Chapter 7 - What Elena Knew Before She Died
Orelio was closed when we returned.
Victor stood outside with his arms crossed.
He looked at Dominic, me, three security men, and a computer specialist.
“I don't want to know.”
“Good,” Dominic said.
Victor pointed at me.
“You're scheduled tomorrow.”
“I may have discovered an international family conspiracy.”
“Eleven o'clock.”
I almost smiled.
We entered.
Elena's portrait hung behind the bar.
I stared at it differently now.
Not as a stranger.
Not even as a sister.
As a message.
“Who donated the photograph?” I asked.
Victor thought.
“It was here before I started.”
“The original owner?”
“Probably.”
Dominic called the owner.
Twenty minutes later we learned the portrait had arrived anonymously twelve years earlier.
Before Elena met Dominic.
That mattered.
Gabriel's evidence might have been hidden inside it.
We removed the frame carefully.
Nothing.
Then Leo arrived.
Dominic's sister Sofia brought him.
Sofia was elegant, sharp-eyed, and visibly suspicious of me until she saw my face.
She stopped mid-step.
“Oh my God.”
“Hello.”
“You really do look like her.”
“So I'm told.”
Leo saw me.
He reached immediately.
Sofia stared.
“He hasn't done that with anyone.”
Dominic rubbed his forehead.
“Yes. We're aware.”
I took Leo.
He smiled.
It was the first time I had seen him smile.
My heart melted.
Sofia looked at Dominic.
“You're in trouble.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don't know yet.”
While the others examined the portrait, Leo played with my locket.
He kept tugging it.
Then pointing toward the frame.
“Ba.”
“What?”
“Ba.”
He pointed again.
Sofia frowned.
“He says that when he wants something.”
I walked closer.
Leo reached toward the bottom corner.
His fingers tapped the carved wood.
Once.
Twice.
Then he laughed.
Dominic stared.
“Elena used to stand there with him.”
Sofia looked at him.
“What?”
“She would hold him near the portrait.”
We examined the corner.
Inside the ornate carving was a tiny metal slot.
My locket fit.
I turned it.
A hidden compartment opened.
No one spoke.
Inside was a flash drive.
And a folded note.
Dominic opened it.
For my sister. She will know what to do when she knows who she is.
I started crying before I could stop myself.
Elena had left it for me.
Not Dominic.
Me.
The drive contained Gabriel's records.
Enough evidence to reveal decades of fraud and corruption tied to Marco.
But there was something else.
A voice recording from Gabriel.
“My daughters are Elena and Elina.”
My knees weakened.
“I don't know which life they'll be allowed to have. But if either of you hears this someday, know that leaving wasn't my choice.”
He explained he planned to expose Marco.
He intended to take Marisol and the twins away.
He never got the chance.
The final recording ended with words addressed to us.
“You girls deserve a life that isn't built around the mistakes of men like us.”
Dominic stared at the screen.
“So that's why Marco wants this.”
“Yes.”
Rafael looked at the records.
“This could destroy him.”
“Then we give it to federal investigators,” I said.
Dominic looked at me.
Rafael looked at Dominic.
Sofia looked between us.
“What?”
I frowned.
“Isn't that what normal people do with evidence?”
Sofia smiled faintly.
“We don't always have normal people in this family.”
Dominic ignored her.
“Elina is right.”
Everyone looked surprised.
Including me.
“You expected me to start a war?”
“I wasn't going to say war.”
“You were thinking it.”
“Yes.”
Dominic stared at Gabriel's files.
“Elena didn't want that.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“She wanted the truth.”
That night, the evidence was copied and secured in multiple locations.
An attorney contacted federal authorities.
For the first time, I thought perhaps the nightmare was ending.
I was wrong.
At 1:17 a.m., my phone rang.
This time the number wasn't blocked.
Victor.
“Elina?”
His voice shook.
“What happened?”
“The restaurant.”
I sat upright.
“What?”
“Someone broke in.”
My heart stopped.
“The portrait is gone.”
I looked across the Moretti library at Dominic.
Victor continued.
“And there's a message painted across the wall.”
“What message?”
He hesitated.
Then read it.
ONE SISTER WAS ENOUGH.
Dominic saw my face.
He took the phone.
“Victor, leave the building.”
He disconnected.
I stood.
“This is Marco.”
“Yes.”
“He knows we found it.”
“Yes.”
“What happens now?”
Dominic looked toward Leo sleeping in Sofia's arms.
Then toward me.
His expression became colder than I had ever seen.
“Now we make sure he never gets close to this family again.”
But before Dominic could act, another message arrived.
Not on his phone.
On mine.
A photograph.
My mother.
Alive.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Standing beside a newspaper dated three days earlier.
Underneath were four words.
May you like
MARISOL NEVER DIED.
---
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