Chapter 7 - ELENA'S LAST LIE
Vincent looked at his wife as though he were seeing a ghost who had learned how to speak.
"Tell me everything."
Elena lowered herself into a chair. She appeared exhausted, and the hand holding her cane shook uncontrollably.
"That night, I discovered Margaret had been moving money through shell companies connected to our legitimate businesses. She'd been using Anthony to intimidate anyone who threatened to expose her."
"Anthony was involved?"
"At first."
Elena paused.
"Then he found out what she intended to do to you."
Vincent's face hardened.
"And the shooting?"
"Margaret wanted you dead. Anthony was supposed to arrange it. He changed his mind at the last moment, but Margaret's men had already been given their instructions."
Elena closed her eyes.
"I saw the gunman raise his weapon. I pushed you aside."
Vincent looked away.
"I held you while you died."
"I know."
"I buried you."
"I know."
His voice broke.
"Do you understand what those eighteen months did to me?"
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
"Every day."
"Then why?"
"Because I wasn't dead."
The words fell into the room like stones.
Elena explained that the bullet had struck her shoulder and chest. Her pulse had become dangerously faint, and the men who carried her from the scene believed she would not survive.
One of them, a doctor indebted to Anthony, discovered signs of life at the hospital.
By then, Margaret had already arranged to have Elena's medical records altered.
The doctor secretly transferred Elena to another facility.
"Anthony helped me disappear," Elena said. "He believed it was the only way to keep Margaret from finishing what she'd started."
Vincent stared at her.
"Anthony is alive, too."
Elena nodded.
"He was badly injured during the attack. Margaret announced his death to protect herself. She wanted both of us out of the way."
"Why didn't you contact me?"
"I tried."
She reached into her coat and removed a small recorder.
"I sent messages through people I trusted. Every one of them disappeared. The last person who attempted to reach you was Daniel Parker."
My arms tightened around Emma.
Elena looked at me.
"Daniel was a good man. He was investigating Margaret's accounts when he discovered a connection between her companies and my sister."
"Your sister?" I whispered.
"Lily."
Elena's expression softened.
"She was nineteen when Margaret arranged for her to disappear. Lily had discovered that Margaret was secretly controlling the family's inheritance and intended to remove anyone who could challenge her."
I felt suddenly dizzy.
"What does that have to do with Emma?"
Elena looked at my daughter.
"Everything."
She explained that Daniel had fallen in love with me before he understood the full extent of the conspiracy. When he learned I was pregnant, he became terrified that Margaret would discover the connection between our families.
"He left because he thought it would protect you," Elena said. "He intended to return when he had enough evidence to bring Margaret down."
"But he never came back."
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
"His car was found in the Hudson River. No body was recovered."
I remembered the phone call from a stranger three years earlier, telling me Daniel was probably dead. I'd been too exhausted and too frightened to ask more questions.
"Did he know about Emma?"
"Yes."
Elena took a folded letter from her pocket.
"He wrote this before he disappeared."
The letter was addressed to me.
My hands trembled as I opened it.
Claire, if you're reading this, it means I failed to return. I love you. I love our daughter. If anything happens to me, find Elena Moretti. She knows what Margaret did to Lily, and she knows why our child must never be placed under the Moretti family's legal control.
At the bottom was a final line.
The woman you believe is my mother is not my mother.
I looked at Elena.
"What does that mean?"
Before she could answer, Vincent's phone rang.
Marcus's voice came through, urgent and breathless.
"Boss, we found Anthony. He's at the mansion."
"Bring him here."
"I can't."
"Why?"
A pause.
Then Marcus whispered, "Because he's standing beside Margaret, and she's holding a gun."
The call ended.
Elena rose unsteadily.
"She knows we've found Emma."
Vincent took his wife's hand.
For the first time in eighteen months, he held her without a coffin between them.
But their reunion lasted only seconds.
A gunshot echoed through the mausoleum above us.
Then another.
Elena grabbed Vincent's arm.
"There's something else you need to know."
He turned toward her.
May you like
She looked at Emma.
"Your daughter isn't the only child Margaret has been hiding."
