Chapter 7 - The Lie Written in My Name|
On Sunday morning, I returned to my apartment for the first time since the dinner.
I hadn't slept properly in two nights.
My head ached.
Every time my phone vibrated, I expected another threatening photograph.
Detective Ruiz insisted that a uniformed officer accompany me.
Luca offered to send additional security guards, but I refused.
I didn't want my entire life surrounded by his men.
I wanted my life back.
My apartment was on the third floor of an older building near Logan Square.
It was small, but everything inside belonged to me.
A secondhand couch.
A bookshelf filled with mystery novels.
A framed photograph of my late grandmother.
And a kitchen table where Olivia and I had practiced sign language for years.
When I reached my front door, I noticed something strange.
The lock had been scratched.
I touched the metal.
Then I stepped backward.
"Officer?"
He approached immediately.
The door was already unlocked.
Inside, my apartment had been searched.
Drawers lay open.
Books were scattered across the floor.
Someone had sliced through the cushions of my couch.
My bedroom closet was nearly empty.
I covered my mouth.
The officer contacted Detective Ruiz.
I stood frozen in the doorway, staring at the place that had always felt safe.
Then I noticed something.
My television was still there.
So was my laptop.
The little gold necklace my grandmother had left me remained inside its jewelry box.
Whoever entered hadn't been looking for money.
They had been looking for documents.
I walked toward the kitchen table.
The drawer where I kept my sign-language notebooks was empty.
Every notebook was gone.
I had filled them over five years.
Inside were practice exercises, vocabulary lists, and notes about conversations I had translated for Olivia.
Some pages included dates when Vanessa had excluded her from meetings.
Others recorded Olivia's requests to contact her attorney.
I felt sick.
"They took my notebooks."
Detective Ruiz arrived twenty minutes later.
She examined the broken lock.
"Who knew you kept them here?"
"Olivia."
"And?"
I hesitated.
"Vanessa visited my apartment once."
The detective looked up.
"When?"
"About six months ago."
"Why?"
"She said she wanted me to teach her a few signs so she could surprise Olivia."
The memory suddenly seemed poisonous.
Vanessa had spent an hour asking questions about my notebooks.
She claimed she wanted to learn how Olivia communicated.
But she never practiced a single sign afterward.
Detective Ruiz wrote everything down.
"Did Vanessa bring anyone with her?"
I closed my eyes.
Then I remembered.
"Her assistant."
"Marissa Vale?"
I nodded.
The detective exchanged a look with the officer.
They had already found evidence that Marissa's temporary access card had been used inside the Moretti mansion.
Now my apartment had been searched.
And the same woman might have had access to both locations.
I sat on the edge of my couch.
"I don't understand why they're doing all this."
Detective Ruiz lowered her notebook.
"Because someone wants a court to believe you're controlling Olivia."
I looked at her.
"That's ridiculous."
"Then we need to prove it."
She showed me a document Natalie had forwarded that morning.
It was an attachment to Richard's emergency petition.
My name appeared beneath a statement claiming Olivia had asked me to make financial decisions on her behalf.
I stared at the signature.
Claire Bennett.
It looked almost perfect.
But I hadn't signed it.
"That's forged."
Detective Ruiz nodded.
"We suspected it might be."
The statement also claimed I had interpreted Olivia as agreeing to surrender temporary control of her inheritance.
I felt tears sting my eyes.
"She never agreed to that."
"I believe you."
"But belief alone isn't enough for court."
I looked toward the empty drawer.
Suddenly, the stolen notebooks made sense.
Whoever entered my apartment wanted to remove evidence showing what Olivia had actually said.
They wanted to replace years of conversations with a single lie.
By noon, I was back at Olivia's studio.
She was waiting beside the entrance.
The moment she saw me, she noticed my expression.
What happened?
I explained everything.
Her face changed from concern to anger.
She took out her phone and typed a message.
They cannot steal conversations that happened inside my head.
I almost laughed through my tears.
"You're right."
She smiled sadly.
Then she signed.
We will remember together.
Luca arrived shortly afterward.
He had heard about the break-in.
"Claire, I'm having the locks replaced and arranging somewhere safe for you to stay."
I stood.
"Mr. Moretti, I need to tell you something."
He became still.
"I'm resigning."
The words surprised even me.
But once I said them, I knew they were right.
"I cannot keep working in a house where your fiancée and your attorney have access to my personal records."
"I care about Olivia, and I'll continue helping her as a friend and a witness."
"But I need to stop being an employee whose life other people can control."
Luca looked at me for a long moment.
Then he nodded.
"You're right."
I hadn't expected that.
He continued quietly.
"I'm sorry I didn't see what was happening sooner."
"You were responsible for my safety as an employee," I replied.
"And for your sister's well-being as her brother."
He accepted the criticism without argument.
"I know."
Then he extended his hand.
"Your resignation is accepted, Claire."
"But you have my full cooperation with whatever you need for the investigation."
I shook his hand.
For the first time in five years, I didn't feel like a housemaid standing before a powerful employer.
I felt like a woman making a decision about her own future.
Olivia watched us.
Then she signed with a mischievous smile.
Now you can stop calling him sir.
I laughed.
So did Luca.
For one precious moment, the darkness surrounding us seemed to lift.
Then Natalie's assistant arrived carrying a thick folder.
She placed it on the studio table.
"The court has confirmed tomorrow's emergency hearing."
Olivia opened the folder.
Inside was Richard's petition.
It contained the forged statement bearing my name.
It contained Luca's old affidavit.
And it contained a supposed professional evaluation from a physician Olivia had never met.
But the most disturbing document was attached at the end.
It was a transcript of an interpreted conversation.
According to the paper, Olivia had stated that she didn't understand her father's trust and wanted Vanessa to manage everything.
The transcript identified the interpreter.
Claire Bennett.
And beneath my forged signature were the words:
Certified as accurate and complete.
I stared at the paper.
Then I looked at Olivia.
She was signing furiously.
I never said those words.
I took her hands gently.
"I know."
But as Natalie examined the document, her expression hardened.
"Whoever prepared this didn't just forge your signature, Claire."
May you like
She pointed toward the page.
"They falsified Olivia's testimony before the hearing even began."
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