Chapter 8 - THE WOMAN WHO RAISED TWO SONS
“Mrs. Russo, did you help someone kill my brother?”
Luca stood in the mansion's old breakfast room.
The question hung between them.
Mrs. Elena Russo, seventy-two, had worked for the Morettis for more than three decades.
She was small, silver-haired, and usually composed.
She had comforted Luca after childhood nightmares.
She had taught Daniel how to bake his first birthday cake.
She had sat beside their mother through her final illness.
Now she stood with both hands resting on the back of a chair.
“I never wanted Daniel hurt,” she said.
“That wasn't my question.”
Mrs. Russo looked toward Hannah.
“Why is she here?”
“Because her husband died too,” Luca replied.
Hannah stepped forward.
“And my son deserves answers.”
Mrs. Russo lowered her eyes.
“I know.”
Luca placed Daniel's letter on the table.
“Read it.”
She looked at the handwriting.
Her expression collapsed.
“Oh, Danny.”
The nickname made Luca's chest tighten.
Only family had called his brother Danny.
Mrs. Russo sank into the chair.
“I told him not to get involved.”
“In what?”
“The family accounts. Arthur's anger. Your father's old mistakes.”
Luca folded his arms.
“Did you know Arthur and Michael were my half brothers?”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me?”
“Antonio made me promise.”
“My father is dead.”
“Promises don't always die with people.”
Hannah couldn't contain herself.
“Sometimes they should.”
Mrs. Russo looked at her.
Tears filled her eyes.
“You're right.”
For the next hour, she told them what she knew.
Antonio had hired her when Luca was six.
She had quickly discovered Rebecca's existence.
Over the years, she became the person who carried messages, delivered gifts, and quietly handled family emergencies.
When Arthur grew older, he began visiting the mansion under the excuse of legal work.
Michael came much less often.
He wanted nothing to do with Antonio.
But Daniel had secretly developed a friendship with him.
Mrs. Russo had encouraged it.
“I thought the boys might heal what their father broke,” she whispered.
Luca stared.
“Then why did Daniel believe you were involved in his death?”
Mrs. Russo began trembling.
“Because I gave Arthur access to the estate's security systems.”
Marco leaned forward.
“When?”
“The week before Daniel died.”
“Why?”
“Arthur told me Daniel was receiving threats. He said he needed to check the navigation equipment on Daniel's car.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“And you believed him?”
“He was the family attorney.”
“He was also my brother.”
Mrs. Russo nodded.
“I knew. That's why I trusted him.”
Hannah thought of Michael's accident.
“Did Arthur ask you to do the same thing to my husband's car?”
Mrs. Russo shook her head quickly.
“No. Michael came to me himself a few months before he died.”
“Why?”
“He said he'd found something Daniel wanted hidden.”
“What?”
“A recording.”
Hannah leaned forward.
“Did he leave it with you?”
Mrs. Russo nodded.
“For one night.”
“Where is it?”
“I gave it back.”
“To Michael?”
Mrs. Russo hesitated.
“No.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“To whom?”
She looked directly at him.
“Vanessa.”
The room went silent.
Hannah stared.
“Vanessa Whitmore?”
Mrs. Russo nodded.
“She told me Michael had asked her to collect it.”
Luca felt a sickening realization.
Vanessa had known far more than she'd admitted.
He summoned her to the breakfast room.
She arrived twenty minutes later.
The moment she saw Mrs. Russo, she stopped.
“What's happened?”
Luca placed the letter on the table.
“Mrs. Russo says you collected a recording from her fourteen months ago.”
Vanessa's face went pale.
“Luca—”
“Don't lie.”
She looked at Hannah.
Then at Mrs. Russo.
Finally, she sat down.
“Yes.”
Hannah stepped closer.
“Did Michael give you permission?”
“No.”
“Then why did you take it?”
Vanessa began crying.
“Because Caroline was being threatened.”
Luca didn't move.
“By Bellamy?”
Vanessa nodded.
“He told Caroline the recording proved she helped cause Daniel's accident. He said if anyone found it, she'd be prosecuted.”
“So you retrieved it.”
“Yes.”
“Where is it now?”
Vanessa stared at her hands.
“I don't have it anymore.”
Luca felt his patience slipping.
“Who does?”
She whispered, “Arthur.”
Hannah turned away.
Her husband had spent years protecting evidence.
Vanessa had handed it to the very man Michael feared.
“You gave him the recording?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“He took it from my car. I was supposed to deliver it to Caroline. Someone broke into the glove compartment that night.”
Luca stared at her.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I thought I could fix it.”
“You keep saying that.”
“I know.”
“You framed an innocent woman, let my nephew be threatened, and concealed evidence connected to two deaths.”
Vanessa covered her face.
“I know what I've done.”
Hannah watched her.
For the first time, she saw something beneath Vanessa's arrogance.
A woman so afraid of losing control that she'd sacrificed everyone around her.
But understanding wasn't forgiveness.
“You need to tell the police,” Hannah said.
Vanessa looked up.
“About the recording?”
“About everything.”
Vanessa nodded slowly.
“I will.”
Luca turned toward Marco.
“Get an independent investigator. Someone outside Newport.”
Marco was already making arrangements.
But Mrs. Russo raised her hand.
“There's something else.”
Luca turned.
“What?”
She reached into her apron pocket.
A small object rested in her palm.
A gold rosary.
Daniel's rosary.
Their mother had given it to him when he was a teenager.
Luca hadn't seen it since the funeral.
“Where did you get that?”
Mrs. Russo looked ashamed.
“Daniel gave it to Michael. Michael returned it to me shortly before his accident.”
Hannah stepped closer.
“Why?”
“He told me to keep it until someone finally asked the right question.”
Luca took the rosary.
One bead was darker than the others.
The small cross had an unusual hinge.
He opened it.
Inside was a tiny rolled paper.
Not a secret account number.
Not another name.
A simple instruction.
CHECK THE ORIGINAL SHIPPING CONTAINER RECORDS. THE GOODS WERE NEVER ON THE BOATS.
Marco frowned.
“What goods?”
Mrs. Russo began crying again.
“The forty-two million dollars wasn't stolen from the company.”
Luca stared.
“Then what was it?”
She looked at Hannah.
“It was money Antonio set aside for Rebecca's sons.”
Luca froze.
Mrs. Russo continued.
“Arthur believed your father had stolen their inheritance. But Antonio had actually placed it in a protected fund.”
“Then why hide it?” Luca demanded.
“Because the fund wasn't for Arthur.”
Hannah looked toward the photograph of Michael.
May you like
Mrs. Russo whispered:
“Antonio left everything to Michael—and Arthur found out the morning Daniel died.”
