Chapter 5 - The Signature Beneath the Signature
Celia did not deny signing the petition.
She picked up the document, examined the final page, and placed it back on Elena’s desk.
“That is my signature.”
Alessandro stared at her.
“You prepared a request to remove my daughter.”
“I prepared a contingency document.”
“For whom?”
“For you.”
“I have never seen it.”
“You were under enormous pressure after Elena’s death. There were concerns about your travel, your grief, and your ability to provide Emma with a stable home.”
“My daughter has never spent a night without a parent or Rosa in this house.”
“Because you rarely stayed away longer than two days. The document was never filed.”
“Why was it in Vanessa’s apartment?”
Celia looked toward Vanessa.
“I don’t know.”
Vanessa laughed.
“She gave it to me.”
“That is false.”
“You told me Emma would become a problem once Alessandro recognized the baby.”
Celia remained composed, but her fingers tightened around her leather folder.
“You are attempting to shift responsibility.”
“You said a frightened child was easier to relocate than a stubborn one.”
Alessandro crossed the room before Tomas could stop him, but he did not touch either woman.
He planted both hands on Elena’s desk.
“Enough.”
The force of his voice silenced them.
“You will both remain in this house until every document is examined.”
Celia lifted her chin.
“You have no legal authority to detain me.”
“No. But the police will be interested in a forged medical identity, fraudulent guardianship papers, and financial manipulation.”
Vittorio stepped closer.
“Calling the police before we understand the situation could destroy the company.”
Alessandro turned toward him.
“If the company depends on hiding a crime against my daughter, it deserves to be destroyed.”
Vittorio’s expression darkened.
“You sound exactly like your father.”
“Good.”
“Your father nearly ruined everything because he placed emotion above responsibility.”
“And you rebuilt everything by placing money above family.”
For decades, Vittorio had been the man who solved every Moretti crisis. Banks listened to him. Board members feared him. Politicians returned his calls.
But he had never been challenged by the nephew he had helped raise.
Not like this.
Alessandro ordered Tomas to secure Celia’s office, Vittorio’s study, Vanessa’s apartment, and the west wing.
The search began before dawn.
In Vanessa’s apartment, guards found three maternity gowns altered to conceal different pillow sizes. They also discovered voice recordings of Vanessa rehearsing the announcement.
In Vittorio’s study, they found nothing.
In Celia’s office, every physical file concerning Elena had been removed.
The computers had been wiped less than an hour before the celebration.
The west wing remained locked.
Emma’s red key was still missing.
Rosa led Alessandro to the dollhouse in the nursery. It had been built as a miniature version of the Moretti mansion, complete with tiny chandeliers and painted family portraits.
Emma knelt beside it.
“I put the key in Mama’s room.”
The dollhouse contained a miniature replica of Elena’s bedroom. Beneath the tiny bed, Alessandro found a red brass key.
It looked old.
Older than the electronic locks used throughout the mansion.
Rosa turned it over.
“There’s a symbol.”
A small crescent moon had been carved into the handle.
Alessandro recognized it.
Elena had drawn the same symbol beside several dates in her private calendar during the months before her death.
He had assumed it was a reminder connected to Emma’s sleep schedule.
Now he opened Elena’s old journal.
The crescent appeared on one final page.
Beside it, Elena had written a single sentence.
The room where one child slept was built for two.
A crash sounded from the west corridor.
Tomas shouted through the radio.
Someone had entered the sealed wing.
By the time Alessandro reached the corridor, one guard was on the floor, dazed but conscious.
The west-wing door stood open.
May you like
On the other side, a dark passage led toward a nursery Alessandro had not seen since Emma’s birth.
At the end of the passage, a baby was crying.
