Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN IN THE BLACK VEIL|
The next morning, a package arrived at Elena's apartment.
It contained no return address, only her name written in careful black ink.
Inside was a photograph of her father standing outside the clinic with a woman Elena had never seen before. The woman wore a dark coat and a black veil, her face turned slightly away from the camera.
On the back, someone had written:
Your father knew why Matthew disappeared. Ask what he promised the Morettis.
Elena read the message three times.
Her father had never spoken about the Moretti family. He had never mentioned a promise, a debt, or a dangerous patient beyond the warnings he gave during Matthew's recovery.
But her father's old office had been left untouched since his death.
If there were answers, they might still be there.
She drove to Hudson Valley after her shift, arriving at the abandoned clinic shortly before sunset. The building had been sold to a local charity, but the renovations had never been completed. The windows were covered with plywood, and weeds had pushed through the cracked pavement.
Elena unlocked the side entrance with the key she had kept for years.
Dust coated the reception desk. Her father's old clock had stopped at 3:42. In the office, she opened drawers filled with medical receipts and outdated patient files.
Nothing.
Then she noticed a faint scratch beneath the bottom drawer.
She pulled it out and felt along the wooden frame until her fingers found a small metal latch.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside lay a cassette recorder, a sealed envelope, and a photograph of a younger Adrian standing beside a man Elena recognized from newspaper photographs.
Vincent Moretti.
Adrian's uncle.
The envelope bore her father's handwriting.
Elena, if you are reading this, then the past has found you.
Her hands shook as she unfolded the letter.
The young man you knew as Matthew was not simply a patient. He was running from a family conflict that had already claimed innocent lives. I promised him that if he survived, I would protect the truth until he could safely return.
The letter ended abruptly.
A sound came from the hallway.
Elena froze.
Someone was inside the building.
“Hello?” she called.
No answer.
She reached for the recorder and the envelope, slipping both into her bag.
Footsteps approached the office.
A tall figure appeared in the doorway, wearing a dark coat and gloves.
The woman from the photograph.
Elena stepped backward.
“Who are you?”
The woman lowered her hood.
She was older than Elena expected, perhaps in her late fifties, with silver hair and tired eyes.
“My name is Teresa Bell,” she said. “I worked for the Moretti family.”
“Why were you with my father?”
“Because your father was the only person Adrian trusted before someone took that trust away.”
Elena clutched the bag.
“Who took it?”
Teresa glanced toward the hallway.
“Your father was murdered, Elena.”
The words struck so hard that Elena could not breathe.
“His death was a stroke.”
“That is what the official report says.”
Teresa reached into her coat and produced a small key.
“Your father left something else. Something your father's killer never found.”
Before Elena could take it, a window shattered behind them.
May you like
Teresa grabbed Elena's arm.
“Run!”
