Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO DISAPPEAR
The black sedan traveled west for forty minutes.
Elena sat silently in the back seat.
She looked through the window at Chicago disappearing behind her.
The driver was an older man with silver hair and a scar along his left cheek.
She had never met him before that morning.
But she trusted him because Evelyn had.
Salvatore Bellini looked at her through the rearview mirror.
“You can still turn around.”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
“You're sure?”
She looked down at the empty finger where her engagement ring had been.
“I have never been more sure of anything.”
Salvatore nodded.
“You look like your mother.”
Elena's head lifted.
“You knew my mother?”
“Very well.”
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
“Because your mother didn't want you to know.”
“Why?”
He didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he turned onto a quiet road lined with trees.
The sedan stopped outside a small brick house.
Elena stared.
She knew that house.
Her breath caught.
“This…”
Salvatore turned off the engine.
“Your mother owned it.”
Elena stepped out.
The front door opened before she reached it.
An elderly woman stood there.
Her name was Margaret.
She had been Elena's mother's closest friend.
And she was crying.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Elena froze.
Margaret pulled her into a hug.
For the first time that day, Elena cried.
Not because of Lorenzo.
Not because of Vanessa.
Because she had spent years believing every piece of her mother's life had disappeared when she died.
Now she was standing inside it.
Margaret brought her to the living room.
On the wall hung photographs Elena had never seen.
Her mother laughing.
Her mother holding a newborn baby.
Her mother beside Vittorio DeMarco.
Elena stared.
“Why is Lorenzo's father here?”
Margaret exchanged a glance with Salvatore.
“Because your mother and Vittorio were partners.”
Elena frowned.
“Business partners?”
“No.”
Margaret sat down.
“They were protecting you.”
Elena felt cold.
“From whom?”
Margaret opened an old wooden box.
Inside were documents.
Photographs.
Letters.
And one birth certificate.
Elena picked it up.
Her hands began shaking.
The document showed her name.
But beneath it was something she had never seen before.
Mother: Isabella Hart.
Father: Adrian DeMarco.
Elena stared.
“That's impossible.”
Salvatore said nothing.
Margaret whispered,
“Vittorio was not your biological father.”
Elena looked at her.
“Adrian?”
“Lorenzo's uncle.”
Silence.
Lorenzo's uncle.
The brother who had supposedly died before Lorenzo was born.
The man whose name had disappeared from every official DeMarco record.
Elena slowly sat down.
“Why did my mother hide this?”
“Because Adrian was murdered.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“By whom?”
Margaret looked at Salvatore.
Then back at Elena.
“Your stepmother knows.”
Elena stopped breathing.
“Celeste?”
Margaret nodded.
“She wasn't always your stepmother.”
“She worked for Adrian.”
Elena stared at the photographs.
Everything she had believed about her family was collapsing.
Then Salvatore placed another document on the table.
It was dated twenty-six years earlier.
A legal trust.
Elena read the first line.
Her eyes widened.
“The DeMarco family trust…”
Margaret nodded.
“Your mother was named the primary beneficiary.”
Elena's voice became barely audible.
“So why did Celeste control everything?”
“Because she forged the transfer.”
Elena looked up.
“What transfer?”
Margaret leaned closer.
“The transfer that made Lorenzo's father believe your mother had stolen from the family.”
Elena felt sick.
“And Lorenzo?”
“Lorenzo was a child.”
“Does he know?”
“No.”
“Then why has Celeste been controlling him?”
Margaret's expression darkened.
“Because she has spent twenty years convincing him that your mother destroyed his family.”
Elena looked at the documents.
A thought entered her mind.
The wedding.
The dress.
Vanessa.
Celeste.
Maybe the wedding had never been about love.
Maybe they hadn't wanted Elena to become Lorenzo's wife.
Maybe they had wanted something much bigger.
The door suddenly opened.
A man stepped inside.
Elena recognized him immediately.
Marco.
Lorenzo's security chief.
His face was pale.
“Elena,” he said.
She stood.
“Why are you here?”
Marco looked at Salvatore.
Then at the documents.
“I came because Lorenzo is searching for you.”
Elena's heart tightened.
“What did he say?”
Marco hesitated.
“He canceled the wedding.”
Elena looked away.
“That doesn't change anything.”
“No.”
Marco placed a phone on the table.
“But this might.”
He pressed play.
Lorenzo's voice filled the room.
“Find Elena. Not because she's my fiancée. Because someone is trying to hurt her.”
Elena closed her eyes.
For one dangerous second, she wanted to go back.
Then Marco played the second recording.
Celeste's voice.
Cold.
Precise.
“She must disappear before the wedding.”
Elena's eyes snapped open.
Vanessa answered.
“And if she doesn't?”
Celeste replied,
“Then we'll make Lorenzo believe she betrayed him.”
Elena stared at Marco.
“Where did you get this?”
“From your bridal suite.”
The recording continued.
Vanessa laughed.
“Once Elena is gone, Lorenzo will marry me.”
Celeste's voice became softer.
“And after the marriage, the DeMarco trust will finally be accessible.”
Elena's face went white.
The dress had never been the humiliation.
May you like
It had been a rehearsal.
They had already planned her disappearance.