CHAPTER 3 — THE WOMAN WHO BURIED MY MOTHER
CHAPTER 3 — THE WOMAN WHO BURIED MY MOTHER
No one moved.
The silence after the gunfire felt heavier than the bullets.
The woman in black stared at the silver locket in my trembling hand as though she had seen a ghost.
"I asked you a question," I said.
She swallowed hard.
"I buried your mother."
"I watched her coffin lowered into the ground."
"I closed it myself."
My voice cracked.
"Then explain why you're looking at me like she's still alive."
Before she could answer, the mafia heir stepped between us, his pistol still raised.
"Identify yourself."
She slowly lifted both hands.
"Agent Sofia Marconi."
"I used to work for Elena Rossi."
He didn't lower the gun.
"Used to?"
"Until she disappeared."
"I thought she was dead."
"So did everyone else."
The words echoed through the ruined apartment.
Mrs. Alvarez and her grandson were hurried downstairs by arriving police officers, but none of the officers entered our hallway.
Instead, black SUVs blocked the street.
Men in expensive suits quietly redirected every officer away.
I looked at the heir.
"You control the police?"
He answered without shame.
"I control who reaches this floor."
Sofia ignored him.
She walked toward me with cautious steps.
"Show me your wrist."
"My wrist?"
"Please."
Confused, I rolled back my sleeve.
The moment she saw the tiny crescent-shaped birthmark near my thumb, tears filled her eyes.
"Oh, Elena..."
She whispered the name like a prayer.
"She was right."
I frowned.
"About what?"
Sofia reached into her jacket and removed a faded photograph protected inside a plastic sleeve.
There were four people standing beside a lake.
A younger Victoria Cavalari.
A man I recognized as the heir's late father.
Sofia.
And...
My mother.
Not wearing an apron.
Not exhausted from double shifts.
She wore a white laboratory coat.
She was laughing.
Actually laughing.
I had never seen that smile before.
On her wrist...
The same crescent-shaped birthmark.
My knees nearly gave out.
"She really knew your family."
The heir quietly corrected me.
"No."
"My family knew her."
An hour later, we were inside the Cavalari estate.
The mansion looked less like a home than a fortress.
Armed guards stood every twenty feet.
Facial scanners replaced door handles.
Bulletproof glass overlooked gardens that could have belonged to a palace.
Everything screamed power.
Everything except Victoria.
She lay in a private medical suite upstairs, pale but awake.
When she saw me enter, tears rolled silently down her cheeks.
"Mia..."
Her voice was weak.
"You have her eyes."
I froze.
"You knew my mother."
Victoria nodded slowly.
"I loved her."
The room became impossibly still.
"You don't understand," Victoria whispered.
"Your mother saved my son's life long before you saved mine."
I looked toward the heir.
He said nothing.
Victoria continued.
"Twenty-three years ago someone poisoned the milk meant for my newborn baby."
My heartbeat stopped.
"Your mother discovered it."
"She drank it herself before anyone else could."
"What?"
Victoria closed her eyes.
"It wasn't enough to kill her."
"But it proved someone inside our own family wanted my son dead."
The heir stared out the window.
"I never knew that part."
"Because your father erased it," Victoria answered.
"He wanted peace."
"There was never peace."
Sofia placed another file onto the bed.
"There's something else."
Inside were medical records.
Autopsy reports.
Photographs.
Death certificates.
Every page carried the same symbol stamped in red ink.
A snake eating its own tail.
"What is this?" I asked.
Sofia answered quietly.
"Everyone on this list died from unexplained organ failure."
I flipped another page.
Another.
Another.
Forty-three victims.
Every single one had officially died of natural causes.
Every single one had actually been poisoned.
The final page carried one familiar name.
Elena Rossi.
Date of death...
Three years ago.
Official cause...
Cardiac arrest.
Real cause...
Unknown neurotoxin.
Someone had crossed out the final line with black marker.
The heir slowly spoke.
"Someone changed the file."
Sofia nodded.
"The original cause of death was removed."
"By whom?"
May you like
She hesitated.
"Someone inside your family."
