Chapter 10 - The Woman Who Knew Everything
Isabella Aruri arrived at Hawthorne Ridge before dawn.
Luciano waited in the foyer.
When she entered, he did not embrace her.
“You’re alive.”
“So are you.”
“That’s your explanation?”
“No.”
She looked toward the stairs.
“Katherine?”
“Alive.”
“The baby?”
“Alive.”
Relief crossed Isabella’s face.
Luciano saw it.
Real relief.
“Why were you at the helicopter?”
“To make sure Grace reached the hospital.”
“You know her name.”
“Katherine told Margaret months ago.”
“You knew about the pregnancy.”
“Yes.”
Luciano's voice dropped.
“For how long?”
“Since May.”
The betrayal landed.
“You knew I had a daughter coming.”
“I knew Katherine was pregnant.”
“And said nothing.”
“She begged me not to.”
Luciano stared.
“Kate knew you were alive?”
“No. She knew me as Isabel Moretti.”
“Why?”
“Because after I disappeared, I watched the family from outside.”
“You mean after you abandoned us.”
Isabella accepted the accusation.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your father’s enemies needed to believe the old Aruri generation was gone.”
Vittorio entered.
Isabella looked at him.
Eight years of supposed death passed silently between husband and wife.
Luciano almost laughed at the insanity.
“My dead parents are standing in my wife’s house arguing about who protected whom.”
Neither responded.
“Tell me who is behind this.”
Isabella looked at Vittorio.
“Eleanor Hawthorne knew.”
Kate’s grandmother again.
“Then Eleanor is dead.”
“She left records.”
“The deposit box.”
Isabella nodded.
Luciano took out the key.
“Where?”
“First National Bank. Private vault.”
“We can't leave Kate.”
“You don't have to.”
Isabella walked to an antique cabinet.
She pressed a concealed latch.
A panel opened.
Inside sat a small steel box.
Kate’s grandmother had hidden it here.
The key fit.
Luciano opened the box.
Documents.
Photographs.
A cassette recorder.
And one sealed letter.
FOR KATHERINE.
Luciano did not open it.
“That belongs to her.”
Isabella nodded.
Beneath it lay another envelope.
FOR LUCIANO ARURI.
He opened his.
Eleanor’s handwriting covered three pages.
Luciano read silently.
Then stopped.
“What?”
Vittorio asked.
Luciano looked at his mother.
“Eleanor believed the Vescari network had someone inside our immediate family.”
Isabella’s face tightened.
“Who?”
“She didn't know.”
Adrian entered.
“Maybe she did.”
He picked up the cassette.
They found an old player.
Eleanor’s voice filled the room.
“If you are hearing this, Katherine is probably already in danger. The person manipulating the Aruri succession does not want the fortune. The fortune is leverage. The real objective is control of the shipping network.”
Luciano exchanged a glance with Vittorio.
Their legitimate companies operated ports throughout Europe and the United States.
Eleanor continued.
“I discovered falsified manifests, shell companies, and payments. I confronted the person responsible.”
A pause.
“If I name that person here, this recording may never survive. So I left the identity somewhere only Katherine would understand.”
The recording clicked off.
Luciano looked toward the sealed letter.
FOR KATHERINE.
He carried it upstairs.
Kate was awake.
Weak.
But awake.
“You look terrible,” she whispered.
Luciano almost smiled.
“You look beautiful.”
“I nearly died.”
“I noticed.”
He handed her the letter.
“Your grandmother left this.”
Kate opened it.
Her eyes moved across the page.
Then stopped.
“What?”
She read again.
“Kate.”
“My grandmother used to tell me something when I was little.”
“What?”
“Blood tells you where you came from. Choices tell you where you belong.”
Luciano waited.
“There’s a list of names at the bottom.”
She turned the letter.
Vittorio.
Isabella.
Carlo.
Adrian.
Luciano.
Elena.
Margaret.
Luciano frowned.
“Margaret?”
Kate stared toward the door.
“The midwife?”
Then she saw the final sentence.
Her hand began trembling.
“What does it say?”
Kate looked at Luciano.
“It says, ‘The one person I trusted with Katherine’s life was the person I should have feared most.’”
A floorboard creaked outside.
Luciano turned.
The door stood open.
May you like
Margaret was gone.
And so was Grace’s medical transport file.
