Chapter 3

The Moretti welcome gala was held two nights later at their flagship hotel.

Victor told me not to go.

He did not beg, and that made his warning more serious. He said there would be time for public answers after I had spoken to Alessandro and after every document had been checked.

I went anyway.

Part of me needed to know whether Serena had stolen a few details or my entire childhood.

The hotel was full before nine. I wore a plain black dress and entered through the public reception with a group of guests from Moretti Holdings. Nobody looked closely at me. For five years I had attended rooms like this as Roman Vale's quiet wife, and without him beside me, I was nearly invisible. That helped.

Serena stood beneath a large Moretti crest while a host introduced her as the family's long-lost heir. Roman sat at a front table with Margaret. The event program listed Vale Group among the sponsors.

That told me this was more than a romance to him. He had put his company behind Serena before the Morettis had even finished proving who she was.

He looked comfortable, which bothered me more than if he had looked guilty.

Serena began talking about the years she had supposedly spent without a family. The speech was simple and emotional. She described waking in unfamiliar bedrooms, keeping her few things packed, and learning not to ask adults how long she could stay.

Those details could have come from any foster child.

Then she said she used to sleep in her shoes.

The room softened around her. People nodded. A woman near me wiped her eyes.

I stared at Roman.

He was watching Serena with an expression I knew: supportive and attentive, the face he used when someone needed to believe he cared.

I remembered a hotel room five years earlier, my shoes on the floor, Roman sitting beside me while I admitted why I could not sleep.

The memory did not belong to Serena. Roman had given it to her.

That knowledge settled more cleanly than grief. There was no question left to ask him about loyalty.

Serena saw me before Roman did.

Her speech paused for half a second. Then she smiled.

"Elara?"

Heads turned.

Roman followed her gaze and went still.

Serena stepped down from the small stage. "I didn't know you were coming."

"I wasn't invited."

A few people laughed nervously.

She lowered her voice, though not enough to keep the closest guests from hearing. "This really isn't healthy."

She had chosen concern instead of anger, because concern made me look unstable.

Margaret stood at once. "Security."

Roman finally came toward us.

I waited for him to tell his mother to stop.

He didn't.

"Elara," he said, "you should go home."

"I'm not here for you."

Serena folded both hands over the curve of her stomach. "Then why come at all?"

I looked at her beneath the Moretti crest, surrounded by people congratulating her on a life that was not hers.

"I wanted to see you here," I said. "Before anything changes."

For the first time, her smile hesitated.

Serena recovered quickly and laughed as if I had said something embarrassing. "I think she's upset. Please don't film her."

That ensured three people immediately lifted their phones.

Two security guards approached.

Roman could still have stopped them, but instead he said quietly, "Don't make this worse." I had spent five years mistaking that calm voice for safety. Now I recognized the control underneath it.

I let the guards escort me out without struggling or raising my voice. I refused to give Serena the scene she wanted.

The doors closed behind me, cutting off the music and applause.

Outside, I stood on the hotel steps and took a slow breath. My hands were shaking now that nobody was close enough to see.

A black sedan pulled to the curb.

Victor Bennett got out holding a thick gray folder. He took one look at my face and said, "You went."

"I needed to hear her. She has my childhood."

He looked toward the hotel entrance, then back at me. "Then you're ready for this."

He handed me the folder. Inside were sealed sections containing the DNA results, my birth records, the report from the night I disappeared, and something marked with the date of the accident that killed my parents.

"What did you find?" I asked.

Victor did not answer immediately.

"Enough to change what you think happened to you."

I looked back through the hotel doors. Serena was still beneath the Moretti crest, accepting congratulations while Roman stood beside her.

Victor lowered his voice. "After you read this, you may stop believing any part of the last nineteen years happened by accident."

I opened the folder.

The first page made my knees weaken.