Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD|
Elena did not sleep that night.
She sat at her kitchen table with Isabella's drawing beside her bank statement. Outside, rain tapped against the window. The radiator hissed, and somewhere upstairs a television played loudly enough for her to hear a man's laughter.
She searched the address online.
The property had once been a private rehabilitation clinic. It had closed eight months earlier after a fire damaged part of the building. The registered owner was a company called Northstar Holdings.
Elena recognized the name.
It appeared on a receipt she had found inside the pocket of her old jacket months earlier. The receipt was from a pharmacy near the waterfront, dated the week her mother died.
Her mother had been gone for five years. Elena had kept almost nothing from that period except a small box of photographs and a folded medical bill she could never bring herself to throw away.
She opened the box.
At the bottom was a photograph of her mother, Margaret Hartwell, standing outside a clinic. Beside her was another woman with pale blond hair.
Sophia Corsetti.
Elena turned the photograph over.
For Margaret, who knows the truth.
Her mother's handwriting.
Elena felt the room tilt.
Why had her mother known Sophia Corsetti?
And why had she never mentioned it?
She called the number on the back of the photograph's envelope. It belonged to an old family friend, Mrs. Callahan, who had helped arrange her mother's funeral.
The woman answered on the fourth ring.
"Hello?"
"Mrs. Callahan, it's Elena."
A pause.
"Elena? Is everything all right?"
"I found a photograph of my mother with Sophia Corsetti."
The silence was immediate.
"Where did you get that?"
"It was in my mother's things. Did you know her?"
Mrs. Callahan sighed.
"Your mother worked as a private nurse before she became ill. She was assigned to a woman at a private estate. She never told me the details."
"Was that woman Sophia?"
"I think so."
"Did my mother know how she died?"
Another pause.
"Elena, you should leave that family alone."
"Why?"
"Because your mother tried to help Sophia, and look what happened to her."
Elena stood.
"What do you mean?"
Mrs. Callahan's voice dropped.
"Your mother was followed. She told me someone had threatened her. Two weeks later, she was dead."
The room seemed to lose its air.
"She died of a stroke."
"That's what the paperwork said."
Elena gripped the table.
"Are you telling me she was murdered?"
"I'm telling you I never believed the story."
Elena looked at the photograph again.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you were twenty-two and grieving, and I thought silence might keep you alive."
The call ended with Mrs. Callahan begging her not to investigate.
Elena didn't listen.
The next morning, she returned to the Corsetti estate. The mansion stood behind iron gates, surrounded by trees and cameras. Two guards opened the entrance after checking her identification.
Adrian met her in the entrance hall.
"You came back."
"I need answers."
"So do I."
She placed the photograph on the table.
He picked it up.
The instant he saw Sophia, his expression changed.
"Where did you get this?"
"My mother's things."
He looked at the woman beside his wife.
"Margaret Hartwell."
"You knew her?"
"She was Sophia's nurse."
"Why was my mother afraid of your family?"
Adrian turned the photograph over and read the writing.
His jaw tightened.
"She helped Sophia collect evidence."
"What evidence?"
Before he could answer, an older woman entered the room.
She wore a cream suit and a string of pearls. Her silver hair was perfectly styled, and her smile was the kind people practiced in mirrors.
"Adrian, darling, why is this stranger here?"
He didn't turn.
"Celeste, this is Elena Hartwell."
Celeste's gaze fell on the photograph.
For one brief moment, her smile disappeared.
Then she recovered.
"How unfortunate. Your mother was a lovely woman, Elena."
Elena stared at her.
"You knew my mother?"
"Of course."
"Did you know she died two weeks after trying to help Sophia?"
Celeste's eyes hardened.
"Grief can make people imagine connections that don't exist."
Adrian stepped between them.
"That's enough."
Celeste gave him a wounded look.
"You should be careful who you invite into this house."
Then she leaned closer to Elena and whispered so softly that only she could hear.
"Your mother should have kept her mouth shut."
Elena felt her blood turn cold.
Celeste walked away.
Adrian watched her disappear down the corridor.
"Now you understand why I don't trust anyone in this house."
But Elena was no longer listening.
Because Celeste had just confirmed something.
May you like
Her mother had not died by accident.
And the woman who knew why was still living under Adrian's roof.
