Chapter 3 - THE BLUE ENVELOPE EVELYN LEFT BEHIND
“You believed I killed my own wife?”
Luca's voice was barely above a whisper.
Elena stood in the foyer, gripping her handbag so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
“I believed you knew more than you told us.”
For a moment, I thought Luca might explode.
Instead, he looked toward the staircase.
“Not here. Lily can hear us.”
That was the first sign I saw that something inside him had changed.
A few hours earlier, Luca had been the intimidating man everyone in Chicago feared.
Now he was a father trying to keep his daughter's world from falling apart.
He led us into the study.
Dana remained because the allegations were connected to an active investigation.
Vanessa followed reluctantly.
“Evelyn died in a highway accident,” Luca said. “The state police investigated it. Her car lost traction during a winter storm.”
Elena shook her head.
“She called me that evening. She was frightened.”
“Of what?”
“She wouldn't say.”
Luca stared at his sister.
“You never told me she called you.”
“Because you weren't there when she needed you!”
Elena's voice broke.
“You were always at meetings, traveling with security, handling whatever ugly business you refused to discuss. Evelyn spent more evenings waiting for you than living with you.”
I looked down.
There was truth in those words.
Even now, Luca regularly worked until midnight.
Lily waited for him at the staircase almost every evening.
Sometimes she fell asleep there.
But a father being absent didn't make him a murderer.
And it certainly didn't justify stealing his child.
“Elena,” I said carefully, “whatever happened two years ago, Lily shouldn't be punished for it.”
She turned toward me.
“You don't know what Evelyn went through.”
“No,” I admitted. “But I know what Lily went through tonight.”
Elena looked away.
Dana ended the conversation before it became another argument.
She confirmed that Lily could remain at home while the petition and alleged forgery were investigated.
She also told Elena that further attempts to influence Lily's account would be documented.
Vanessa looked furious.
Luca instructed Marcus to revoke Vanessa's authority over household staff, vehicles, and security passes.
“You can't embarrass me like this,” she said.
“Then you should have thought about that before embarrassing my daughter.”
He asked her to leave the property.
She stared at him.
“The wedding isn't canceled.”
“No,” Luca replied. “But nothing about it is happening until I know the truth.”
Vanessa walked out without another word.
I wanted to believe that was the end of her control over the house.
It wasn't.
By morning, Elena had contacted Margaret's rehabilitation center and confirmed that she was willing to receive visitors.
Dana arranged to speak with Margaret separately.
Luca drove there with me after asking Marcus to remain with Lily.
I wasn't certain why he wanted me along.
At the entrance, he finally explained.
“Margaret knew Evelyn better than anyone. If she refuses to speak to me, perhaps she'll speak to the woman who refused to abandon Lily.”
I didn't know how to respond.
The center was a quiet brick building surrounded by maple trees.
Margaret Hale sat near a window in a wheelchair, a pale blue blanket across her knees.
She was seventy-three, with silver hair and a familiar face.
I recognized Lily's eyes immediately.
Margaret looked at Luca.
Her expression hardened.
“You've finally come.”
“Margaret.”
“Don't call me that as though we've been having Sunday dinners.”
Luca stopped beside her chair.
“I was told you were overseas.”
“And I was told you didn't want Lily reminded of her mother's family.”
He looked stunned.
“Who told you that?”
Margaret glanced toward Elena, who had arrived separately and was standing near the door.
Elena lowered her eyes.
“I thought keeping everyone apart would prevent another fight.”
Margaret gave a bitter laugh.
“Two years, Elena. You stole two years.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Margaret noticed me.
“And who are you?”
“Natalie Brooks. I work at the house.”
She studied my face.
“Lily's Natalie?”
I nodded.
Her expression softened.
“She talks about you.”
My throat tightened.
“You've spoken with Lily?”
“Not recently. Elena brought her twice last year. Before that, there were cards.”
Margaret opened a drawer and removed several drawings.
One showed a little girl beneath blue stars.
Another showed a teddy bear sitting at a kitchen table.
At the bottom, Lily had written:
I MISS GRANDMA.
I looked toward Luca.
He had never seen those drawings.
Margaret touched the paper.
“Lily used to send these. Then the envelopes stopped.”
“Did you sign a court document concerning Lily's guardianship?” Luca asked.
Margaret frowned.
“What document?”
He showed her the signature page.
She adjusted her glasses.
“No.”
“Are you certain?”
“I've signed plenty of medical forms, Luca. But I would never approve taking a child from her father without speaking to him.”
She examined the page more closely.
Then her hand began trembling.
“That's my signature.”
Elena moved forward.
“Margaret—”
“But I didn't sign this document.”
Margaret pointed to a small handwritten mark beneath her name.
“Evelyn taught me to put a tiny dot after my middle initial on anything important. This signature doesn't have it.”
My heart began racing.
The same kind of detail had exposed my forged signature.
Someone had copied the appearance of the writing without understanding the person behind it.
Margaret looked at Luca.
“Where did they get this?”
“We're trying to find out.”
She reached into the drawer again.
Six months earlier, she explained, Vanessa had visited her.
Vanessa had brought photographs of Lily looking unhappy.
She claimed Luca was preparing to send Lily to boarding school.
Margaret had been angry.
But she'd refused to sign anything.
“I told her I wanted to see my granddaughter. Not take her away.”
“What happened then?” I asked.
“Vanessa offered to help with my medical bills.”
Margaret sighed.
“I said no. Elena told me later that the Whitmores were covering part of the cost as a kindness.”
Luca looked toward his sister.
Elena whispered, “I believed her.”
Margaret shook her head.
“There's something else.”
She opened a small jewelry box.
Inside lay a silver bracelet with a delicate heart-shaped charm.
I recognized it from the framed photographs of Evelyn in Luca's bedroom.
“Evelyn wore this every day,” Margaret said.
“She gave it to me before she died.”
Luca looked confused.
“Why?”
Margaret turned the bracelet over.
A date had been engraved inside.
It was the date of Lily's birth.
“Evelyn came to see me three days before the accident,” Margaret said. “She was worried about some financial arrangements involving the family.”
Luca sat down.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“She said she was trying to find a way to protect you without putting Lily in danger.”
Elena suddenly moved toward the window.
I noticed her hands shaking.
Margaret continued.
“Evelyn left a blue envelope. She told me to give it to you if anything happened to her.”
Luca looked up sharply.
“An envelope?”
Margaret nodded.
“It contained something she didn't want discovered in the house.”
“Where is it?”
Margaret's face tightened.
“I gave it to Elena after Evelyn died.”
Luca turned toward his sister.
“Elena?”
She didn't answer.
“Where is my wife's envelope?”
Elena pressed a hand against her mouth.
Finally, she whispered, “I kept it because I thought it would destroy you.”
Margaret leaned forward.
“What did you do with it?”
“I put it somewhere safe.”
“Where?”
Elena looked at Luca.
Then she said the words that made him rise slowly from his chair.
“Before she died, Evelyn told me someone inside the Moretti family had been using Lily's inheritance to cover a debt.”
Luca stared at her.
“That's impossible. Lily's trust is protected.”
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
“That's exactly what Evelyn thought.”
May you like
And then she said something even worse.
“The last person Evelyn confronted about that money was your financial director, Nathan Ward.”
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