Chapter 5 - NORA HAYES WAS NEVER JUST A MAID|
Nora refused to believe the connection.
Her mother had raised her in a small apartment in Queens. She had worked as a seamstress, cleaned offices at night, and never mentioned the Russo family except once, when she told Nora to stay away from men who wore expensive watches.
Vincent ordered a discreet investigation.
Nora was furious.
“You don't get to investigate my life because you recognize a photograph.”
“I need to know whether you're in danger.”
“I'm already in danger. I work in your house.”
“That's not what I meant.”
She folded her arms.
“My mother is dead. Whatever happened before I was born doesn't change that.”
Vincent lowered his voice.
“I understand.”
“No, you don't. You can order people to find answers. I have to live with them.”
He had no response.
That evening, Nora called her aunt, Grace, who lived in Pennsylvania. Grace had been her mother's older sister and the only relative who had stayed in touch after Lydia died.
Nora asked about the photograph.
At first, Grace denied knowing anything.
Then Nora mentioned the name Isabella.
Her aunt went silent.
“Where did you hear that name?”
“From a photograph.”
Grace began crying.
“Your mother was not supposed to tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
“You were born Isabella Moretti.”
Nora sat down.
“What?”
“Lydia was Lena Moretti. She changed her name after she left New York.”
“Why?”
“Because your father was connected to the Russo family. He was Dominic Russo.”
Nora stared at the wall.
Dominic Russo.
The missing uncle.
The man Vincent believed had died twenty years earlier.
“Are you telling me that man was my father?”
Grace said nothing.
“Why didn't Mom tell me?”
“She was afraid. Dominic had enemies. Your grandfather wanted the baby raised by the family, but your mother refused. She believed the Russos would turn you into another weapon.”
Nora ended the call with shaking hands.
Vincent found her in the east wing.
She told him everything.
He listened without interrupting.
Then he said, “If Dominic was your father, that makes you my cousin.”
Nora laughed bitterly.
“I came here to clean floors. I didn't apply to inherit a crime family.”
“You won't be forced into anything.”
“Good.”
Vincent looked at the photograph.
“There's still the question of why someone stole the sapphire.”
Nora remembered her mother's old jewelry box.
After Lydia died, Nora had kept a small brass key on a chain around her neck. Her mother had told her never to throw it away.
She reached beneath her sweater and pulled it out.
Vincent stared.
“Where did you get that?”
“My mother gave it to me.”
He turned the key over.
A tiny engraving appeared on its surface.
The Russo family crest.
Paulie examined it and recognized the design.
“It opens the old family vault,” he said.
Vincent looked at Nora.
“Your mother didn't just hide your identity.”
May you like
He paused.
“She left you something.”
