Chapter 2 - THE NAME HIS FATHER FORBADE HIM TO SPEAK
Vanessa Bennett's champagne glass trembled in her hand.
For the first time that evening, the beautiful woman who had spent hours showing off her engagement ring seemed unable to find her voice.
Dante Moretti stood less than three feet away.
"Answer me, Vanessa."
Two hundred guests watched beneath the crystal chandeliers.
I wished the marble floor would open and swallow me.
My mother's medical bills were private. My financial struggles were private. And the last thing I wanted was an entire ballroom of wealthy strangers discussing how a twenty-six-year-old maid couldn't afford to keep her mother healthy.
Vanessa finally spoke.
"I didn't cancel anything."
Dante turned toward Marco Bellini, his longtime security chief.
Marco was forty-five, broad-shouldered, and usually so quiet that people forgot he was in the room.
He held out a black tablet.
"At 2:17 this afternoon, Bennett Care Services suspended the medical-support authorization for Miriam Carter. The request came through Miss Bennett's household administration account."
My mother's name sounded painfully vulnerable in that enormous ballroom.
Vanessa straightened.
"I requested a review. That's completely different."
"Of a sick woman's treatment?" Dante asked.
"Of suspicious payments."
His expression didn't change.
"Explain."
Vanessa glanced at me.
"Perhaps we shouldn't discuss this in front of the help."
Something cold moved across Dante's face.
"Elena is the person whose family you interfered with. She stays."
He turned to Marco.
"Clear the room."
Within minutes, guests began moving toward the adjoining reception hall.
Several whispered behind their hands.
Vanessa's friends disappeared without saying goodbye.
I stood beside the champagne table, wishing I could disappear with them.
When the ballroom doors finally closed, Dante approached me.
"Elena, did she hurt your wrist?"
"I'm fine."
"That's not what I asked."
I glanced down at the red marks left by Vanessa's fingers.
"She grabbed me. It wasn't serious."
His voice softened.
"It was serious enough to make you afraid."
Something inside me nearly broke.
Because that was the terrible thing about Dante Moretti.
He could make me feel protected with a single sentence.
And I had no right to want his protection.
Vanessa set her glass down.
"Are you finished embarrassing me over a servant?"
Dante looked at her.
"You're doing that yourself."
She flinched.
Then she reached into her silver evening purse and removed a folded photograph.
"Fine. You want an explanation? Look at this."
She placed it on the table.
The photograph was old, its edges yellowed.
Three women stood outside a hospital entrance.
One wore a pale blue nurse's uniform.
Another wore a dark coat with a small pearl pin near the collar.
The third was beautiful, with dark hair and warm eyes.
Dante picked up the picture.
His entire expression changed.
"Where did you get this?"
"It belonged to my mother."
I leaned closer.
The woman in the nurse's uniform looked impossibly young.
But I knew her face.
"That's my mother," I whispered.
Dante turned toward me.
"You're certain?"
"Yes. She used to keep her hair like that. She worked at a hospital before I was old enough to remember."
Vanessa gave a bitter little laugh.
"Of course she did."
Dante pointed to the dark-haired woman standing beside my mother.
"That's my mother. Lucia Moretti."
I stared at him.
His mother had died when he was fourteen.
He almost never spoke about her.
Yet there she was, smiling beside my mother twenty-four years earlier.
I looked again at the third woman.
Vanessa's voice became quiet.
"And the woman in the dark coat is my mother, Beatrice Bennett."
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Three mothers.
Three families.
One photograph neither Dante nor I had ever seen.
"Why were they together?" I asked.
Vanessa opened her purse again.
This time she removed a photocopied hospital transfer form.
"Because your mother was working the night Lucia Moretti died."
Dante took the paper.
His eyes moved down the page.
Then stopped.
"Where did you find this?"
"My father kept it with my mother's belongings."
He read something again.
I saw the muscles tighten along his jaw.
Vanessa looked at me.
"My father told me that your mother was accused of stealing money from a medical charity. When I discovered Dante was paying her hospital bills, I wanted the payments investigated."
I felt the blood drain from my face.
"My mother never stole anything."
"Then perhaps she can explain why she disappeared from that hospital after Lucia died."
"Vanessa," Dante warned.
But she wasn't finished.
"My mother spent years trying to protect your family's reputation. And now this woman's daughter is living under your roof."
Dante placed the paper on the table.
"I remember what my father told me about that night," he said quietly.
Vanessa nodded.
"Then you understand."
"No. I understand that my father kept information from me."
He looked at Marco.
"Restore Miriam Carter's medical authorization immediately. If the billing company refuses, pay the hospital directly from my personal account."
Marco left to make the arrangements.
Then Dante faced Vanessa.
"The wedding is postponed."
Her mouth opened.
"Dante—"
"Until I know the truth."
I should have felt relieved.
Instead, I was terrified.
Dante picked up the hospital form and walked toward me.
"Elena, I need you to look at something."
Near the bottom was a signature.
Miriam Carter.
Beside it were the words:
EMERGENCY PATIENT TRANSFER AUTHORIZED.
Destination: Bennett Private Medical Center.
Dante's voice dropped.
"My mother was supposed to be taken to a hospital with a full intensive care unit."
He looked directly into my eyes.
"She was sent somewhere else."
My breath caught.
May you like
Then Dante asked the question that changed everything.
"Elena, why did your mother sign the order that sent my mother to the hospital where she died?"
