Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN ERASED FROM THE FAMILY
“Your father gave Isabella to the Bianke family?”
Jonathan stared at his mother.
Elena Moretti clutched her rosary so tightly that the beads pressed into her palm.
“She was twenty-two,” Elena whispered. “And your father was trying to prevent a war.”
Jonathan stood motionless beside the fireplace.
“What does that mean?”
“It means he treated my sister like something he could trade.”
Elena looked toward a portrait of her late husband hanging above the mantel.
“Your father owed the Biankes a great deal of money. Their patriarch agreed to settle the debt if Isabella married his eldest son.”
Jonathan felt sick.
“Did she agree?”
“At first, she did. She loved someone else, but she believed she could protect our family.”
“And then?”
“She discovered what kind of man she was expected to marry.”
Elena's voice shook.
“He was cruel. Controlling. She tried to leave him before the wedding.”
Jonathan moved closer.
“Did Father stop her?”
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
“He told her that if she refused, people would die. He told her your grandfather's house would burn. He told her I would suffer.”
Elena wiped her eyes.
“I begged her not to go.”
“Did you help her escape?”
His mother looked down.
“No.”
That single word explained years of silence.
Jonathan had spent his life believing his father was a hard man who nevertheless protected his family.
Now he understood that his father had protected his position, even when the cost was someone he claimed to love.
“What happened after she married?”
“She stayed with the Biankes for eighteen months. Then she disappeared.”
“You said Father knew where she went.”
“He did.”
“Where?”
Elena raised her eyes.
“I never found out.”
Jonathan held up Luca's photograph.
“Why did Luca write Isabella's name on this?”
His mother stared at the handwriting.
“Because he found something.”
“What?”
“A receipt.”
Jonathan frowned.
Elena pointed toward the small locked cabinet.
“When Luca was going through your father's belongings, he found payments made every month to a woman living outside Providence.”
“Isabella?”
“That was what he believed.”
Jonathan's breathing changed.
“Did he find her?”
“He never told me.”
“Then why was he killed?”
Elena shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Jonathan studied his mother.
She was frightened.
But she was also withholding something.
“Mother, what was in the letter you burned?”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Luca asked me to make sure you never married into the Bianke family.”
Jonathan felt the words strike him.
“Why?”
“Because he believed their agreement with your father had never ended.”
The next morning, Jonathan returned to Meline's apartment carrying groceries.
He knocked once and waited.
She opened the door wearing a soft gray sweater.
“You didn't have to bring all that.”
“I know.”
“Jonathan—”
“I bought too much. Enzo says I don't understand how supermarkets work.”
Despite herself, Meline smiled.
It lasted only a moment.
Jonathan set the bags on the kitchen counter.
“I found out something about Luca.”
Meline listened as he explained what Elena had confessed.
When he finished, she sat down slowly.
“Luca mentioned a woman once,” she said.
Jonathan looked up.
“What woman?”
“He said he was trying to find someone your father had hurt.”
“Did he say Isabella?”
“No. But he said she used to paint flowers.”
Jonathan remembered something.
His mother's sister had loved painting.
There had been a watercolor of white roses hanging in the family dining room when he was a child.
His father removed it after Isabella disappeared.
“Did Luca tell you anything else?”
Meline nodded.
“He said some families bury their mistakes in the ground. Yours put them on the walls and called them history.”
Jonathan let out a painful laugh.
“That sounds like him.”
Meline glanced toward the groceries.
“Jonathan, why are you telling me all this?”
“Because I should have trusted you before. And because you were the last person Luca tried to protect.”
Her expression changed.
“What do you mean?”
Jonathan explained Vivien's claim that Luca had been driving to meet her.
Meline shook her head.
“I never arranged to meet Luca that night.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
“Did anyone else know where you were staying?”
“Marco did. I was working at the Moretti restaurant then. He handled the staff schedules.”
Jonathan went still.
Meline continued.
“Luca was supposed to bring me something the following morning.”
“What?”
“He wouldn't say.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because he died before he could.”
She looked down at her hands.
“And afterward, Marco told me you didn't want your brother's name mentioned around me.”
Jonathan felt another piece of the past rearrange itself.
Marco hadn't simply controlled the information Jonathan received.
He'd controlled the information Meline received, too.
That afternoon, Jonathan went to the cathedral.
The wedding decorations were still there.
White roses lined the aisle.
Four hundred empty chairs faced an altar where he should have been married.
Rocco waited beside the front pew.
A tall, broad-shouldered man with graying temples, Rocco had worked for Jonathan's father before Jonathan was old enough to understand what the family business meant.
“Marco's gone,” Rocco said.
Jonathan stopped.
“You were supposed to keep him here.”
“He walked out before you gave the order. We discovered he'd cleared his office and taken his personal files.”
Jonathan looked toward the altar.
“Where's Vivien?”
“In the chapel.”
He found her sitting alone, still wearing yesterday's wedding shoes beneath a dark wool coat.
Her dress had been packed away.
She looked exhausted.
“You came,” she said.
“I need to know what your father promised Marco.”
Vivien stared at him.
“He promised him a future.”
“What kind?”
“A position in the new organization. Control over the Providence shipping contracts.”
“And what did Marco promise in return?”
Vivien looked toward the altar.
“Stability.”
Jonathan almost laughed.
“You call what happened to Meline stability?”
“No.”
Vivien's answer surprised him.
She looked at him directly.
“I call it cruelty.”
“Then why did you protect him?”
“Because my father told me Marco was the only person keeping the old agreements from collapsing.”
“What agreements?”
Vivien stood.
“The ones your father made before you inherited everything.”
Jonathan studied her.
“You knew my father traded Isabella away.”
Her face changed.
“Not all of it.”
“Enough.”
“Yes.”
He turned toward the exit.
“Jonathan, wait.”
He stopped.
Vivien removed a small silver bracelet from her purse.
It had tiny blue stones and a broken clasp.
“Do you recognize this?”
Jonathan shook his head.
“It belonged to Isabella.”
“How did you get it?”
“My grandmother.”
“Why are you giving it to me?”
Vivien's eyes filled.
“Because my grandmother made me promise something when she died.”
“What?”
“That if the Biankes ever tried to force another marriage, I would return this to the Morettis.”
Jonathan stared at the bracelet.
“You knew our wedding was forced?”
Vivien shook her head.
“I knew I was being pushed. I didn't realize how much you were being deceived.”
He looked at her carefully.
“Did you want to marry me?”
She gave a small, unhappy smile.
“Yes. That's the worst part.”
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Vivien said, “My father has something he shouldn't possess.”
“What?”
“A ledger Luca was looking for.”
“Where is it?”
“In his private office.”
Jonathan stepped closer.
“Can you get it?”
Vivien hesitated.
“If he realizes I helped you, he'll cut me off.”
Jonathan waited.
She finally nodded.
“But there's something else.”
“What?”
Vivien looked down at the bracelet.
“My grandmother told me Isabella had a daughter.”
Jonathan froze.
He stared at Vivien.
“Where is she?”
Vivien's voice dropped.
“Nobody knows.”
She touched the blue stones.
“But there's a name engraved on the inside.”
Jonathan turned the bracelet over.
The clasp was worn, but the engraving remained.
FOR MY LITTLE MEL.
He looked up sharply.
Meline had once told him she'd grown up in foster care.
She'd never known her parents.
And suddenly the woman he'd abandoned was connected to a secret his family had hidden for decades.
May you like
Vivien met his eyes.
“Jonathan, I think Meline is Isabella's daughter.”
