white ribbon, and her eyes were unmistakably similar to Clara's.
On the back was a handwritten date.
The day before the boating accident that had supposedly killed Giovanni.
Dominic studied the photograph.
“Where is Rebecca now?”
Margaret closed the file.
“According to the last record, she was placed in the care of a private guardian in Boston. The guardian died twelve years ago.”
“And the girl?”
“Her records were sealed.”
Clara stared at the photograph.
“Someone knew she existed.”
“More than someone,” Margaret said. “The trust has been accessed repeatedly over the last six months. Every withdrawal was authorized by a beneficiary who should have been unable to act without the others.”
Dominic's expression hardened.
“Someone has been forging the signatures.”
“Or someone has been using an identity you believed was gone.”
They left the bank with copies of the records and returned to their hotel.
That evening, Catherine called Clara.
“I found something in my adoptive father's papers,” she said. “A letter from a woman named Rebecca. It was written twelve years ago.”
“What's in it?”
“She said she knew who I was. She said our father had been watching us for years. And she said if I ever wanted to know the truth, I should look beneath the chapel where our mother was buried.”
Clara looked at Dominic.
“The family chapel.”
Dominic nodded.
“It's on the estate grounds.”
They returned to the estate before dawn, accompanied by Adrian and a small team of trusted investigators. Giovanni and Marcus were nowhere to be seen.
Beneath the chapel's stone altar, they found a metal compartment containing a sealed envelope.
Inside lay the original authorization page, a photograph of three newborn girls, and a letter written by their mother.
The letter revealed that Rebecca had been taken by Giovanni after the family accident. Their mother had believed her youngest daughter was dead, but the trust records suggested otherwise.
Clara read the final lines aloud.
IF REBECCA RETURNS, DO NOT ASK HER TO CHOOSE BETWEEN HER SISTERS AND HER FATHER. HE WILL HAVE ALREADY MADE THAT CHOICE FOR HER.
A sound came from the chapel entrance.
A woman stood there in a dark coat.
She looked like Clara.
She looked like Catherine.
And she held a gun.
“Put the letter down,” she said.
Dominic stepped in front of Clara.
“Rebecca?”
The woman smiled faintly.
“You finally learned my name.”
“Your father has been using you.”
“No,” Rebecca replied. “I've been using him.”
She looked at the authorization page.
“Give me the original, and I'll tell you where Arthur Bennett is.”
Dominic's expression changed.
“Arthur is alive?”
Rebecca lowered the weapon slightly.
“He's been alive this entire time.”
Clara stepped forward.
“Where is he?”
Rebecca looked at her with an expression that was almost tender.
“Somewhere your father can never reach him.”
“Then why are you working with Giovanni?”
Rebecca's smile disappeared.
“Because he's the only person who knows what really happened to our mother.”
She pointed the gun at Dominic.
May you like
“And if you want to hear the truth, brother, you'll have to decide whether you're willing to let me kill him.”
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