Chapter 2 - The Photograph My Mother Hid and the Lie Dante Had Believed for Twelve Years
Dante did not explain the photograph immediately.
He offered me water.
I refused it.
“Tell me what happened to my mother.”
He watched the traffic outside.
“Twelve years ago, she worked for my family's foundation.”
“She was a nurse.”
“She was both.”
I remembered her hands.
Always dry from soap.
Always warm against my forehead.
“She died in a house fire,” I said.
Dante shook his head.
“The fire was staged.”
My fingers tightened around the photograph.
“Then why did you never look for me?”
“Because I was told you died with her.”
I wanted to call him a liar.
Instead I asked for proof.
He brought me to an attorney's office.
Not his mansion.
Not a locked room.
A place with glass walls and a receptionist.
He called the attorney Mara Chen.
She had known my mother.
Mara opened a sealed envelope.
Inside was a copy of an insurance claim.
Two bodies listed.
One adult.
One child.
My own name appeared under the second.
“I was alive,” I said.
Mara nodded.
“Someone wanted you officially dead.”
I remembered my aunt changing our names.
Her trembling hands at the bus station.
The way she said never mention Evelyn.
“Where is my aunt?”
Mara's expression changed.
“She disappeared three weeks ago.”
A phone rang behind the glass.
Mara answered.
Then she locked eyes with Dante.
“The hospital just called,” she said.
“They found a woman using your aunt's name.”
“Is she alive?”
May you like
Mara lowered the phone.
“She says Amelia must never trust Luca.”
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