Chapter 4 - A Woman Buried Nine Years Ago
Her name was Rebecca Ellison.
At least that was the name Mara remembered.
Jonah rarely spoke about her.
When he did, his voice became distant.
Rebecca had been six years older than him.
Brilliant.
Difficult.
Fearless.
According to Jonah, she had died in a boating accident nine years earlier.
Her body had never been recovered.
Mara had once asked whether he believed Rebecca might have survived.
Jonah had stared at the ocean for a long time before saying no.
Now a woman with Rebecca’s face had walked into Elena Castellano’s storage unit hours before Elena died.
Mara watched the footage three times.
“No.”
Marco stood beside her in a private hospital conference room.
“You’re sure it’s her?”
“I’m sure she looks like her.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Mara turned on him.
“My husband buried an empty coffin for that woman.”
“He mourned her for nine years.”
“So either Rebecca Ellison is alive, or someone has spent a great deal of effort pretending to be her.”
Nico stood near the door.
He was thirty-seven, lean, dark-haired, and considerably less intimidating than Marco until one noticed how little he moved.
Mara had already decided she didn’t trust him.
Nico enlarged the image.
“The footage is old analog backup.”
“We were lucky the facility still routed one exterior camera separately.”
Marco pointed toward the woman’s hand.
“What is that?”
Nico magnified the frame.
A ring.
Mara leaned closer.
Her breath caught.
“Jonah had one like that.”
Marco looked at her.
“Family ring?”
“Their father gave them matching ones.”
Mara touched the chain beneath her blouse.
Jonah’s ring hung there beside her wedding band.
Rebecca was alive.
Or the lie surrounding Jonah’s death was even larger than any of them understood.
Marco turned to Nico.
“Find her.”
“Already started.”
“Quietly.”
“Of course.”
“Vittorio?”
“His car left the hospital garage twelve minutes ago.”
“Track him.”
Nico nodded.
Mara looked toward Marco.
“You think Rebecca is working with your uncle?”
“I don’t know.”
“You say that a lot.”
“Because unlike everyone else in my family, I prefer knowing before I start inventing answers.”
Mara gave him a skeptical look.
Marco almost objected.
Then decided he had probably earned it.
Leo remained stable through the afternoon.
Mara donated again.
She sat beside Emma afterward, exhausted and emotionally hollow.
Marco arrived carrying two coffees.
She looked at the cup.
“What is this?”
“A peace offering.”
“Is it poisoned?”
Marco stared at her.
Mara immediately regretted the joke.
After Leo’s IV scare, poison was not amusing.
“Sorry.”
Marco handed her the cup.
“Dr. Shah says Leo’s event was likely caused by a small dose of a sedative not prescribed to him.”
Mara’s stomach turned.
“Someone tried to hurt him?”
“We don’t know the intent.”
“Why would anyone sedate a premature baby?”
Marco didn’t answer.
Mara understood.
There was no innocent reason.
She looked through the glass toward Leo.
“Who benefits if he dies?”
The question landed heavily.
Marco sat across from her.
“Elena controlled twenty-eight percent of Castellano Holdings.”
“Your legitimate company?”
“One of them.”
“What happens to her shares?”
“To Leo.”
Mara stared at him.
“A newborn owns twenty-eight percent of your company?”
“Through a trust.”
“Who controls the trust?”
“That depends on Elena’s will.”
“You don’t know?”
“My attorney is reviewing it.”
Mara’s expression sharpened.
“Shouldn’t that have been reviewed before now?”
“Elena changed her estate documents two weeks ago.”
Marco’s gaze narrowed.
“Without telling me.”
“Who drafted them?”
“Adrian Bell.”
“Your family attorney?”
“Yes.”
Mara remembered the name from newspaper articles.
Adrian Bell had represented the Castellanos for nearly fifteen years.
“What happens if Leo dies?”
Marco’s face went still.
“I don’t know.”
“That seems important.”
“It is.”
He called Adrian immediately.
The attorney answered on the third ring.
“Marco.”
“I need Elena’s will.”
“I’m still verifying the latest version.”
“Send it.”
“There are formalities.”
“Adrian.”
The lawyer sighed.
“I’ll bring it personally.”
“When?”
“Within the hour.”
Marco ended the call.
Mara looked at him.
“You don’t trust your own lawyer.”
“I trust documents more than people.”
“That sounds lonely.”
“It keeps people alive.”
Mara looked toward Leo.
“Apparently not always.”
Marco flinched.
She immediately regretted it.
“I didn’t mean Elena.”
“Yes, you did.”
“No.”
“You did.”
He stood.
Mara watched him walk toward the glass.
She could see his reflection beside Leo’s incubator.
A powerful man reduced to watching a machine count a baby’s heartbeat.
Mara approached quietly.
“Jonah used to talk to Emma before she was born.”
Marco did not turn.
“What did he say?”
“Mostly nonsense.”
“Baseball scores.”
“Complaints about my cooking.”
“He told her he was going to teach her to ride a bicycle before she was four.”
Mara’s voice softened.
“Then he died.”
Marco looked toward her.
“I keep thinking about all the promises he didn’t get to keep.”
Marco glanced at Leo.
“I made Elena one.”
“What?”
“That I’d protect him.”
Mara looked at the tiny child.
“Then keep it.”
“I’m trying.”
“Maybe protecting him means figuring out what Elena was trying to protect him from.”
Marco nodded.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Marco said something Mara did not expect.
“I’m sorry about what I said this morning.”
“Which part?”
“The money.”
Mara looked at him.
“You apologize?”
“Rarely.”
“It needs work.”
“I assumed.”
She almost smiled.
Adrian Bell arrived forty-five minutes later.
He was fifty, impeccably dressed, silver at the temples, with the calm manner of a man who had spent decades telling dangerous clients to stop talking.
He carried a leather portfolio.
“Mrs. Ellison.”
Mara frowned.
“You know me too?”
Adrian gave a polite smile.
“I’ve spent the afternoon learning.”
Marco’s gaze sharpened.
“Open the will.”
They moved into the conference room.
Adrian removed several documents.
“Elena executed this version thirteen days ago.”
“Beneficiary?”
“Leo.”
“Trustee?”
Adrian hesitated.
Marco’s eyes narrowed.
“Why are you hesitating?”
“Because Elena made an unusual choice.”
“Who?”
Adrian looked at Mara.
“Mara Ellison.”
The room went silent.
Mara laughed once in disbelief.
“No.”
Adrian turned the document toward her.
Her name was there.
MARA ELIZABETH ELLISON.
Successor co-trustee for Leonardo Castellano.
“This is impossible.”
“I never met Elena.”
Adrian studied her.
“Apparently she knew enough about you.”
Marco looked at the signature.
“Who is the other trustee?”
Adrian pointed lower.
“Me.”
Mara looked at him.
Adrian smiled faintly.
“Which means neither of us can move Elena’s shares without the other’s consent.”
Marco leaned back.
“And if Leo dies?”
Adrian’s expression became serious.
“The shares transfer to the Elena Castellano Charitable Foundation.”
“Who controls that?”
“Currently Vittorio.”
Everything became silent again.
Mara felt cold.
“So if Leo dies, Vittorio controls twenty-eight percent of the company.”
“Indirectly.”
Marco’s eyes went dark.
Adrian continued.
“However, Elena added another provision.”
“What?”
“If Leo dies under suspicious circumstances before his eighteenth birthday, the shares are frozen pending federal review.”
Marco looked at Mara.
“Elena expected danger.”
“Yes.”
A knock sounded.
Nico entered.
His expression was different.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found Vittorio.”
“Where?”
“Saint Matthew’s Chapel.”
Mara remembered the name.
The place Elena had planned to meet Jonah the morning after he died.
Marco stood.
“Get the car.”
Nico didn’t move.
“What?”
“He isn’t alone.”
Marco waited.
Nico looked at Mara.
“Rebecca Ellison is with him.”
Mara’s face drained.
“She’s alive?”
“We have a live camera across the street.”
Nico turned his phone around.
Rebecca stood beside Vittorio outside the church.
Older than the photographs.
Thinner.
But unmistakably alive.
Mara stared at the screen.
Then Rebecca lifted her head.
She looked directly toward the surveillance camera.
Almost as if she knew they were watching.
She reached into her coat.
She held up a piece of paper.
On it were four handwritten words.
May you like
MARA, JONAH LEFT YOU EVERYTHING.
Then Rebecca turned and disappeared inside the church with Vittorio.
