Chapter 4 - THE THIRTEENTH BRACELET
“Who is she, Mom?”
Emily held the photograph closer to her mother's face.
“Please. You said Graham knows the baby. Who is she?”
Margaret stared at the little girl wrapped in yellow.
Her lips moved.
But no words came.
Ruth stepped forward.
“She's exhausted. We need to let her rest.”
Emily wanted to argue.
Then she saw how frightened her mother looked.
She folded the photograph and placed it gently on the bedside table.
“I'm not going anywhere until I know you're safe.”
Margaret touched her cheek.
“You always were stubborn.”
Emily smiled through her tears.
“You taught me.”
Vincent quietly arranged for Ruth to contact Margaret's regular physician and a patient advocate.
He also asked that Margaret's medications and transfer orders be independently reviewed.
He could control a great deal in Philadelphia.
But he couldn't simply overrule a medical decision because he was angry.
And tonight, anger was all he felt.
Outside Margaret's room, Emily turned toward him.
“Graham helped you find this nursing home?”
Vincent nodded.
“When you asked for a recommendation, I had him locate a place with good rehabilitation services.”
“And it happened to belong to Brianna's mother?”
“I didn't know that at the time.”
Emily stared at him.
“You expect me to believe a man who controls half this city's businesses doesn't know who owns the place where his employees' parents live?”
The accusation hurt.
Because it was fair.
Vincent looked through the glass toward Margaret.
“I trusted Graham to handle it.”
“That's exactly what everybody keeps saying.”
Emily pulled her cardigan tighter.
“Your grandfather trusted Enzo. You trusted Graham. And my mother is the one paying for it.”
Vincent did not defend himself.
He took out his phone.
“Then I'll stop trusting people to do the right thing just because they work for me.”
He called Marco.
“Have our accounting department preserve every foundation record Graham can access. No deletions. No transfers without a second authorization.”
Marco hesitated.
“Boss, Graham already approved a property transaction this afternoon.”
“What property?”
“Willow Creek Care Center and the neighboring St. Agnes parcel.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“Freeze it.”
“I'll try. The paperwork's already circulating.”
“Get me the details.”
Emily had heard enough.
“They're selling the nursing home?”
“Possibly.”
“To whom?”
Vincent looked at her.
“A development company connected to our foundation.”
Emily stared at the floor.
Her mother's home was being sold by the same people arranging to remove her.
And Graham had deliberately placed Margaret there.
Vincent reached toward Emily.
She stepped away.
“Don't promise me it'll be fine.”
He lowered his hand.
“Then I won't.”
They returned to the Moretti mansion shortly before midnight.
The birthday guests were gone.
Brianna waited in the sitting room with a cold cup of tea.
Her makeup had faded.
When she saw Vincent, she stood.
“Did you see her?”
Vincent stopped.
“Who?”
“Margaret.”
Emily stepped forward.
“You knew she'd been drugged.”
Brianna looked away.
“I knew the doctors were changing her treatment.”
“That's not what I asked.”
Brianna gripped her cup.
“My mother said Margaret had become dangerous.”
Emily gave a disbelieving laugh.
“Dangerous? She can barely stand without assistance.”
“She remembers things my mother doesn't want discussed.”
There it was.
The first honest sentence Brianna had spoken all evening.
Vincent pulled a chair forward.
“Sit down.”
Brianna remained standing.
“I'm not your prisoner.”
“No. But you're still my fiancée, and you owe both of us an explanation.”
Brianna's face tightened.
“You think this started because I'm jealous of a housekeeper?”
Emily answered before Vincent could.
“You seemed jealous enough when you made fifty people laugh at me.”
Brianna flinched.
“I know what I did.”
“Then why?”
Brianna stared at her hands.
“My mother told me the dress belonged to a woman who ruined our family.”
Vincent frowned.
“Rose?”
“She said Rose Moretti took something that belonged to us. Something she never gave back.”
“Then why put Emily in the dress?”
Brianna swallowed.
“My mother wanted it inside this house. She wanted your grandfather to see it. She said once he reacted, Graham could finally prove he wasn't capable of managing the family trust.”
Vincent's expression changed.
“You were trying to have Salvatore declared incompetent?”
“I didn't know what they'd do after that.”
“You knew enough to help.”
Brianna looked at Emily.
“I was supposed to get the dress back before anybody searched the lining. When you appeared in it, I thought security would take you away and I could retrieve it.”
Emily felt a fresh wave of anger.
“So you were willing to destroy my reputation to protect yourself.”
Brianna looked down.
“Yes.”
The admission did not make Emily feel better.
Vincent asked, “What is Graham after?”
“Control of the foundation.”
“He already manages it.”
“But he can't sell certain properties without your grandfather's approval. If Salvatore loses control, Graham becomes acting trustee.”
Vincent stared at her.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Brianna's eyes filled.
“Because my mother's been paying for my younger brother Ethan's rehabilitation since his accident. She told me she'd stop if I interfered.”
Emily looked at her.
For the first time, she saw fear beneath the cruelty.
But she also saw a woman who had chosen to pass that fear along to someone weaker.
Vincent spoke quietly.
“What happened to Ethan doesn't give you the right to hurt Emily.”
“I know.”
“Then start making things right.”
Brianna's face twisted.
“You don't know my mother.”
Vincent turned toward the old nursery.
“I'm beginning to.”
Salvatore was waiting inside.
The twelve bracelets lay across the little cradle.
He had arranged them in numerical order.
When Vincent entered, the old man lifted his head.
“Did Margaret remember?”
“Some of it.”
Salvatore touched bracelet thirteen's empty place.
“Teresa wanted me to tell you the truth before she died.”
Vincent sat beside him.
“Then tell me now.”
Salvatore looked toward Emily.
“Rose discovered that Enzo was taking babies from women who had never agreed to surrender them.”
Emily nodded.
“My mother told us.”
“Rose started keeping records. The bracelets were her way of matching babies to the women who gave birth to them.”
“Why thirteen?” Vincent asked.
“Because the thirteenth baby was the one she managed to bring here.”
He looked toward the white cradle.
“She slept in this room for eleven nights.”
Emily touched the yellow blanket.
“Where did she go?”
“Teresa arranged for a family to take her somewhere safe after Rose died.”
Vincent frowned.
“Teresa wasn't your wife yet.”
“No. She worked with Rose at the charity. And she was the only person who knew where all the children had gone.”
Emily studied the photograph again.
“The baby was adopted?”
Salvatore nodded.
“By a couple named Collins.”
Brianna had followed them into the doorway.
The cup slipped from her hand.
It shattered against the floor.
Vincent slowly turned.
“Collins?”
Salvatore looked at her.
“The baby's name was Diana. They later called her Diane.”
Brianna covered her mouth.
“My mother?”
Salvatore nodded.
“Diane Collins was the child Rose died trying to protect.”
Emily looked at the blue dress draped over the rocking chair.
Suddenly Brianna's mother's obsession made a terrible kind of sense.
Diane had grown up inside a lie.
And somebody had spent decades making sure she never escaped it.
Brianna whispered, “My mother told me Rose stole her from her real family.”
Salvatore closed his eyes.
“No, sweetheart.”
He reached for the thirteenth empty place.
“Rose stole her back from the man who was selling her.”
Then Emily noticed something beneath the cradle mattress.
A small cream envelope.
It had fallen through a gap in the old wooden frame.
Across the front, in Rose's handwriting, were four words:
FOR DIANA, WHEN GROWN.
Emily opened it carefully.
Inside was a tiny yellow ribbon and a single sentence.
Your mother never stopped looking for you.
Brianna stared at the letter.
Then she whispered something that made Vincent turn cold.
“My mother knows her birth mother.”
Emily looked up.
“How?”
Brianna's voice shook.
“Because Graham took her to meet that woman three months ago.”
May you like
She looked directly at Vincent.
“And afterward, my mother agreed to help him destroy everything Rose left behind.”
