“Elena inherited everything Alessandro left. His shares. His trust. His houses. Vivienne got nothing except monthly payments that stopped when he died.”
Dominic slowly understood Elena’s recording.
She waited her whole life for yours.
Marcus continued.
“Vivienne followed Elena. Studied her. The schools she attended. The charities she supported. The people she knew.”
“She befriended her deliberately.”
“Yes.”
“And me?”
Marcus’s silence answered.
Dominic felt nauseated.
Vivienne had appeared three months after Elena’s death.
At first as a grieving friend.
Then someone who helped with Aria.
Someone who remembered Elena’s favorite flowers.
Someone who knew which wine Dominic drank.
Which music Elena used to play.
Dominic had believed those similarities were evidence of friendship.
They had actually been research.
“She wanted Elena’s life,” Dominic whispered.
Marcus looked at him.
“She wanted everything Elena had.”
Dominic’s mind moved to Aria.
“Everything?”
Marcus’s face changed.
That was enough.
Dominic grabbed him.
“What did she intend to do with my daughter?”
“I don’t know!”
“Everything means what?”
“She hated Aria!”
Dominic stopped.
Marcus was crying now.
“She hated that even after Elena died, you still loved Elena through that child. Every room in this house reminded her she was second.”
Dominic shoved him backward.
“You knew she hated my daughter and you let her near her?”
“I thought it was jealousy!”
“Aria is three!”
“I know!”
“No. You don’t.”
Dominic’s voice cracked with rage.
“You don’t know what it means to hear your child begging you not to leave her with someone you invited into her home.”
Marcus dropped his eyes.
Dominic stepped away before anger became something irreversible.
“Where is Aurora House?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Vermont.”
“Address.”
“I don’t know.”
Dominic leaned down.
“Then start remembering.”
Marcus whispered, “It belongs to Vivienne’s mother.”
Aurora House did not appear on any public medical registry.
Matteo found it through property records.
A secluded rehabilitation estate outside Stowe, Vermont, owned through three shell companies.
Dominic flew north before sunrise.
He brought Matteo.
Two detectives.
And Elena’s letter.
Aria stayed with Rosa under armed protection.
Dominic hated leaving her.
But before he went, Aria had taken his face in both small hands.
“Find Mommy bird?”
Dominic had kissed her fingers.
“I’m going to find the truth.”
The facility sat at the end of a narrow road surrounded by autumn woods.
No sign.
No hospital logo.
Just an old stone house behind iron gates.
Police arrived with a warrant shortly after Dominic.
The administrator protested.
Then officers found the locked east wing.
Seven patients lived there under false names.
One woman was registered as Lena Ross.
Dominic stopped outside Room 12.
He suddenly could not move.
