Chapter 6 - The Sister Nobody Was Allowed to Remember
“Play it again.”
Dante's voice was barely audible.
Marcus rewound the cassette.
The room filled with static.
Then Elizabeth's words returned.
I'll tell Dante what really happened to his little sister.
Emma watched Dante's expression change.
“Mr. Bellini?”
He held up one hand.
The tape ended.
Dante looked toward Marcus.
“Did you know I had a sister?”
Marcus shook his head.
“No, boss.”
Dante stared at the cassette.
He remembered his mother once painting a small bedroom yellow.
He had been about five.
There had been a wooden rocking chair beside the window.
And a white crib.
His parents had told him they were preparing for a baby.
Months later, the room was empty.
His father said his mother had lost the pregnancy.
Dante had never asked about it again.
He looked at Emma.
“I was six when my parents told me the baby died.”
Emma's expression softened.
“Maybe they weren't telling you the truth.”
Dante closed his eyes.
He had spent his life believing his family history was fixed.
His mother died in 2002.
He was an only child.
His father had protected him.
Now every certainty was breaking apart.
Dante returned to the mansion and went straight to Vincent's library.
His father was sitting at the desk.
A glass of water stood beside his medication.
Dante placed the cassette recorder in front of him.
“Tell me about my sister.”
Vincent's hand froze.
For the first time in Dante's adult life, his father looked genuinely frightened.
“Where did you hear that?”
Dante pressed Play.
Elizabeth's voice filled the room.
Vincent shut his eyes.
When the tape stopped, Dante leaned forward.
“Was she born?”
His father nodded.
“Did she die?”
Vincent didn't answer.
Dante's chest tightened.
“Did she?”
“No.”
The word seemed to drain all sound from the room.
Dante gripped the edge of the desk.
“Where is she?”
Vincent stared at his hands.
“I don't know.”
Dante stepped back.
“You don't know?”
“She was taken from us.”
“By whom?”
“Charles Prescott.”
Dante shook his head.
“Why?”
Vincent looked older than Dante had ever seen him.
“Your mother was pregnant in 1989. Charles had discovered that I was planning to remove him from the foundation's financial operations.”
“What does that have to do with a baby?”
“He threatened us.”
“With what?”
Vincent looked toward the window.
“He had photographs. Financial records. Proof that I'd moved money through companies I shouldn't have trusted.”
“You were laundering money.”
Vincent didn't deny it.
“Charles knew that if I went down, the foundation would go down with me.”
“And you let him take your daughter?”
“No.”
Vincent's voice broke.
“She was taken from the hospital.”
Dante stared.
“You're telling me Charles kidnapped my sister?”
Vincent nodded.
“We searched for months.”
“Did you call the police?”
“We did. Quietly.”
Dante felt disgust.
“Quietly.”
“Charles had people inside the department.”
“Then why didn't you go public?”
Vincent's eyes filled.
“Because he sent us a photograph of her.”
Dante stopped.
Vincent opened a drawer.
He removed a small envelope.
Inside was a faded photograph.
A baby wrapped in a pink blanket.
A tiny gold necklace rested around her neck.
The pendant was shaped like a star.
Dante stared.
On the back was written:
She's safe as long as you cooperate.
Dante felt his throat close.
He had spent his childhood without a sister because his father had been afraid to lose control.
“What was her name?”
Vincent's lips trembled.
“Isabella.”
Dante looked at the photograph.
“Isabella Bellini.”
Vincent nodded.
“Your mother never stopped looking.”
Dante remembered Elizabeth's years of confinement.
“And when she found something?”
“Charles made sure she disappeared.”
Dante lowered the photograph.
“What did Rebecca Miller have to do with Isabella?”
Vincent looked ashamed.
“Rebecca found a record of where the baby had been taken.”
Dante's pulse quickened.
“Where?”
“She never told me.”
“Why not?”
“She didn't trust me.”
Dante almost laughed.
“Can you blame her?”
Vincent lowered his head.
“No.”
When Dante told Elizabeth what he'd learned, she wept.
For several minutes, she couldn't speak.
Then she reached beneath her pillow.
She removed a small velvet pouch.
Inside was a second gold star necklace.
Dante stared.
“One for each of them,” Elizabeth whispered.
“Each of whom?”
“Isabella and me.”
She placed the necklace in his palm.
“I had them made before she was born.”
Dante sat beside her.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Charles said he'd hurt you if I did.”
“Mom, I was seventeen when Rebecca disappeared.”
“I know.”
“I could have helped.”
Elizabeth touched his face.
“You were still my boy.”
He didn't pull away.
For the first time since the garage, he allowed her hand to rest against his cheek.
“Did Rebecca know where Isabella was?”
Elizabeth nodded.
“She found an adoption record.”
Dante leaned forward.
“Where?”
“At the county clerk's office. Someone had filed it under a different name.”
“What name?”
Elizabeth hesitated.
“I never saw the complete record.”
“Why?”
“Rebecca was going to bring it to me. But Charles found her first.”
Dante remembered the tape.
Richard trying to stop his father.
Vincent pleading.
Elizabeth warning them.
“Did Richard know about Isabella?”
“I think so.”
“Then he's been hiding that from me.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes.
“He was a frightened boy then, Danny.”
“He's a grown man now.”
“I know.”
Dante stood.
“I'm going to make him tell me.”
Richard was waiting in a guarded conference room.
Savannah sat beside him.
Dante placed the photograph of Isabella on the table.
Richard stared at it.
His expression changed instantly.
“You found that?”
“Where's my sister?”
Richard swallowed.
“I don't know.”
Dante leaned closer.
“Don't repeat my father's mistakes.”
Richard stared at the photograph for a long time.
Then he spoke.
“When I was seventeen, I found my father's private ledger. I saw payments for a child-care agency in northern Nevada.”
“Which agency?”
“It closed years ago.”
“Name.”
“Silver Pines Family Services.”
Dante looked toward Marcus.
Marcus made a note.
Richard continued.
“My father told me it was none of my business. Then I overheard him arguing with Rebecca at the lake house.”
“What did she know?”
“She'd found the same payments.”
Dante's eyes narrowed.
“So you knew Charles kidnapped Isabella.”
Richard nodded.
“I suspected it.”
“Why didn't you tell anyone?”
Richard looked miserable.
“I told my mother.”
“What happened?”
“She went to confront him.”
Richard paused.
“Two weeks later, she was dead.”
Dante stared.
He remembered hearing that Mrs. Prescott had died in a boating accident.
Richard's eyes filled.
“I was seventeen. My father told me if I talked, he'd make sure Savannah disappeared too.”
Savannah looked at her brother.
“You never told me that.”
“I was trying to keep you safe.”
Dante's voice hardened.
“And now you've spent years turning into him.”
Richard flinched.
“I know.”
“Why arrange the hotel deal?”
Richard drew a deep breath.
“Because the foundation's old trust documents contain a clause. If Isabella is alive, she may control a portion of the assets my father stole.”
Dante went still.
“What portion?”
“Forty percent.”
Dante stared.
“Of the Bellini Foundation?”
Richard nodded.
“The hotel agreement would transfer certain assets into a new investment structure. Once signed, it would be much harder to recover them.”
“Then why involve me?”
“Because your signature is required.”
Dante leaned forward.
“You wanted me to sign away my sister's inheritance.”
Richard nodded miserably.
“I was trying to cover debts my father left behind.”
Savannah stood.
“You told me the deal would save St. Catherine's.”
“It would have funded the facility,” Richard said. “But it would also have protected those debts.”
Dante looked at Savannah.
Her face was pale.
Richard continued.
“I was wrong. But when I found Elizabeth alive, I thought I could force Vincent to release the original records.”
“By threatening the engagement party?”
Richard looked down.
“Yes.”
“And hurting Emma?”
“I never told Savannah to hurt her.”
Savannah's eyes filled.
“No. I made that choice myself.”
Dante studied them both.
There would be consequences.
But right now, he needed Isabella.
Marcus entered with a thin folder.
“Boss, Silver Pines Family Services closed in 2005. Most records were transferred.”
“Where?”
“To a private adoption archive in Reno.”
Dante turned toward the door.
Then Marcus added something else.
“We found one surviving intake photograph.”
He placed it on the table.
A little girl, approximately five years old, stood beside a woman wearing a blue sweater.
Around the child's neck hung a gold star necklace.
Dante's heart pounded.
He looked at the name printed beneath the picture.
ISABELLA BELLINI — PLACEMENT DATE: JUNE 14, 1994.
Then he saw the handwritten note at the bottom.
Transferred to the care of Anne Brooks.
Emma's mother's name.
Dante slowly lifted his head.
May you like
If Anne Brooks had raised Isabella, then Emma might know her.
Or worse, she might have spent her entire life living beside Dante's missing sister without knowing it.
