Chapter 2 - THE GRANDMOTHER WHO WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE IN AMERICA
“The woman who supposedly witnessed my signature has been missing from my daughter's life for two years,” Luca Moretti said. “And now you're telling me she helped authorize taking Lily away?”
His attorney, Daniel Mercer, didn't answer immediately.
That silence frightened me more than anything.
We were standing in Luca's study shortly after nine-thirty, while seven-year-old Lily slept upstairs in her father's bedroom.
Outside, Elena Moretti waited at the front gate beside a county child-protection investigator.
Vanessa stood near the fireplace, looking unusually quiet.
Finally, Daniel spoke through the phone.
“Luca, the document identifies Margaret Hale as the witness. According to the filing, she was physically present in Chicago three days ago.”
Luca gripped the edge of his desk.
“Margaret lives in Switzerland.”
“That's what everyone was told.”
I saw Vanessa glance toward the door.
It was a small movement.
But Luca noticed.
“Vanessa,” he said, “don't leave.”
She stopped.
“Darling, this has become ridiculous. Elena is overreacting. We can settle everything tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow, someone is trying to take my daughter. Tonight, you're going to answer my questions.”
Before she could respond, his security chief, Marcus, appeared.
“Sir, the investigator has a valid court order requesting an interview. There's no removal order.”
“Bring her inside. Elena stays in the foyer until I've spoken to the investigator.”
The investigator introduced herself as Dana Price.
She was a middle-aged woman with tired eyes and a calm voice.
She didn't look impressed by Luca's expensive office or the armed men standing outside.
“I need to establish whether Lily is safe,” she explained. “The court authorized an interview. It did not authorize anyone to remove her tonight.”
“Then you can interview her,” Luca replied. “With appropriate safeguards.”
Dana turned toward me.
“Are you Natalie Brooks?”
“Yes.”
She opened her folder.
“Did you write a statement claiming Mr. Moretti regularly leaves his daughter locked in a storage room?”
“No.”
“Did you sign this?”
She showed me a printed page.
My signature appeared at the bottom.
I recognized the shape of every letter.
Because someone had copied it almost perfectly.
Except for one detail.
I always crossed the final letter of my surname with a short, downward stroke.
Whoever forged this signature had missed it.
“That's not mine,” I said.
Dana studied my face.
“You understand that knowingly making a false statement in this investigation could have serious consequences?”
“I understand. And I would swear under oath that I never wrote those words.”
Vanessa suddenly laughed.
“Honestly, Natalie, perhaps you signed something without reading it.”
I turned toward her.
“I know what I sign, Mrs. Whitmore.”
“Miss Whitmore,” Luca corrected quietly.
Vanessa's expression tightened.
He had never corrected anyone about her title before.
Dana continued reviewing the paperwork.
According to the petition, Lily had been isolated, emotionally neglected, and exposed to dangerous household conditions.
The photographs showed her sitting on a dirty mattress inside the storage room.
But the images didn't show Vanessa standing behind the camera.
They didn't show Lily crying because she'd been ordered to sit there.
And they certainly didn't show me carrying her away.
“There's another problem,” Dana said.
She held up a photograph.
It showed a small pink suitcase beside the mattress.
“That suitcase is supposedly evidence that Lily has been living there.”
I stepped forward.
“It was packed this afternoon. I saw two men carrying her luggage toward the garage.”
Marcus immediately checked his tablet.
“The men entered using temporary vendor passes. Approved by Miss Whitmore.”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“They were moving furniture!”
“Furniture?” Luca repeated. “In my daughter's suitcases?”
For the first time, Vanessa had nothing to say.
Dana asked to speak with Lily.
Luca agreed after confirming that he could remain nearby without answering for her.
I accompanied them upstairs.
Lily was awake when we entered.
She sat against Luca's pillows, holding her teddy bear beneath her chin.
“Am I in trouble?” she asked.
“No, sweetheart,” Dana replied.
She pulled a chair beside the bed.
“I'm Dana. I just want to ask you something. Where do you usually sleep?”
“My room. The one with the stars.”
“And where did you sleep tonight?”
“Downstairs.”
“Why?”
Lily looked toward Luca.
“Vanessa said my room wasn't mine anymore.”
Luca closed his eyes.
Dana continued gently.
“Did your daddy tell you that?”
Lily shook her head.
“No. Daddy gave me the stars.”
She meant the little ceiling projector he'd installed after her mother died.
I'd watched her fall asleep beneath those moving stars dozens of times.
Dana asked whether Lily felt safe with her father.
Lily nodded.
Then she whispered something that made my stomach tighten.
“But I don't like the suitcase game.”
“What suitcase game?” Dana asked.
“Vanessa said if I was good, I'd get to visit a new house. She told me not to tell Daddy.”
Luca's expression changed.
“What new house, Lily?”
“Aunt Elena knows.”
Dana didn't press further.
She thanked Lily and allowed Luca to comfort her.
When we returned downstairs, Elena was waiting in the foyer.
She was forty-one, elegantly dressed, with the same dark eyes as her brother.
She looked exhausted.
“Luca,” she began, “please listen before you start shouting.”
“Did you know Vanessa photographed my daughter in a storage room?”
Elena hesitated.
“I knew there were concerns about the household.”
“Answer me.”
“No. I didn't know how those photographs were taken.”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“Elena, don't let him intimidate you.”
“Enough,” Elena snapped.
It was the first time I'd heard her speak sharply to Vanessa.
Luca placed the forged statement on the table.
“Did you read this before filing your petition?”
Elena examined it.
Her face slowly lost its color.
“This isn't the statement I was shown.”
“Then what were you shown?”
“A written account saying Natalie had observed Lily being left alone repeatedly. Vanessa told me Natalie was terrified of losing her job.”
I felt sick.
Someone had used my fear for my mother's medical expenses to make the lie believable.
“Elena,” Luca said, “where is Margaret Hale?”
His sister looked away.
“That's complicated.”
“She witnessed a document three days ago. Where is she?”
Elena rubbed her forehead.
“Margaret hasn't been living overseas.”
The room became perfectly still.
“She came back to Illinois after breaking her hip last winter. She needed rehabilitation.”
“And nobody told me?”
“She didn't want to see you.”
Luca looked genuinely wounded.
“Margaret is Lily's grandmother.”
“She blamed you for Evelyn's death, Luca.”
That name changed the air in the room.
Evelyn.
Lily's mother.
The woman whose photographs still sat beside Luca's bed.
Luca spoke quietly.
“Where is she?”
Elena finally gave him the name of a residential rehabilitation center outside Chicago.
Dana wrote it down.
“We'll need to verify whether Mrs. Hale actually witnessed this authorization.”
Vanessa immediately objected.
“She's recovering from surgery. You can't drag an elderly woman into a family argument.”
Dana closed her folder.
“Determining whether a court document was falsified isn't a family argument.”
Marcus walked toward Luca with another tablet.
“Sir, I checked the payment records for the rehabilitation center.”
“Who pays them?”
“Your sister authorized the original arrangement.”
Elena nodded.
“I did.”
“But six weeks ago, the billing instructions changed.”
Marcus turned the screen toward him.
“The current payments come from a corporate account belonging to Whitmore Residential Holdings.”
Vanessa's father's company.
Luca slowly raised his eyes.
“Why is your family paying to keep my daughter's grandmother somewhere I wasn't allowed to know about?”
Vanessa took one step backward.
May you like
And Elena whispered something I would never forget.
“Because Vanessa told me Margaret was going to testify that you caused Evelyn's death.”
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