Chapter 12 - THE WOMAN WHO HAD BEEN ERASED
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I had begun to think nothing could surprise me anymore.
I was wrong.
Vanessa's mother was supposed to have died twenty years earlier.
According to the story Luca knew, Evelyn Bellini had suffered a sudden medical emergency while traveling overseas.
There had been a private funeral.
A memorial service.
And years of sympathy for Richard Bellini, the supposedly grieving husband who raised his daughter alone.
But the recovered statement suggested something entirely different.
Evelyn had discovered suspicious transactions involving her husband's company.
She had threatened to expose him.
Then she disappeared.
“Why would everyone believe she died?” I asked.
Detective Morales opened a folder.
“Because Richard produced foreign records that appeared to confirm it. We're working to determine whether those documents were genuine.”
“Where is she now?”
“We're following a lead.”
Luca leaned forward.
“What lead?”
Morales looked at him.
“The statement includes the name of a woman who helped Evelyn leave Illinois. That woman later worked at a residential facility in Wisconsin.”
I felt my stomach drop.
“Northlake?”
Morales nodded.
The very place Vanessa planned to send Eleanor.
Suddenly, the care facility seemed even more sinister.
Luca stood.
“Then we need to get her out.”
“If Evelyn is there, we'll find her,” Morales said firmly. “But you are not bringing armed men into a medical facility.”
Luca's eyes narrowed.
“I wasn't planning to.”
Morales raised an eyebrow.
He sighed.
“Fine. I was considering it.”
Despite everything, I nearly smiled.
The detective didn't.
She arranged for Wisconsin authorities and adult protective services to assist with a welfare check and a records inquiry.
By the following afternoon, investigators had found Evelyn.
She was alive.
She had been living under another name.
And for almost two decades, she had avoided her former husband.
The news reached us while I was sitting beside Eleanor in her bedroom.
For the first time since the hidden camera was removed, the room felt peaceful.
The curtains were open.
Sunlight fell across the quilt.
Eleanor was looking through an old photograph album.
She pointed to a picture of Luca at age seven.
He was missing two front teeth.
I laughed.
“He was adorable.”
Eleanor smiled.
Then signed:
Still is.
I grinned.
“Don't tell him you said that.”
A voice came from the doorway.
“Too late.”
Luca stood there holding a small tray.
He had brought tea.
For his mother.
And for me.
I stared at him.
“Did you make that yourself?”
He looked offended.
“I know how to boil water, Claire.”
Eleanor laughed.
A soft, breathless sound.
Luca stopped.
He looked at her.
Then smiled.
It was the first real smile I'd seen from him.
He placed the tray down.
“Morales called,” he said. “They found Evelyn.”
Eleanor's smile faded.
She signed:
Alive?
“Yes.”
Tears filled her eyes.
For a moment, I wondered how many people Richard Bellini had frightened into silence.
How many lives had been interrupted.
How many families had been told lies.
Then Luca said, “Evelyn has agreed to speak with investigators. She says she knows what happened to my father.”
The room fell silent.
Eleanor gripped my hand.
That evening, Morales arranged for Evelyn's sworn account to be taken with assistance from her attorney.
Evelyn described years of financial abuse and intimidation.
She said Richard had used false companies to hide stolen money.
She also described a conversation she overheard shortly before Antonio's death.
Richard had been arguing with Silas Crane.
He said Antonio was going to ruin him.
Crane asked how he intended to stop the investigation.
Richard allegedly replied, “Antonio won't be a problem after Friday.”
Friday was the day of the warehouse fire.
Evelyn had been terrified.
She tried to warn Antonio.
Then she fled after discovering that Richard had been monitoring her communications.
Her disappearance had protected her life.
But it had cost her a relationship with her daughter.
“Did Vanessa know she was alive?” I asked Morales.
The detective hesitated.
“Evelyn says she tried to contact Vanessa when Vanessa turned twenty-one.”
“What happened?”
“She received a message telling her never to contact the family again.”
“From Vanessa?”
“The message came from an account associated with Vanessa. We don't yet know who actually sent it.”
I thought about the woman in the red dress.
Cold.
Elegant.
Cruel.
But for the first time, I wondered what her childhood had been like.
Then I remembered Eleanor's frightened hands.
My sister's photograph.
The forged documents.
Whatever Vanessa had experienced, it did not erase what she had done.
Late that night, Morales called again.
Her voice was urgent.
“We've located Vanessa.”
I sat straighter.
“Where?”
“At an empty apartment near the lakefront.”
“Is she in custody?”
“Not yet. Officers are approaching the building.”
Then I heard someone speaking in the background.
Morales stopped.
“What?”
A pause.
Her voice changed.
“Claire, stay where you are.”
My stomach tightened.
“What's happening?”
“The apartment is empty.”
I swallowed.
“Then where is she?”
Morales was silent for a moment.
Then she said, “We found a recording on her laptop. It's addressed to Luca.”
“What does it say?”
“Vanessa says she has something he wants.”
I looked toward the hallway.
“His father's missing original files?”
“No.”
Morales took a breath.
“She says she has the only person who can prove Richard ordered Antonio's death.”
I went cold.
“Who?”
“Dominic Russo.”
May you like
Then she added one more sentence.
“And she's demanding that Luca meet her alone before midnight.”
