Chapter 2 - The Husband Who Knew Too Much
Olivia did not sleep.
At four in the morning, she was still sitting beside the window in an oversized robe, staring at the rain.
Her mother wasn’t killed in an accident.
Those six words replayed in her head until they no longer sounded like words.
They sounded like an accusation.
At sunrise, she went downstairs.
Rosa was already in the kitchen.
“Coffee?”
“Black.”
Rosa poured it.
Olivia took one sip.
“Dante?”
“In the study.”
“Does he eat breakfast?”
Rosa smiled.
“When he remembers.”
“That sounds unhealthy.”
“He is not famous for being healthy.”
Olivia almost smiled.
Then she remembered why she had come downstairs.
“Rosa?”
“Yes?”
“Did you know my mother?”
Rosa became still.
Only for a second.
But Olivia noticed.
“You did.”
Rosa looked down at her hands.
“I met Evelyn Hart many years ago.”
“How many?”
“More than fifteen.”
“Why?”
Rosa hesitated.
“Your mother used to visit this house.”
Olivia’s cup nearly slipped.
“My mother came here?”
“Before you were old enough to remember.”
“How often?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where?”
Rosa looked toward the hallway.
“I shouldn’t tell you.”
“Please.”
“You are Mrs. Moretti now.”
“I’m still Evelyn Hart’s daughter.”
Rosa’s expression softened.
“That is exactly why I’m afraid.”
Before Olivia could ask another question, footsteps sounded behind her.
Dante entered.
Rosa immediately stepped away.
He looked at Olivia.
“Come with me.”
“Where?”
“The study.”
She followed him through a corridor lined with old photographs.
One showed Dante at sixteen.
Another showed a younger man Olivia recognized as Dante’s father.
Then she saw something that stopped her.
A photograph of Evelyn.
Her mother stood beside a woman Olivia didn’t know, laughing beside a silver car.
The photograph was old.
Very old.
Olivia picked it up.
“Where did you get this?”
Dante stopped behind her.
“My father kept it.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you know who the woman is?”
“My mother.”
Olivia stared.
Dante’s mother.
The two women were holding hands.
“What were they doing together?”
“Trying to leave Grayhaven.”
Olivia looked at him.
“Together?”
“Yes.”
“From who?”
“My father.”
Silence.
Olivia suddenly understood that the family histories of the Harts and Morettis were not what the newspapers claimed.
Dante opened the study door.
“This is the room my father used.”
It was enormous.
Dark wood.
Leather chairs.
A fireplace.
Books.
A wall of framed documents.
And at the far end, behind Dante’s desk, was a locked cabinet.
Olivia noticed it immediately.
Dante noticed her noticing.
“You can ask.”
“What’s in there?”
“I don’t know everything.”
“But you know something.”
“I know my father hid records.”
“About my mother?”
“Possibly.”
“Open it.”
“No.”
She laughed in disbelief.
“You just told me my mother might not have died in an accident, showed me a photograph of her with your mother, and then brought me into a room with a locked cabinet.”
“It belonged to my father.”
“And?”
“And I don’t open things blindly.”
“I’m your wife.”
“That doesn’t make you entitled to every secret in this house.”
“You married me because of a financial agreement.”
“Then perhaps we both received more than we negotiated.”
Olivia stared at him.
Dante stepped closer.
“Your mother left something behind.”
“What?”
“I haven’t found it.”
“You think I have it?”
“I think your father does.”
Her pulse jumped.
“The necklace?”
Dante shook his head.
“Maybe.”
Olivia touched the pendant.
“I’ve worn this since I was seventeen.”
“Did Evelyn ever tell you why?”
“No.”
“Did she ever tell you to protect it?”
“Yes.”
“What exactly did she say?”
Olivia remembered.
The memory had always been small.
Her mother fastening the necklace around her neck one Sunday evening.
Evelyn had leaned close and whispered, “Some things are safe only when no one knows they exist.”
Olivia frowned.
“She said something like that.”
Dante’s gaze sharpened.
“What else?”
“She said I would understand when I was older.”
Dante looked toward the locked cabinet.
“Then we have a problem.”
“What?”
“If Evelyn trusted you with the necklace, she expected you to survive long enough to understand it.”
Olivia stared at him.
“What are you hiding from me?”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“My father was murdered.”
She blinked.
“I thought he died in a car crash.”
“He did.”
Olivia waited.
“After someone shot the driver.”
She stared.
“Then how did the police—”
“They didn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because my family controlled the investigation.”
Dante moved toward the fireplace.
“My father had enemies. But one enemy knew exactly how to hurt him.”
“Who?”
“Someone inside our circle.”
“Did you find them?”
“No.”
“What does that have to do with my mother?”
“Your mother knew the person.”
Olivia’s heart sank.
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?”
“She was a schoolteacher.”
“She was also an accountant for a shipping company before she met your father.”
Olivia said nothing.
She had never known.
Not even once.
“My mother never told me.”
“Your father made sure she couldn’t.”
Olivia felt cold despite the fire.
“What did Charles do to her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why should I trust you?”
Dante looked at her.
“You shouldn’t.”
The honesty hit harder than a lie.
“You should verify everything I say.”
He walked to his desk.
“There’s a bank account in your name.”
“What?”
“Opened when you were nine.”
“I don’t have a secret bank account.”
“You do.”
“Who funded it?”
“We don’t know.”
“Where is it?”
“Switzerland.”
Olivia stared.
“This is insane.”
“I agree.”
“Why would my mother have money hidden overseas?”
“Maybe she didn’t.”
Dante opened a folder.
Inside was a photocopy of an old account statement.
The beneficiary line read:
Olivia Evelyn Hart.
Her hands trembled.
“How?”
“I found it three years ago.”
“You’ve known about this for three years?”
“Yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I didn’t know where you were.”
“You could have asked.”
“I did.”
“When?”
“Twice.”
Olivia looked up.
“I never got those messages.”
“I know.”
She understood immediately.
“Charles intercepted them.”
Dante nodded.
“Your father controlled your mail, your phone records, your finances, and most of your social relationships.”
Olivia felt sick.
“You were investigating him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I believed he had something my family needed.”
“What?”
“Proof.”
“Of what?”
Dante closed the file.
“That my father and your mother were killed for the same reason.”
Olivia’s skin prickled.
She stepped closer.
“What reason?”
Dante looked directly into her eyes.
“They were going to expose someone powerful.”
“Who?”
“That’s what I’m trying to find.”
A phone rang.
Dante answered.
“What?”
His face changed.
“Where?”
A pause.
“Do not touch anything until I get there.”
He ended the call.
“What happened?”
“Your sister was found.”
Olivia’s heart lurched.
“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Grayhaven Central.”
“Take me.”
Dante grabbed his coat.
At the hospital, they found Isabella in a private room guarded by two Moretti men.
She looked exhausted.
Bruised.
Terrified.
The moment she saw Olivia, tears filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Olivia rushed to her.
“You’re alive. That’s all I care about.”
Isabella grabbed her hand.
“You shouldn’t have married him.”
Olivia looked toward Dante.
“I didn’t have much choice.”
“You did.”
“What are you talking about?”
Isabella swallowed.
“Father lied to you.”
“We already know that.”
“No.”
She looked at Dante.
“Not about the money.”
Dante became very still.
“What did you learn?”
Isabella looked back at Olivia.
“Father didn’t owe Dante ten million.”
Olivia frowned.
“Then why did we—”
“He owed your mother.”
Silence.
Olivia stared.
“What?”
Isabella’s voice broke.
“I found the old financial ledger in Father’s office.”
“What was in it?”
“Payments.”
“To whom?”
“Your mother.”
Olivia felt the floor disappear.
“She’s been dead fifteen years.”
“I know.”
Isabella whispered the words that changed everything.
May you like
“She wasn’t receiving payments.”
“She was making them.”
