Chapter 10 - WHAT ELENA HID“LENA!”
Ethan chased her.
A firefighter grabbed him.
“You can’t go in there.”
“My son’s aunt just did.”
“That sentence doesn’t improve the situation.”
Ethan shoved past him.
Smoke filled the restaurant.
Sprinklers rained from the ceiling.
“Lena!”
“Back here!”
He found her near the employee hallway.
She was coughing.
“My locker’s jammed!”
Ethan kicked it once.
Twice.
The metal door popped.
Inside sat Lena’s purse.
A jacket.
And the photograph.
She grabbed it.
“Go!”
They stumbled outside.
The firefighter Ethan had shoved looked ready to kill him.
Ethan handed him a business card.
“I’m sorry.”
The firefighter stared at it.
“Are you seriously giving me your card?”
“I panic badly.”
Lena started laughing.
Then coughing.
Marco pulled them away from the smoke.
Lena tore the paper backing from the photograph.
Nothing.
Her face fell.
“Claire was wrong.”
Marco frowned.
“Wait.”
He took the frame.
Pressed one corner.
A thin wooden panel slid free.
Inside was a folded document.
Thirty years old.
Elena’s handwriting covered the first page.
To my daughters.
Lena began reading.
Elena described the hospital.
Margaret.
The guardianship papers.
Daniel’s cowardice.
Then something worse.
Margaret had not simply taken Lucia.
She had falsified Elena’s consent.
A nurse had been paid.
A judge had been misled.
And Daniel’s father had transferred ten million dollars into a private account controlled by Margaret.
Payment for making the scandal vanish.
Lena turned the page.
A birth certificate.
Two names.
Lena Sofia Morales.
Lucia Elena Morales.
Both daughters of Elena Morales and Daniel Hart.
Claire had been born Lucia.
Lena pressed the paper to her mouth.
“My sister.”
Ethan stood beside her.
“Yes.”
There was one final document.
A letter Elena had received shortly before her death.
Margaret’s handwriting.
Stop contacting Lucia. You made your choice at the hospital.
Below it Elena had written:
I never made that choice.
Lena’s tears fell freely.
For years she had believed her mother was secretive.
Difficult.
Paranoid.
Now she understood.
Elena had spent her adult life protecting one daughter while grieving another.
Ethan unfolded the last sheet.
It was newer.
Added years later.
Elena wrote:
If Lena ever finds this, tell her Lucia may still be in danger. Margaret will never allow the truth to threaten the Hart trust.
Marco cursed softly.
A police detective approached.
“Mr. Cole?”
“Yes?”
“We need to ask you about Daniel Hart.”
Ethan’s chest tightened.
“What happened?”
“He’s alive.”
Lena exhaled.
“Thank God.”
“But he told officers something before they transported him.”
The detective glanced toward Noah.
“He claims Margaret Bennett isn’t the only person involved in your wife’s death.”
Ethan frowned.
“Who else?”
May you like
The detective hesitated.
“Someone inside your own security team.”
