Chapter 5 - The Woman Samuel Framed
The fire destroyed the west wing.
By sunset, every television station in the state was carrying footage of Blackwood Estate burning against a gray winter sky.
Then my face appeared on the news.
I stood in Sophie’s hospital room staring at myself on the screen.
The video showed me dragging Leo across the Blackwood lawn during the storm.
The headline underneath read:
MORETTI HEIR ABDUCTED BY ESTATE EMPLOYEE?
“What?”
Leo entered behind me.
His expression hardened.
The reporter continued.
“Sources close to the investigation claim twenty-nine-year-old Leora Hayes may have removed an injured Leo Moretti from the estate before authorities arrived.”
I turned toward him.
“Tell me this isn’t happening.”
“It’s Samuel.”
The television displayed another clip.
Me entering the groundskeeper’s cabin.
Then a photograph of my father.
FORMER MORETTI EMPLOYEE DANIEL HAYES FIRED FOR THEFT.
My stomach dropped.
“No.”
Leo grabbed his phone.
Sophie said, “Leora?”
I could barely hear her.
The report alleged that my father had stolen family security documents and that I might have returned years later seeking revenge.
A statement had been released anonymously claiming I had manipulated Leo after he was wounded.
I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because if I didn’t laugh, I would scream.
“They’re making me the criminal.”
Leo’s eyes were black with fury.
“I’ll stop it.”
“How?”
“I’ll give a statement.”
“And then your family says you’re confused because you’ve been shot.”
He stopped.
I pointed toward the television.
“This is how people like Samuel win. They tell the story first.”
Rachel entered.
“We have another problem.”
“Wonderful.”
“A warrant request has been filed for Leora.”
Leo stared at her.
“On what charge?”
“Obstruction, evidence tampering, possible kidnapping.”
Sophie started crying.
I sat beside her.
“It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“I’m not going to prison.”
Rachel didn’t answer quickly enough.
I looked at her.
“Am I?”
“We’ll fight it.”
Leo said, “No.”
Rachel turned.
“No what?”
“She isn’t fighting anything alone.”
“Leo—”
“I’m going on camera.”
Rachel frowned.
“That may complicate the federal case.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
He moved closer.
“Samuel kidnapped a sick nineteen-year-old woman, murdered my mother, shot me, took over my family home, and now he is framing the person who saved my life.”
His voice never rose.
That made it stronger.
“If your case depends on me letting him destroy Leora in public, you don’t have a case.”
Rachel stared at him for several seconds.
Then nodded.
“One statement.”
Thirty minutes later, Leo Moretti stood in front of twenty cameras outside St. Anne’s Hospital.
I watched from the window.
“My name is Leonardo Moretti. Leora Hayes did not abduct me. She did not assault me. She did not steal from my family.”
Reporters shouted questions.
Leo continued.
“Last night, Ms. Hayes found me wounded inside Blackwood Estate. Instead of leaving me to die, she carried me through a winter storm while armed men searched for us.”
The noise stopped.
“She saved my life.”
I covered my mouth.
“She also helped expose evidence involving corruption inside my family’s security operation.”
Rachel looked uncomfortable.
Leo ignored her.
“Any accusation against Leora Hayes claiming otherwise is false.”
A reporter yelled, “Mr. Moretti, are you saying your own employees are involved?”
Leo looked directly into the camera.
“I’m saying the people who hurt my mother sixteen years ago are afraid of Daniel Hayes’s daughter.”
My eyes filled.
Then he said the words no Moretti had ever said publicly.
“Daniel Hayes was innocent.”
I cried.
Sophie squeezed my hand.
The warrant request disappeared within hours.
Public opinion changed even faster.
But Samuel wasn’t finished.
At nine that night, Marco entered Sophie’s room carrying a package.
“No return address.”
Leo opened it.
Inside was a hospital bracelet.
Julia Moretti.
His mother.
And a note.
ASK VITTORIO WHO SIGNED HER DISCHARGE.
Leo went pale.
His father had been recovering two floors below.
We found Vittorio sitting by the window.
He looked twenty years older.
Leo dropped the bracelet onto his lap.
“Who signed Mom out of the hospital?”
Vittorio’s eyes closed.
“She was hospitalized?”
“Three days before she died.”
I looked at Leo.
He had never known.
Vittorio spoke slowly.
“Your mother became convinced Samuel was following her.”
“She was right.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“You keep saying you didn’t know.”
“I thought she was having a breakdown.”
Leo’s face changed.
“Who told you that?”
Vittorio didn’t answer.
“Dad.”
“Raymond.”
Julia’s brother.
Leo stared.
“Uncle Raymond convinced you your own wife was unstable?”
“He brought a psychiatrist.”
“Who?”
Vittorio whispered a name.
“Dr. Simon Reed.”
My skin went cold.
“Reed?”
Marco swore.
Leo asked, “Samuel’s father?”
Vittorio nodded.
The room became silent.
Sixteen years earlier, Samuel and his father had convinced Vittorio that Julia Moretti was mentally unstable.
They got her admitted.
Then Raymond Vale signed her discharge papers.
Three days later she was dead.
Leo paced to the wall.
“This wasn’t one betrayal.”
Rachel had followed us into the room.
“No.”
She looked at the evidence folder.
“It was a conspiracy.”
I thought of my father.
Julia.
Leo.
Sophie.
All of us living years later inside the consequences of choices made by men who believed nobody beneath them mattered.
Then Vittorio looked at me.
“Your father tried to warn me.”
I stiffened.
“He came to my office the night before Julia died.”
“What did he say?”
“That Samuel had altered the security records.”
“And you fired him.”
Vittorio’s eyes filled with shame.
“Yes.”
I wanted to hate him.
Part of me did.
“He died believing everyone thought he was a thief.”
Vittorio lowered his head.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
My voice shook.
“You got to stay rich. Powerful. Respected. My father stocked shelves at night because nobody in estate security would hire him after you destroyed his name.”
Leo looked at his father.
Vittorio whispered, “I will make it right.”
“You can’t.”
I stood.
“He’s dead.”
I walked out before anyone could answer.
Leo found me in the stairwell.
I was sitting three steps down, crying into my hands.
He lowered himself beside me despite his wound.
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t do it.”
“My name did.”
“That isn’t the same.”
“Sometimes it feels like it is.”
I looked at him.
For the first time, neither of us had anything clever to say.
Leo reached for my hand.
I let him hold it.
“You saved me,” he said.
“You keep saying that.”
“Because you don’t understand what I mean.”
“What do you mean?”
His thumb moved across my knuckles.
“You didn’t just drag me out of Blackwood.”
His voice softened.
“You made me want to become someone worth saving.”
My heart stumbled.
Before I could answer, every alarm on the hospital floor went off.
Marco burst through the stairwell door.
“Leo.”
“What?”
“Sophie’s room.”
I stood so fast I nearly fell.
May you like
“What about Sophie?”
“She’s gone.”
