Chapter 13 - The Letter With My Name|
When Daniel told me they'd found an envelope with my name on it, I thought he had made a mistake.
"Mine?"
He nodded.
"Megan Collins."
I stared at him.
"That doesn't make sense."
We were back at the mansion.
It was nearly four in the morning.
Sophia had been examined at the hospital and cleared to return home with instructions for rest and follow-up care.
Luca had insisted that I receive treatment for my burned hand.
It was properly cleaned, dressed, and bandaged.
A doctor told me it should heal, though it would need careful attention.
I was sitting in the library when Daniel arrived carrying a sealed evidence photograph and a copy of the envelope's contents, released through Luca's attorney.
Luca stood beside the fireplace.
He looked toward me.
"Do you recognize the handwriting?"
I examined the photograph.
The letters were neat.
Elegant.
Old-fashioned.
I shook my head.
"No."
Daniel placed the copied letter on the desk.
"It's from Victoria Bellini."
My stomach tightened.
"Why would Vanessa's mother write to me?"
Luca's expression was grim.
"That's what we need to find out."
I unfolded the letter.
The first sentence made my heart stop.
Megan Collins must never be allowed to remain in the Moretti household.
I stared at the words.
Then read them again.
Below was another paragraph.
She has Caroline's eyes. If Luca ever notices the resemblance, he may start asking questions about the old records. Remove her before the wedding.
My hands began shaking.
Caroline's eyes?
I looked toward the photograph on Luca's desk.
His late wife had dark brown eyes.
So did I.
But millions of people had brown eyes.
It couldn't mean anything.
Luca approached.
"Megan?"
I swallowed.
"I don't understand."
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
"There's more."
He placed another document beside the letter.
A copy of an old birth certificate.
My name.
My date of birth.
My parents' names.
Everything was correct.
Except for one notation.
A handwritten reference to a private adoption agency.
I stared at it.
"My parents never told me I was adopted."
Luca went still.
Daniel spoke carefully.
"The record appears to have been included in a file Antonio maintained about the Bennett and Bellini families."
I looked at him.
"Why?"
He hesitated.
"We're still verifying the records."
I felt sick.
For years, I'd known my parents as the people who raised me.
My mother taught me how to bake.
My father taught me how to fix a bicycle.
They came to every school performance, even when money was tight.
The possibility that I had been adopted didn't change those memories.
But the idea that someone had hidden it from me for twenty-eight years made the room feel unsteady.
Luca pulled out a chair.
"Sit down."
I did.
Daniel continued.
"There's another file. It contains information about a child born to Victoria Bellini after Caroline but before Vanessa."
My breath caught.
Luca looked toward him.
"What child?"
"A daughter."
Silence.
Daniel placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Victoria Bellini holding a newborn.
On the back was written a name.
Margaret Anne.
My eyes filled.
That had been my name before I was adopted, according to the record.
I stared at the photograph.
Then at Luca.
"No."
He didn't speak.
"This has to be wrong."
Daniel nodded gently.
"It may be. We need independent confirmation."
I looked at the papers again.
According to the records, Victoria had given birth to another daughter while separated from Dominic Bellini.
The child had been placed through a private agency.
And years later, Antonio had discovered where that daughter was living.
With my parents.
The Collins family.
I pressed my hand against my mouth.
"Why would he care?"
Daniel looked toward Luca.
Luca answered quietly.
"Because Caroline was investigating Victoria's past."
My heart hammered.
"She found me?"
"We don't know."
Daniel turned another page.
"Caroline requested records from the agency shortly before she died. One of the documents listed your adoptive parents' address."
I stared at him.
"She knew where I lived?"
"Possibly."
I thought of the last three years.
The jobs I'd taken.
The interviews I'd attended.
And the surprising ease with which I'd been hired at the Moretti mansion.
Mrs. Carter had told me the position was available immediately.
Vanessa had disliked me almost from the beginning.
And now I wondered whether my employment had been a coincidence at all.
Luca reached for his phone.
"I want your parents brought here."
I shook my head.
"Please don't frighten them."
His expression softened.
"Then we'll ask them to come."
I looked down at the photograph.
A newborn baby.
A woman holding her.
A life I couldn't remember.
Then something occurred to me.
"Mr. Moretti."
"Yes?"
"If Victoria Bellini was my biological mother..."
I stopped.
The words were almost impossible to say.
Luca waited.
I looked toward Caroline's photograph.
"Then Caroline might have been my sister."
Nobody spoke.
Daniel lowered his eyes.
Luca stared at me.
And I understood why Victoria had wanted me gone.
I hadn't been hired because I was special.
I had simply walked into a house full of secrets.
A house where my possible sister's daughter had been crying over a necklace.
A house where the woman I might have been related to by blood had threatened to ruin my life.
And now one question mattered more than anything.
Had Caroline known who I was before she died?
I looked toward Luca.
"Please tell me the truth."
His eyes softened.
"What truth?"
I swallowed.
"Did your wife ever mention a girl named Megan Collins?"
Luca closed his eyes.
Then whispered, "Yes."
My entire world seemed to stop.
"She did?"
He nodded slowly.
"Three weeks before she died."
I felt tears spill down my cheeks.
"What did she say?"
Luca looked at Caroline's photograph.
May you like
Then back at me.
"She said she'd found someone she had been searching for all her life."
