Chapter 5 - The Mother Who Never Died
Ruby couldn't move.
For twenty-nine years, she had believed one woman gave her life.
Now another woman stood ten feet away claiming she had given her blood.
"Don't come closer."
Elena stopped immediately.
Ruby clutched the recorder.
"How did you get in here?"
"Through the sacristy."
"Dante's men surrounded the building."
"I've spent thirty years learning how to move without being seen."
Ruby's stomach tightened.
"That's not comforting."
Elena almost smiled.
"No. I suppose it isn't."
Ruby studied her face.
There were similarities.
Too many.
The eyes.
The shape of her mouth.
The slight crease between her brows.
Ruby hated seeing herself in a stranger.
"My father said you ran."
Elena's expression softened.
"Patrick always chose simple words for complicated sins."
"Why did you leave me?"
The question came out more violently than Ruby intended.
Elena absorbed it.
"I thought staying would kill you."
"That's what everyone says."
"I know."
"My father lied to protect me. Dante lied to protect me. Charles lied to protect me."
Ruby's voice broke.
"And now you."
Elena's eyes filled.
"You deserve to hate me."
"I don't even know you."
"That's worse."
Ruby looked toward the church doors.
"Why now?"
"Because Lorenzo found you."
"Apparently Lorenzo has been finding everyone."
Elena's face changed.
"You spoke to him?"
"He appeared at Dante's gate."
"Did he touch you?"
"No."
Elena visibly exhaled.
Ruby noticed.
"You're afraid of him."
"Very."
"Because you raised him?"
Elena closed her eyes.
"Patrick told you."
"He said you raised the real Lorenzo."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Vittorio asked me to."
Ruby laughed in disbelief.
"My biological father asked the woman investigating him to raise his secret son?"
Elena nodded.
"Now you're beginning to understand why I disappeared."
Ruby folded her arms.
"I understand nothing."
Elena walked to a pew and sat.
Ruby remained standing.
"Vittorio Moretti was many things," Elena said. "Dangerous. Proud. Ruthless."
"Dante speaks highly of him too."
Elena's mouth tightened.
"But Vittorio discovered his organization had become involved in crimes even he wouldn't tolerate."
"Human trafficking."
Elena nodded.
"He wanted out."
Ruby frowned.
"Out of his own organization?"
"He wanted to dismantle the people responsible without destroying his family."
"Who was responsible?"
Elena looked at her.
"His brother."
Ruby's eyes narrowed.
"I've never heard of Vittorio having a brother."
"Because Enzo Moretti was erased from the family."
Ruby's pulse quickened.
Elena continued.
"Enzo controlled offshore routes. He built an alliance with people inside Gallagher Shipping."
"The ledger."
"Exactly."
"Did my father know?"
"Eventually."
Ruby sat across from her.
"Where does Lorenzo fit?"
Elena hesitated.
"Enzo had an affair with Vittorio's wife."
Ruby stared.
"Dante's mother?"
"Yes."
"And Lorenzo—"
"Was Enzo's son."
Ruby's mouth went dry.
"Meaning Lorenzo and Dante were raised as brothers even though..."
"Lorenzo was actually his cousin."
"Then Luca?"
"Another child born from the same affair."
"Twins."
Elena nodded.
"Vittorio kept Luca and concealed Lorenzo."
"This is insane."
"It gets worse."
Ruby gave a hollow laugh.
"Of course it does."
"Enzo wanted both boys. Vittorio feared he would raise them as weapons. So he hid Lorenzo with me."
"Why you?"
"Because by then Vittorio knew I was investigating him."
Ruby stared.
"He trusted an undercover investigator?"
"He trusted that I hated Enzo more."
"Why?"
Elena looked down.
"Because Enzo killed my partner."
Ruby absorbed that.
"For years, Lorenzo believed I was his mother."
Ruby's chest tightened.
"He didn't know?"
"Not until he was eighteen."
"What happened?"
"He found documents."
"And discovered the Morettis."
"Yes."
"He went to them?"
"Not immediately."
Elena rubbed her palms together.
"He became obsessed with what had been denied him. Name. Money. Power."
"And me?"
Elena's eyes shifted.
"You were another secret."
"Vittorio's daughter."
"Yes."
"Did Lorenzo hate me because I had inheritance rights?"
"At first."
Ruby frowned.
"At first?"
Elena stood.
"Later, he discovered something else."
"What?"
Elena didn't answer.
Ruby's patience snapped.
"If you say you're protecting me, I swear—"
"No."
Elena looked directly at her.
"I'm trying to decide whether telling you will destroy your marriage."
Ruby laughed.
"Have you missed the last twenty-four hours?"
Elena looked surprised.
Ruby held up the contract.
"My marriage was already built on secrets."
Elena studied it.
"Did Dante sign that?"
"Yes."
"Then Patrick was wrong about him."
Ruby's heart shifted.
"What do you mean?"
Elena approached.
"Patrick believed Dante would refuse."
"Refuse the marriage?"
"No."
"The acquisition clause."
Ruby opened the folder.
"Which clause?"
Elena pointed.
Ruby read.
Upon completion of marital consolidation, controlling Gallagher interests may be transferred to Moretti Strategic Holdings if mutually authorized.
"Mutually authorized," Elena said.
Ruby frowned.
"So?"
"Your signature alone isn't enough."
Ruby looked closer.
There were two authorization lines.
Hers.
And Dante's.
Dante's was blank.
Ruby's breathing changed.
"He never signed."
"No."
Elena turned several pages.
"These aren't completed acquisition papers."
"What are they?"
"A defensive merger structure."
Ruby stared.
Elena continued.
"If enemies forced a sale of Gallagher assets, the marriage protected them by making transfer impossible without both of you."
Ruby remembered Dante saying the acquisition plan had never been executed.
She had assumed he was making excuses.
"Then why call it liquidation?"
"Because Patrick wanted enemies to believe Gallagher assets could be dismantled."
Ruby sat slowly.
"Was the contract designed to trap someone?"
Elena nodded.
"Lorenzo."
Everything shifted.
"The folder was bait."
"Originally."
"And my father knew."
"Yes."
"Dante?"
"Probably not all of it."
Ruby closed her eyes.
She had walked away from him believing he'd bought her.
But the signature that would have allowed him to control her inheritance was blank.
He could have signed it any time.
He hadn't.
Elena watched her.
"You love him."
Ruby opened her eyes.
"That's none of your business."
"You're right."
A pounding hit the church doors.
"Ruby!"
Dante.
She stood.
Elena panicked.
"You can't tell him I'm here."
Ruby stared.
"Why?"
"Because Dante will arrest me."
"Why would he arrest you?"
Elena's fear seemed genuine.
"Because he believes I killed his father."
The church doors opened.
Dante entered with Marco and four guards.
Ruby looked back.
Elena had vanished through the side chapel.
Dante reached Ruby.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
"Why didn't you answer your phone?"
"I was listening."
He saw the recorder.
"What did Patrick say?"
Ruby hesitated.
For the first time, she understood how easy secrets began.
One second.
One omission.
One decision to protect someone.
Dante noticed.
"What aren't you telling me?"
Ruby looked at him.
Then she remembered the blank signature.
"Why didn't you sign the transfer authorization?"
Dante frowned.
"What?"
"The marriage contract."
His face hardened.
"Because your company isn't mine."
"Then why marry me?"
He stared at her.
"You still don't understand?"
"Then make me understand."
Dante stepped closer.
"Your father came to me three months before he died."
Ruby waited.
"He said enemies were preparing to challenge your inheritance. He wanted a defensive marriage."
"So you agreed."
"No."
Ruby blinked.
"I told him absolutely not."
"Why?"
Dante's eyes stayed on hers.
"Because I'd already spent years trying not to fall in love with you."
Ruby's breath caught.
"You barely spoke to me before my father died."
"Exactly."
"Dante..."
"I stayed away because Patrick asked me to. Because your life was safer outside mine."
His voice lowered.
"Then he died."
Ruby couldn't speak.
"And suddenly you were alone in a boardroom full of men who wanted to carve apart everything he left you."
Dante looked at the folder.
"I married you because I could protect the company legally."
Ruby's heart sank.
Then he continued.
"But I stayed married to you because leaving became impossible."
Ruby's eyes burned.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I've spent my entire life believing love creates leverage."
"And now?"
Dante's expression softened.
"Now I think losing you without saying it would be worse."
Ruby stared at him.
Before she could answer, Marco's radio crackled.
A guard spoke rapidly.
Marco's face changed.
"What?"
Dante asked.
Marco turned toward Ruby.
"We found Charles's car."
Ruby's stomach tightened.
"Where?"
"Abandoned by the river."
"Is he—"
"No body."
Marco paused.
"But there was blood."
Ruby reached for Dante without thinking.
His hand closed around hers.
Then Marco's phone rang.
He answered.
A distorted voice came through the speaker.
"Ruby."
Everyone froze.
Lorenzo.
"Your uncle is alive."
Ruby gripped Dante's hand.
"What do you want?"
Lorenzo laughed softly.
"Not money."
"Then what?"
"A trade."
Ruby's skin chilled.
"For Charles?"
"Yes."
"What trade?"
May you like
Lorenzo's answer came immediately.
"Your mother."
