Chapter 6 - My Mother Walked Away
My dying mother had vanished voluntarily.
That made no sense.
She was weak enough to need assistance walking to the bathroom.
Yet hospital footage showed Margaret Evans leaving through a service corridor.
Alone.
Then someone met her outside camera range.
Giovanni mobilized his security team.
I stopped him.
“She said not to trust either family.”
His expression remained calm.
“That includes me.”
“Yes.”
“Then what do you want?”
“Access.”
“To?”
“Everything your father left concerning Ashford Biotech.”
He stared at me.
“That archive is private.”
“So was my mother’s hospital room.”
Point taken.
Three hours later, we entered Lorenzo Moretti’s old Manhattan office.
It had been preserved almost untouched.
Giovanni opened a steel cabinet.
Inside were financial ledgers dating back decades.
Ashford Biotech appeared repeatedly.
Lorenzo had invested twelve million dollars.
Then abruptly withdrew support six weeks before his death.
I found a handwritten note.
M.B. refuses settlement.
Margaret Bell.
My mother.
Another:
R.A. moved trial liabilities offshore.
Rebecca Ashford.
Then a final line:
Sofia knows where the originals are.
Giovanni went still.
His mother again.
“Call her.”
“No.”
“Giovanni.”
“You don’t know Sofia.”
“Neither do you anymore.”
That landed.
He called Sicily.
A woman answered.
Giovanni said nothing for several seconds.
“Mother.”
Her reply was cold enough that I heard it from across the room.
“What happened?”
“We found Lorenzo’s Ashford files.”
Silence.
Then:
“Burn them.”
Giovanni’s face hardened.
“Why?”
“Because your father should have.”
I stepped closer.
“Ask about Margaret.”
He did.
Sofia’s breathing changed.
“Margaret Bell is alive?”
“For now.”
“Then listen carefully. Rebecca Ashford is dangerous, but she was never the person Lorenzo feared.”
“Who was?”
Sofia answered:
“Me.”
Giovanni stared at the phone.
She continued before he could speak.
“I destroyed Margaret’s case twenty years ago.”
My stomach turned.
“Why?”
Giovanni asked the question quietly.
“To protect you.”
“From what?”
“You were seventeen. Tyler Ashford was twelve. Neither of you knew what your fathers had done.”
Giovanni’s jaw tightened.
“My father?”
“Lorenzo wasn’t investigating Ashford Biotech.”
Her voice broke.
“He was one of the men who financed it.”
The saint became an accomplice.
Giovanni lowered himself into his father’s chair.
Then Sofia said one final thing.
“And if Hannah Evans found Margaret’s locket, tell her not to unlock the final directory.”
“Why?”
“Because her mother lied about who Hannah’s father was.”
I took the phone.
“What does my father have to do with this?”
Sofia went silent.
May you like
Then whispered:
“Everything.”
