Chapter 17 - The Truth About Eleanor
Derek survived.
The bullet passed through his shoulder.
For once, he had done something without calculating what it would earn him.
I did not forgive him.
But I acknowledged it.
There was a difference.
Carlo was taken into custody.
The documents he demanded were never valid.
Luca’s attorneys had prepared decoys.
The flash drive was encrypted.
And Brittany’s testimony opened investigations in three countries.
But Carlo’s final words followed me back to New York.
My mother’s accident.
I confronted Alessandra inside Luca’s library.
“Tell me.”
She did not pretend ignorance.
“Eleanor discovered Carlo was searching for you.”
“When?”
“Fourteen years ago.”
My throat tightened.
“She called me the night before she died.”
“You spoke to her?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
Alessandra’s eyes filled with tears.
“She said she was moving you away.”
I remembered packed boxes in our garage.
My mother had told me we might relocate to Vermont.
Then she died.
“Carlo caused the crash?”
“We believed so.”
“Believed?”
“There was never proof.”
I stared.
“You let me think a drunk driver killed her.”
“That was the police conclusion.”
“You knew it might be murder.”
“Yes.”
I walked away.
“Emma.”
“Don’t.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“That sentence has been used to justify every lie anyone ever told me.”
She flinched.
Good.
I wanted her to.
Luca entered but stayed silent.
I turned toward him.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
Alessandra answered before he could.
“I never told him.”
I believed her.
Then Luca’s security chief entered carrying a file.
“We found something in Carlo’s archive.”
He placed a photograph on the table.
A traffic camera image.
My mother’s car.
Behind it was another vehicle.
A black sedan registered to a Moretti holding company.
The driver had been identified.
Not Carlo.
Not Derek.
Not Brittany.
I looked at the name.
Sofia Bellini.
I stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Sofia had cared for my baby.
She had cried when she first saw Grace.
She had raised Luca.
The security chief continued.
“Sofia was following Eleanor the night she died.”
Luca’s face went white.
“Where is Sofia?”
No one answered.
Then a scream came from upstairs.
We ran to Grace’s nursery.
The room was empty.
My daughter was safe with a nurse in another wing.
But Sofia was gone.
On the dresser she had left one envelope.
Luca opened it.
Inside was a confession.
I FOLLOWED ELEANOR.
May you like
I DID NOT KILL HER.
BUT I KNOW WHO DID.
