Chapter 13 - The Sister No One Was Allowed to Remember
Elena Caruso had not died.
Maria had taken her.
The night of the staged accident, Elena had already been hidden with Evelyn Pritchard.
Maria had decided that if she escaped, she could save one of her children.
Only one.
Dominic was in school under heavy family protection.
Gabriel was already dead.
Elena was small enough to disappear.
So Maria took her daughter.
Dominic stood in the hidden room staring at the height marks.
“You let me believe my sister was dead.”
Rosa cried quietly.
It was the first time I had seen her lose control.
“Franco ordered everyone never to speak her name.”
“And you obeyed him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Vittorio was looking for her.”
Dominic turned.
“Why would he care about a five-year-old?”
Rosa looked toward Maria’s desk.
“Because Elena saw him.”
Silence.
“The night Gabriel died, Vittorio came to this house.”
“Elena was hiding beneath the staircase.”
“She heard him arguing with Maria.”
“She heard Vittorio admit he had given Gabriel’s location away.”
Dominic’s face became stone.
“A five-year-old witnessed his confession.”
“Yes.”
“And my mother took her.”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
That answer almost broke him.
Rosa continued quickly.
“Maria refused to tell me.”
“She said the fewer people who knew, the safer Elena would be.”
The New Hampshire address suddenly mattered even more.
Anna Mercer had not been Maria’s only alias.
Maybe Elena had lived there too.
Marco arranged a flight for Sunday morning.
First came the family dinner.
Dominic refused to cancel it.
“Anthony thinks he is controlling the board.”
“He thinks Vittorio’s old network belongs to him.”
“Tomorrow I want him believing I know less than I do.”
I found Dominic alone in the hidden room that evening.
He was sitting on the floor beside the desk.
The powerful man everyone feared looked strangely young.
He stared at Elena’s height mark.
“I should remember more.”
“You were a child.”
“I remember her laugh now.”
He swallowed.
“She used to follow me everywhere.”
I sat several feet away.
He continued.
“She had a wooden horse.”
“She called it Captain.”
“I hid it once because she broke one of my model cars.”
He smiled painfully.
“She cried for an hour.”
His expression collapsed.
“I forgot my own sister.”
“You survived losing nearly everyone in your house.”
He looked at me.
“That isn’t the same as remembering.”
“No.”
I spoke carefully.
“But forgetting something after trauma is not the same as choosing to erase someone.”
His eyes stayed on mine.
For a long moment neither of us spoke.
Then his hand moved across the floor.
Not touching mine.
Just close.
“Why are you still here?”
I could have given him ten practical answers.
Because my contract was active.
Because security had told me not to leave.
Because someone had threatened me.
Instead I told the truth.
“Because I want you to find her.”
Dominic looked down.
“So do I.”
A soft click came from the hallway.
May you like
We both turned.
Someone had just closed the hidden door from the outside.
