Chapter 3 - THE SIGNATURE THAT DESTROYED TWO BROTHERS
“Someone has declared my mother mentally incompetent without even examining her!”
Grace's voice echoed through the private hallway at Willow Creek Residence.
She stood in borrowed slippers, leaning against the wall while Alessandro confronted the facility administrator.
The midnight transport had not yet arrived.
Her mother was still inside.
But the administrator, Mrs. Dalton, refused to let them upstairs.
“Miss Miller, your mother's medical arrangements are confidential.”
“I'm her daughter.”
“And Mr. Whitmore's organization has assumed financial responsibility for her treatment.”
Grace stared at her.
“Paying a bill doesn't make him her family.”
Mrs. Dalton looked uncomfortable.
“I'm simply following the instructions in her file.”
Alessandro placed the forged authorization on the counter.
“Then explain why Grace's signature is on a document she never signed.”
Mrs. Dalton examined it.
“I can't speak to that.”
“Can you explain why my grandmother was transferred from your associated rehabilitation center without her family being notified?”
“Mr. Romano—”
“Can you explain whether either woman agreed to these arrangements?”
Mrs. Dalton's face reddened.
“I think you should speak to our corporate office.”
“That's exactly what I'm going to do.”
He turned toward the uniformed officer standing beside Daniel.
“This is the authorization we discussed. We have reason to believe these women are being subjected to financial exploitation.”
The officer examined the paperwork.
“Ma'am, we'd like to verify Mrs. Miller's welfare.”
Mrs. Dalton finally stepped aside.
Grace found her mother sitting beside a window on the second floor.
Evelyn Miller was sixty-four, with soft brown eyes and silver beginning to spread through her dark hair.
She wore the pale blue cardigan Grace had bought her for Mother's Day.
A half-packed suitcase rested on the bed.
“Mom?”
Evelyn turned.
For one awful moment, she looked confused.
Then her face brightened.
“Gracie.”
Grace hurried toward her.
Her injured heel protested, but she barely noticed.
“Oh, Mom.”
She wrapped her arms around her mother.
Evelyn touched her cheek.
“Why are you crying, sweetheart?”
“I'm just happy to see you.”
“Did you bring my yellow sweater?”
Grace laughed through her tears.
“Not tonight.”
Evelyn looked at the suitcase.
“They said I was going somewhere. I told them I wanted to wait for you.”
Grace held her hands.
“You're not going anywhere without me.”
A nurse named Rebecca quietly approached.
“I was hoping you'd arrive.”
Grace looked up.
“Why?”
Rebecca lowered her voice.
“I questioned the transfer. Your mother was distressed, and nobody could tell me where she'd be living.”
“Why didn't you stop it?”
“I delayed the transport by requesting another medical review. That's all I could do on my own.”
Alessandro entered behind them.
Rebecca recognized him immediately.
“My grandmother was also supposed to be transferred here,” he said. “Have you seen her?”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Mrs. Romano was here this afternoon.”
“Where is she now?”
“She left with a gentleman who introduced himself as her grandson.”
“Sebastian?”
“I believe so.”
Alessandro's expression tightened.
“Was she frightened?”
Rebecca thought carefully.
“She was angry. She kept insisting that she wanted her own doctor.”
“Did anyone listen?”
“Not the administrator.”
Then Rebecca added something unexpected.
“Your grandmother asked specifically about Mrs. Miller.”
Grace turned toward her mother.
“Mom, do you know Vittoria Romano?”
Evelyn looked at Alessandro.
Something changed in her expression.
“Lorenzo's boy.”
Alessandro stepped closer.
“Mrs. Miller?”
Evelyn studied his face.
“You have your father's eyes.”
He swallowed.
“You knew him?”
“Oh, yes.”
Her smile faded.
“He was not always a good man.”
The room became silent.
Evelyn looked toward the suitcase.
“Where's my watch?”
Grace frowned.
“What watch, Mom?”
“The little gold one. Lorenzo told me to keep it safe.”
Alessandro carefully removed the pocket watch from his coat.
“This one?”
Evelyn stared.
Her hands began trembling.
“Oh, goodness.”
Grace sat beside her.
“Mom, what's wrong?”
Evelyn touched the scratched initials.
“E.M. That's mine.”
Alessandro knelt beside her chair.
“Why did my father give you this?”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“For remembering.”
“Remembering what?”
She shook her head.
The words seemed to slip away.
Grace recognized the frustration immediately.
“It's okay, Mom. You don't have to force yourself.”
Evelyn squeezed her daughter's hand.
“I used to know important things.”
“You still do.”
“Now they get all mixed up.”
Grace rested her forehead against her mother's.
“I love you exactly as you are.”
While Rebecca arranged for an independent physician to examine Evelyn and review the proposed transfer, Daniel brought Alessandro the security footage from the rehabilitation facility.
They watched it in an empty consultation room.
At 6:42 p.m., Sebastian entered the building.
At 7:03, he escorted their grandmother toward a black sedan.
She carried a blue handbag.
She appeared upset but walked beside him voluntarily.
A second vehicle followed.
Its registration belonged to Whitmore Residential Holdings.
Alessandro replayed the footage.
“Sebastian wasn't forcing her.”
Daniel nodded.
“But someone was following them.”
“Can you identify the driver?”
“Not yet.”
Alessandro watched his grandmother get into the car.
He remembered the photograph in Sebastian's office.
Two brothers.
One grandmother.
A family that had once seemed impossible to break apart.
He had spent seventeen years treating Sebastian like an embarrassment.
Now he wasn't certain who had betrayed whom.
Back upstairs, Grace helped her mother drink some tea.
Evelyn kept glancing toward the pocket watch.
Finally, she spoke.
“Sebastian wasn't a thief.”
Grace set down the cup.
“What?”
“He was a nice young man. He brought me flowers when my husband died.”
Grace's father had passed away when she was twelve.
She remembered the flowers.
White carnations.
She'd never known who sent them.
“Mom, what happened to Sebastian?”
Evelyn touched the watch.
“Lorenzo wanted everything quiet.”
“What did he want quiet?”
“The money.”
Grace waited.
“He said families would be ruined if people found out.”
“Found out what?”
Evelyn's eyes filled with tears.
“I was supposed to be honest.”
Grace took her hand.
“You can be honest now.”
Her mother looked terrified.
“I put my name on it.”
“On what?”
“The agreement.”
“Which agreement?”
Evelyn began crying.
“I thought I was helping the old people. He said their homes would be saved.”
Grace hugged her.
“Who said that?”
“Lorenzo.”
Alessandro, returning to the room, heard his father's name.
He stopped in the doorway.
Evelyn looked directly at him.
“Your father didn't make Sebastian sign.”
Alessandro stepped forward.
“What do you mean?”
“I watched Sebastian read every page.”
“Did he understand what he was signing?”
Evelyn nodded.
“He was twenty-two. He knew what he was giving away.”
Alessandro felt sick.
“Giving away?”
“His inheritance.”
Grace glanced at him.
Evelyn continued.
“Sebastian said those people needed their money more than he did.”
Alessandro sat heavily in the nearest chair.
For seventeen years, his father had told him Sebastian tried to steal his inheritance.
Now a woman who had nothing to gain was saying exactly the opposite.
“What people?” Alessandro asked.
Evelyn stared at the window.
“The ones at Riverside.”
Then her expression clouded.
“I don't remember the rest.”
Grace gently stopped Alessandro from asking more questions.
“She needs to rest.”
He nodded.
But Daniel was already examining the photograph from Sebastian's office.
Under magnification, the agreement visible on the desk behind Lorenzo and Evelyn had a recognizable heading.
THREE STARS RESTITUTION FUND.
Below it appeared the signature of Sebastian Romano.
Alessandro opened the scanned 2009 documents Daniel had obtained from the family archive.
The signature matched.
But the receiving organization was different.
Instead of the Three Stars Restitution Fund, the digitized document named Whitmore Heritage Holdings.
“Someone changed the beneficiary,” Daniel said.
Alessandro stared at the screen.
“That would mean Sebastian surrendered his inheritance for one purpose, and the money was diverted somewhere else.”
Grace looked at her sleeping mother.
“She said she thought she was helping people.”
Daniel scrolled through the old records.
Then stopped.
“Sir, the original agreement wasn't just about Sebastian's inheritance.”
Alessandro leaned forward.
The last paragraph listed a second source of restitution funding.
A parcel of Manhattan waterfront property.
Purchased with money held for Riverside's elderly residents.
The registered buyer had been Lorenzo Romano.
But the company that eventually developed the property had another owner's name.
May you like
Alessandro Romano.
And the property now housed Alessandro's first luxury casino.
Related Stories
