Chapter 6 - Marina's Mother)
Marina called her mother at 8:46 that evening.
Catherine answered on the fourth ring.
"Sweetheart?"
Marina had never heard her mother's voice sound so comforting and so dangerous at the same time.
"Mom, I need to ask you something."
"Are you all right?"
Damiano sat beside Marina on the sofa.
Marco stood across the room.
Helena had been moved again under security supervision.
"I need you to tell me about Elena Vale."
Silence.
Not confusion.
Silence.
Marina closed her eyes.
"You know."
Catherine exhaled slowly.
"Where did you hear that name?"
"Mom."
"Marina, where are you?"
"At home."
"Is Helena there?"
Marina's stomach tightened.
"You know Helena?"
Another silence.
Damiano leaned forward.
Catherine's voice changed.
"Get out of that house."
Marina stood.
"What?"
"Take your things and leave."
"Why?"
"Because if Helena knows who you are, you aren't safe."
Damiano's jaw tightened.
Marina looked at him.
"She knows."
Catherine whispered something.
Then: "I'm coming."
"No. Tell me now."
"I'll be there in two hours."
"Mom."
"Please."
Marina's voice broke.
"I've spent months thinking I was going crazy because that woman hated me for reasons I couldn't understand. Today I found out she had me followed. I'm pregnant. My husband's father may have had another son with someone named Elena Vale. And now an attorney who recorded something eighteen years ago says he was waiting for me."
Catherine began to cry.
Marina had heard her mother cry only twice in her life.
When Marina's father died.
And at Marina's wedding.
"Mom?"
"I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I thought it was over."
"What was over?"
"Your grandmother was Elena."
Marina sat down hard.
Damiano's face changed.
Marina remembered almost nothing about her maternal grandmother.
Her mother rarely spoke about her.
She died before Marina was born, Catherine had always said.
But that could not be true if Elena died seventeen years ago.
Marina was thirty-one.
"You told me Grandma Elena died before I was born."
"I lied."
The words were painful.
"Why?"
"Because she made me promise."
"Promise what?"
"That you would never be involved with the Riccis."
Marina laughed once.
It sounded broken.
"And then I married one."
"I tried to stop you."
Marina remembered.
Her mother's discomfort during the engagement.
Her repeated questions.
Are you sure?
Does Damiano's family treat you well?
What is his mother like?
Marina had thought Catherine was anxious because the Riccis were wealthy.
Now every memory shifted.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Damiano wasn't his father. You loved him. I thought maybe the sins of their parents didn't have to become yours."
Damiano lowered his eyes.
Marina said, "Who is Gabriel?"
Catherine was quiet.
Then answered.
"My half-brother."
"So Elena had two children?"
"Yes."
"With Vittorio?"
"No."
Marina frowned.
"Gabriel was Vittorio's son. I wasn't."
"Then who was your father?"
"Elena's husband before Vittorio. He died when I was three."
The family connection became clear.
Gabriel was Marina's maternal uncle and Damiano's paternal half-brother.
Marina had married Gabriel's half-brother.
No blood relation existed between Marina and Damiano.
But the inheritance lines collided directly through them.
Catherine continued.
"Elena spent years trying to force Vittorio to acknowledge Gabriel. She didn't want his money at first. She wanted his name."
"What happened?"
"Helena happened."
Marina looked toward the closed door where Helena was being watched.
"She threatened my grandmother?"
"She destroyed her."
The words carried decades of anger.
"How?"
"Helena convinced Vittorio's board that Elena was stealing company funds. She planted records. Elena was fired. When she threatened to expose the affair and the pregnancy, Helena offered money."
"The settlement."
"Yes."
"Grandma took it?"
"Eventually. She had two children to feed."
"And Gabriel?"
"He grew up knowing who his father was."
"Did Vittorio know him?"
"Secretly. Later."
Damiano looked up sharply.
Marina relayed the question.
Catherine answered.
"Vittorio visited Gabriel for years. He paid for his education. He tried to repair things."
"And Helena found out."
"Helena always found out."
Marina looked at the financial documents.
"Simon Vale?"
Catherine became quiet.
"Elena's younger brother."
"Gabriel's uncle."
"Yes."
"Why would Helena pay him?"
"I don't know."
Damiano mouthed: ask about James Colton.
Marina did.
Catherine sighed.
"Elena met him once."
"When?"
"Before she died."
"Why?"
"She gave him documents."
The room seemed to contract.
"What documents?"
"I don't know."
"Then why is he waiting for me?"
Catherine's answer came slowly.
"Because my mother left something in your name."
Marina felt cold.
"What?"
"She never told me. She said if the Riccis ever came back into our lives, James would know what to do."
Damiano stood.
Catherine continued.
"And Marina?"
"Yes?"
"Your grandmother did not die in an accident."
Marina stopped breathing.
"What?"
"The police called it an accident."
"But?"
"Elena told me two days before she died that Helena had found out she was meeting Vittorio again."
Marina looked toward Damiano.
His face had gone white.
"Mom, are you saying Helena killed her?"
"No."
Catherine's voice shook.
"I'm saying I spent seventeen years afraid to ask."
The bedroom door opened.
Marco stepped in.
He held Damiano's tablet.
"We have a problem."
"What?"
"We checked the mansion's staff records against Simon Vale's known associates."
Damiano waited.
Marco put the tablet on the table.
A photograph appeared.
Simon Vale.
Older than in the picture from the suitcase, but unmistakable.
Then another photograph.
A man Marina had passed countless times inside the mansion.
Quiet.
Gray-haired.
Polite.
One of Helena's personal drivers.
His name in the Ricci household was Samuel Vane.
Marco said, "Samuel Vane doesn't exist."
Marina stared.
"That's Simon?"
"Yes."
Damiano looked toward the hallway.
"Where is he?"
May you like
Marco's expression became grim.
"We don't know."
