Chapter 3 - THE PATIENT CALLED EVELYN
The address for Briarwood House belonged to an elegant brick building with white columns and a fountain that had been turned off for winter. From the outside it looked like a place where elderly people might sit peacefully with their families on Sunday afternoons.
Inside, according to the telephone receptionist, no woman named Victoria Bellini had ever stayed there.
That might have been the end of it if Judith Mercer hadn't remembered something Victoria once said: Richard would sooner change my name than let me speak freely.
On Monday morning I stood in Luca's office while his attorney, Rebecca Chen, examined the copy of Judith's letter.
“There's a limit to what we can demand from a care facility,” Rebecca said. “A family suspicion is not a court order. But if Victoria is there under another name, a welfare concern can be reported to the appropriate agency. We should also find out whether she has a legal representative she chose herself.”
Luca rubbed his forehead. “I could send ten men there.”
“And accomplish what?” Rebecca asked. “Frighten the residents? Give Richard a reason to accuse you of intimidation? Let's do this carefully.”
To his credit, Luca listened.
I watched him learn that money and authority couldn't solve every problem, a lesson his daughter had already learned too young.
Sophia spent the morning making a card for her grandmother Margaret. On the back she drew two trees, their roots joining underground. When I asked what it meant, she said, “Families can grow in different places and still be connected.”
I had no answer that wouldn't make me cry.
By afternoon, Rebecca had located a guardianship-related filing in Cook County. It had been submitted by a firm associated with Richard Bellini, requesting limited authority over a woman called Evelyn V. Bell. The petition claimed she could no longer handle her financial affairs. It contained a physician's declaration, but the signature appeared to belong to a doctor who had retired a year earlier.
“That doesn't prove fraud,” Rebecca told us. “But it justifies checking.”
“Evelyn V. Bell,” Luca repeated. “Victoria Evelyn Bellini.”
I remembered Judith calling Victoria frightened, not confused. I thought of the distance between those two descriptions and how easily one might be used to silence the other.
Rebecca contacted a state long-term-care ombudsman. Meanwhile Daniel found a former Briarwood employee willing to speak to investigators. She recalled a woman called Evelyn who had been visited by a younger blonde woman only twice, both visits followed by long arguments.
“The younger woman told her not to mention the baby,” the employee said. “I remember because Evelyn cried after they left.”
That afternoon Vanessa's attorney sent a letter demanding that Luca retract accusations made at the engagement dinner. It also claimed that Megan Collins had intentionally damaged valuable property and contaminated food meant for guests.
I read the allegations in stunned silence.
“She wants me to pay for the necklace?” I asked.
“She's trying to make you afraid to cooperate,” Rebecca said. “Your injury was documented, and there are witnesses. Do not respond to her directly.”
The next day a gray sedan followed my bus for three blocks on the way to my parents' apartment. I didn't know whether it was connected. Rather than guess, I took down the plate number from a safe distance and reported it.
My father was sitting in the kitchen when I arrived, stretching his back the way his therapist had taught him. His face brightened until he noticed my bandage.
“Sweetheart. What happened?”
I told him enough that he knew the truth without requiring every humiliating detail. When I finished, he placed his large hands flat against the table.
“You were afraid they'd fire you,” he said.
“Yes.”
“Look at me. No job is worth letting someone hurt you.”
“I know that now.”
He gave me a sorrowful smile. “I hope you do. And I hope you don't blame yourself for being scared.”
We ate scrambled eggs and toast. The ordinary sounds of the kitchen, the hum of the refrigerator and my father's spoon against a mug, steadied me. After months of living for my family's bills, it felt strange to let them worry about me.
When I returned to the mansion, Luca was waiting outside the library.
“Victoria has asked to speak to someone from the ombudsman's office,” he said. “She is at Briarwood, registered under Evelyn Bell. She says she wants to leave, and she has the ability to make that decision.”
“Will Richard try to stop her?”
“We're getting legal help in place. The facility is cooperating now.”
A day later, Victoria arrived at Rebecca's downtown office. She was a petite woman with gray-blonde hair and carefully painted nails. She wore a dark green coat that looked too large for her.
For a long time she sat without speaking.
Then she looked at Luca and said, “You have Caroline's eyes.”
Luca's expression flickered. “People tell me Sophia has them.”
Victoria pressed a handkerchief against her mouth.
“I know what I did,” she said. “I gave up a child. I can't pretend I didn't. Richard wasn't even my husband then. I made that choice because I was weak, and my father frightened me.”
Margaret, seated beside her, said quietly, “You also tried to send letters.”
“I should have done more than send letters.”
Rebecca asked if Victoria understood why we had come.
“Yes. The trust. The money. Richard thought if Caroline remained a secret, he could keep using her share.”
“Did you authorize that?”
“No. I signed documents I didn't understand when I was younger. After I learned what he was doing, he told me I'd go to prison too.”
“Why did you meet Caroline three years ago?” Luca asked.
Victoria looked at him. “Because she found me. She didn't come to demand money. She wanted to know why I hadn't wanted her.”
I felt a painful twist in my chest.
“What did you tell her?”
“The truth. That I wanted her, but I had failed her. She cried. Then she asked to see the accounts.”
Victoria reached into her handbag and produced a small diary. Its pages were filled with dates, initials and telephone numbers.
“She found transfers from the Charlotte Vale account to several companies owned by Richard. She asked me to keep copies somewhere he couldn't reach them. We used a safe-deposit box at Stillwater Savings, under my authority. We agreed she would use the key when she was ready to make a formal report.”
“Did she tell Vanessa?” Luca asked.
Victoria looked away. “Vanessa had known Caroline existed for years. But Richard told her Caroline was coming to steal her inheritance. My daughter listened to him because I never taught her better.”
“Did Vanessa know Caroline was my wife?”
“Yes. She knew before she met you.”
Luca leaned back slowly.
Victoria's voice shook. “I asked her not to get close to your family. She said marrying you would make the problem disappear. I thought she was speaking out of anger.”
“Problem?” Luca asked.
Victoria's hand trembled as she opened the diary to a marked page. “Richard was losing control of the family trust. A new audit was scheduled. Sophia, as Caroline's daughter, had a potential claim that couldn't be explained away forever.”
Rebecca leaned forward. “What does marrying Luca change legally?”
“Nothing by itself,” Victoria said. “But Richard had arranged for Vanessa to propose a combined family investment structure after the wedding. They were counting on Luca accepting it without looking closely at the underlying trust.”
Luca gave a humorless laugh. “I was supposed to lend my signature and my reputation.”
“Yes.”
“Did Caroline tell you someone threatened her?”
Victoria turned a page. Beneath the date of Caroline's last visit, she'd written two words: BRIDGE ROAD.
“She called me the day she died,” Victoria said. “She told me she was going to meet an accountant who had kept the second ledger. Richard found out. I warned her not to go.”
Luca held very still. “And?”
“She said she couldn't teach her daughter to be brave if she spent her life hiding.”
My eyes filled.
Victoria reached for a glass of water. Her hand shook so badly that I helped her set it down.
“Did she name the accountant?” I asked.
“Daniel Hart,” Victoria replied. “He worked for Richard until the numbers stopped making sense.”
Daniel Ortiz, Luca's security chief, looked up from his notes. “We searched that name yesterday. Daniel Hart died eighteen months ago.”
Victoria stared at him. “No.”
“His obituary is public,” Daniel said. “A heart attack.”
She shook her head. “Then you need to find his wife.”
“Why?” Rebecca asked.
Victoria looked at Luca with an expression I couldn't bear to meet.
“Because Daniel Hart didn't keep the second ledger in a bank,” she said. “He gave it to someone who could disappear without anyone noticing.”
“Who?” Luca asked.
“A housekeeper named Claire.”
The name meant nothing to me, but Mrs. Delaney, who had accompanied Margaret, made a startled sound.
“Claire Sutton?” she asked. “The woman dismissed from this mansion two years ago?”
Victoria nodded.
And in that instant, the investigation reached beyond the Bellinis' money and into the house where I'd been working every day.
May you like
Before we left, Victoria stopped me by the office door. "Caroline used to speak about the people who worked in her home," she said. "She remembered their children's birthdays and asked about their parents. I was surprised because the Bellinis never paid attention to those things." I glanced at the healing cut across my palm. "She sounds like the kind of person who would have helped Sophia keep her necklace," I answered. Victoria nodded, and fresh tears gathered in her eyes. "She was more generous than the family she came from. I hope her daughter inherits that part of her most of all."
END OF CHAPTER 3
