Chapter 7 - The Dead Woman's Name|
The name was Eleanor Price.
For eleven years, Damian had believed Eleanor died in a car accident outside Chicago. She had worked for his father, managed his appointments, and handled sensitive correspondence before the family business became Damian's responsibility.
She had also been the only person who knew the full details of the original Moretti succession trust.
Damian asked Marcus to reopen the investigation into her death.
Within twenty-four hours, Marcus found inconsistencies.
The accident report listed no surviving relatives. The insurance payment had been made to a shell company. The body had been identified through dental records, but the original identification file had disappeared.
“Could she still be alive?” Damian asked.
“It's possible. We don't have proof either way.”
“Find it.”
Marcus discovered that Eleanor had used several aliases in the years before her supposed death. One was connected to a consulting business in Wisconsin. Another appeared in records associated with Northbridge.
The trail led to a small town near Lake Michigan.
Damian traveled there with Marcus and two investigators, leaving Dante in charge of the estate. He did not send a large security detail. The last thing he wanted was to frighten a potential witness into disappearing again.
They found the consulting office above a pharmacy.
The receptionist looked at Eleanor's photograph and went pale.
“She hasn't worked here in years.”
“Do you know where she went?”
“No.”
Marcus placed a business card on the desk.
“If she contacts you, please ask her to speak with us. We're investigating financial misconduct, not looking to harm her.”
The receptionist nodded.
As they left, Damian noticed a car parked across the street. A woman sat behind the wheel, watching the office.
When their eyes met, she started the engine.
Marcus moved toward the vehicle, but Damian stopped him.
“Don't chase her.”
“Boss—”
“If she wants to talk, she'll come back.”
They returned to Chicago.
Three days later, an envelope arrived at Damian's office. It contained a photograph of Eleanor standing beside Victor Salerno and Isabella Moretti outside a private bank.
The date was six months earlier.
On the back, someone had written:
The woman you buried is not the woman who died.
Damian called Marcus.
“Find out who sent it.”
Before Marcus could answer, the office lights went out.
A security alarm sounded.
Dante's voice came through the emergency line.
“Boss, stay where you are.”
Gunshots echoed somewhere in the building.
Damian dropped behind his desk as the security team moved through the corridor. The lights returned thirty seconds later.
The office door stood open.
The envelope was gone.
So was the photograph.
No one had been seriously injured, but the intruder had bypassed the building's security system and accessed Damian's private files.
One folder was missing.
It contained the original succession trust.
That evening, Damian received a video call from an unknown number.
Eleanor Price appeared on the screen.
She looked older, with silver streaks in her hair, but her face was unmistakable.
“Damian.”
He leaned toward the screen.
“Where have you been?”
“Trying to stay alive.”
“Did you send the photograph?”
“Yes.”
“Who is using your name to send messages about my son?”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“I didn't send those messages. But I know who did.”
“Tell me.”
“Not until you promise to protect Claire.”
Damian's jaw tightened.
“Claire is no longer under my protection.”
Eleanor looked startled.
“You let her leave?”
“She has the right to choose her own life.”
For the first time, Eleanor smiled.
“Then perhaps you are finally becoming the man your father hoped you would be.”
Damian felt anger rising.
“Don't tell me what my father wanted. You disappeared and let me believe you were dead.”
“I disappeared because your father was murdered.”
The words silenced him.
“What?”
“Your father wasn't killed in an ordinary accident. He discovered that someone had been diverting money from the family trust. He was preparing to expose the people responsible when his car was forced off the road.”
Damian gripped the edge of the desk.
“Who ordered it?”
Eleanor looked toward someone outside the camera's view.
“I can't say it yet.”
“Why?”
“Because the person who ordered your father's death is still inside your family.”
The screen flickered.
Eleanor's eyes widened.
Someone had entered the room behind her.
She turned.
The call ended.
Damian immediately tried to reconnect.
The number was disconnected.
Marcus tracked the call to a rural internet connection that had already been shut down.
They had found Eleanor.
And someone else had found her first.
The following morning, a package arrived at Claire's apartment in Milwaukee.
Inside was a copy of the same photograph.
But this version showed something Damian had never seen.
Eleanor was holding a newborn baby.
And beside her stood a man whose face had been carefully scratched away.
May you like
The note beneath the photograph contained four words.
Your son had a brother.
