Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Walked Back From the Dead
The plane landed in Mexico before sunrise.
Rico barely spoke.
Clara sat beside him.
For six months he had mourned his wife.
Now hope frightened him more than grief.
They reached a small coastal house.
The door opened.
A woman stepped outside.
Rico stopped.
Elena.
Alive.
He couldn't move.
She saw him.
Her eyes filled.
"Rico."
He crossed the distance in seconds.
They embraced.
He cried.
She cried.
Clara stood back.
Leo rushed from behind Dante.
"Mommy!"
Elena fell to her knees.
Leo threw himself into her arms.
For the first time in six months, the Moretti family sounded like a family again.
But the reunion was brief.
Elena explained everything.
She had discovered Salvatore's plan.
She learned that Clara was Rico's half sister.
She staged her death with help from Isabel Crane.
Then she disappeared.
She couldn't return until the network was exposed.
"I tried to contact you."
Rico shook his head.
"I hated you."
"I know."
"I mourned you."
"I know."
"Leo lost his mother."
Elena cried.
"I know."
Rico's anger collapsed into grief.
Then Clara asked the question.
"Why me?"
Elena looked at her.
"Because you're brave."
"That's not enough."
"No."
Elena walked closer.
"Because your existence gave Salvatore a weakness."
Clara frowned.
"If the truth came out, you could claim your father's shares."
Rico understood.
"The inheritance."
Elena nodded.
"Exactly."
The Moretti family had been fighting over wealth for decades.
Clara was the forgotten daughter.
And the legal documents giving her a share had been hidden.
But Salvatore had not been acting alone.
Anthony Bellini wanted the same inheritance.
The Bellinis and Morettis had formed a secret agreement.
Elena had disrupted it.
Now they had one final move.
The Moretti family gala.
Three hundred guests.
May you like
Every rival in Brooklyn.
And a plan to kill Rico, Elena, and Clara together.
