Chapter 7 - THE BETRAYAL INSIDE THE FAMILY
The letter was six pages long.
Alessandro read it once in silence, then handed it to Giovanni. The old man's hands shook as he turned each page.
Meline sat across from them, feeling as though she were watching strangers dismantle her life.
Samuel Pierce had been a maintenance supervisor at the clinic where Isabella gave birth. He had been asked to repair a faulty security system the night the baby was born.
Instead, he discovered a nurse crying in a supply room.
The nurse was Laura Pierce.
She had been told to carry a living newborn to the hospital's basement, where a doctor would record the child's death. The child was Isabella's daughter, and someone had paid the clinic to make sure the baby never reached the Moretti family.
Laura refused.
She took the baby through a service exit and called Samuel.
He drove them to a rural house owned by a retired nurse. For several weeks, they hid there while Samuel searched for a safe way to return the child to Isabella.
But before he could act, Isabella died.
The official investigation into her death ended quickly. Samuel learned that the clinic's records had been altered and that people connected to the Moretti organization were searching for the baby.
He and Laura made a decision.
They would raise the child under a different identity until they could prove who had ordered the abduction.
Laura became Meline's mother.
Samuel became her grandfather.
The secret was supposed to last a year.
It lasted twenty.
Meline pressed a hand over her mouth.
"Why didn't they tell me?"
Giovanni's eyes shone with tears.
"Your grandfather believed the person responsible was still powerful enough to hurt you."
"Who?"
The letter named three people.
One was the clinic director, who had died years earlier.
Another was a doctor who had fled the country and was believed to be dead.
The third was Vivienne Moretti.
Alessandro rose so quickly that his chair struck the wall.
"My aunt?"
Giovanni read the final page again.
"She handled the clinic's legal accounts. She had access to the family trust. And she was the only person who knew Isabella intended to leave Chicago."
"She told me the baby died," Giovanni whispered. "She sat beside me at the funeral and held my hand."
His voice cracked.
"She looked me in the eye and let me mourn a child who was alive."
Alessandro's expression became frighteningly calm.
"Where is she?"
"Don't," Meline said.
He turned.
"She may have ordered your abduction."
"Then we need evidence. Not revenge."
For a moment, he seemed ready to argue.
Then he looked at her and nodded.
"You're right."
It was the first time anyone had ever thanked Meline for stopping a powerful man from acting on anger.
They spent the next several hours comparing the letter with the clinic records. Alessandro's security chief found evidence of payments to a private company that had been dissolved shortly after Isabella's death.
The company's former accountant was still alive.
His name was Robert Hale.
He agreed to meet them at a hotel outside the city.
But when Alessandro's team arrived, Hale's room was empty. The bed had been stripped, the safe was open, and a single envelope lay on the desk.
Inside was a photograph of Vivienne standing beside a man Meline recognized from the clinic records.
On the back, someone had written:
SHE DIDN'T ACT ALONE.
That evening, Vivienne returned to the estate.
She entered the library and found Meline waiting beside the fireplace.
"Where is Alessandro?" she asked.
"With your father."
"Then I suppose you have something to say to me."
Meline placed the letter on the desk.
Vivienne glanced at it.
For several seconds, her expression remained perfectly composed.
Then she sighed.
"Samuel should have burned that."
Meline felt the room go cold.
"You knew."
"Of course I knew."
"Why?"
Vivienne removed her gloves finger by finger.
"Because Isabella was going to destroy this family."
"She was your niece."
"She was reckless. She wanted to expose the organization, take the baby, and run away with a man who had no understanding of what she was risking."
"Then you could have helped her leave."
"You don't understand how the world works."
"No," Meline replied. "But I understand that you stole a child from her family."
Vivienne's eyes sharpened.
"I saved this family from a scandal that would have ruined everything."
"You let Giovanni believe his granddaughter was dead."
"Your grandfather was weak. He would have sacrificed the empire for a baby."
"He should have."
The words struck harder than Meline expected.
Vivienne stared at her.
Then she smiled.
"You really do look like Isabella."
She moved closer.
"That is why this was always going to end badly for you."
Meline stepped back.
"What do you mean?"
Vivienne reached into her handbag and placed a small photograph on the desk.
It showed Laura Pierce standing outside a hospital entrance, her face bruised, her eyes fixed on someone beyond the camera.
Written beneath the image were three words.
SHE IS ALIVE.
Meline grabbed the photograph.
"Where is my mother?"
Vivienne's smile vanished.
"That," she said, "is the one question you should never have asked."
The library door slammed shut.
May you like
A lock clicked.
And somewhere beyond the walls, a gunshot echoed through the estate.
