Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Knew My Family Was Lying
The next morning, I woke with a strange sense that the world had shifted overnight.
Sariah was already awake.
She sat on the edge of the bed drinking coffee.
“You have to stop appearing in my room like a ghost,” I muttered.
“You have to stop living in a mafia mansion.”
“Fair.”
She handed me coffee.
“I found something.”
I frowned.
“What?”
She held up her phone.
“Your mother's old obituary.”
I sat beside her.
“My mother died six years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you looking at her obituary?”
“Because this one says she died in New Hampshire.”
I stared at the screen.
“That can't be right.”
The obituary listed a hospital I'd never heard of.
The date was wrong too.
My mother was supposed to have died on March 4.
This said March 9.
Five days later.
I felt sick.
Alex entered the room.
“What happened?”
I showed him.
His expression hardened.
“Where did you get this?”
“Sariah found it.”
Alex took the phone.
“It's been altered.”
“How do you know?”
“The hospital listed here closed three years before your mother supposedly died.”
I looked at him.
“Then where did she die?”
“I don't know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it is the truth.”
Before I could respond, a woman entered.
She was elegant, tall, and dressed in a black coat.
She looked at Alex.
“We need to talk.”
“Later, Elena.”
“No. Now.”
Her eyes moved to me.
For a second, recognition flashed across her face.
“You're Nina.”
I stiffened.
“Yes.”
Elena looked away.
“My name is Elena Moretti.”
“Moretti?”
“The rival family?”
Alex stepped between us.
“She isn't involved.”
Elena laughed bitterly.
“She's more involved than you think.”
Then she handed me a photograph.
I stared at it.
My mother was standing beside Elena.
And between them was a baby.
Me.
But the date printed on the back was six months after the date I was supposedly born.
I couldn't breathe.
“What is this?”
Elena looked directly at Alex.
“Tell her.”
He didn't.
“Tell her what?”
Elena sighed.
“Your mother wasn't running from the Mancinis, Nina.”
She looked at me.
“She was running from someone inside her own family.”
I sat down.
“My family?”
“Your mother had an older brother.”
I frowned.
“I never knew that.”
“He was Richard Mancini's closest ally.”
Alex's face turned cold.
“Enough.”
Elena ignored him.
“His name was Thomas Vale.”
I stared.
“My uncle?”
“He was the one who helped hide your mother's real identity.”
I shook my head.
“What identity?”
Elena looked at Alex.
“She wasn't a Vale.”
Silence.
“What?”
“Your mother was born Isabella Moretti.”
The room disappeared.
I heard only my own breathing.
“No.”
“It is true.”
“My mother was Margaret Vale.”
“That was the name she used after she disappeared.”
Alex finally spoke.
“Your mother was born into the Moretti family.”
I looked at him.
“And my father knew?”
“Yes.”
“Did he know you knew?”
“He did.”
“Did my mother know?”
“Yes.”
The betrayal was overwhelming.
I stood.
“I need air.”
I left the room.
Alex followed.
Outside, cold wind swept across the grounds.
I leaned against a stone wall.
“This is insane.”
“I know.”
“My whole life is a lie.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“Then what is real?”
He stood close.
“Your father loved you.”
I swallowed.
“My mother?”
“Loved you too.”
“Did she?”
“Yes.”
“Then why lie?”
“Because someone was trying to use you as leverage.”
I looked at him sharply.
“Who?”
“Thomas.”
My uncle.
The man I had never known existed.
Alex pulled his phone from his pocket.
A message was waiting.
Unknown number.
Tell Nina to remember the red door.
I frowned.
“The red door?”
Alex stared at me.
“Does that mean anything?”
I tried to remember.
Childhood.
Our old house.
A narrow hallway.
A red-painted door.
I gasped.
“There was a basement.”
Alex's eyes narrowed.
“My father never let me go inside.”
“Where is the house now?”
“Sold years ago.”
“To whom?”
I shook my head.
“I don't know.”
Alex immediately called someone.
“Find the property records.”
Within an hour, the address was located.
I knew the house.
Even after all those years, I remembered the front steps.
We drove there.
It was abandoned.
The windows were boarded.
The front door hung crookedly.
The red basement door was still there.
Alex broke the lock.
Inside was darkness and dust.
Then I saw a small metal box on a shelf.
My name was written on it.
NINA.
My hands trembled.
The box contained a key, a photo, and a letter.
I opened the letter.
Nina,
If you are reading this, then the people who tried to erase us have failed.
Your mother is alive.
I stopped breathing.
Alex looked over my shoulder.
“What?”
I couldn't speak.
I handed him the letter.
He read it.
His face became completely still.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
I watched the color disappear from his face.
“What happened?” I asked.
He looked at me.
“They found Thomas.”
“Where?”
Alex's voice was quiet.
“He's been living under another name.”
“Where?”
“Less than ten miles from your apartment.”
The basement seemed to close around me.
Then another piece of paper fell from the box.
I picked it up.
May you like
It had one sentence.
He was never the real enemy.
