Chapter 6 - THE NAME ON THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE
The next morning, Matteo received a call from Elias Ward.
Elias sounded weak but alert.
“Matteo, I remembered something.”
“Tell me.”
“When Julian's men moved me, they kept asking about an account connected to the Ward family.”
Matteo glanced at the photograph on his desk.
“Your wife is Elena Ward?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Did she ever tell you about her childhood?”
“Not much. She grew up in foster care. She was told her biological parents had died.”
Matteo closed his eyes briefly.
“Elias, I need to ask you something difficult. Did Elena ever mention a woman named Grace Harper?”
Silence.
Then Elias said, “Once.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she had met a woman at a charity event who claimed they looked alike. Elena thought it was a strange coincidence.”
“Did she keep the woman's name?”
“I don't know.”
Matteo looked toward the window.
“Can you contact your wife?”
“I've been trying. Her phone has been switched off since yesterday.”
The call ended with a promise to speak again.
Matteo immediately asked Luca to locate Elena through lawful channels. The investigator contacted her employer, checked publicly available records, and reached out to her attorney.
By late afternoon, they had learned that Elena was safe but had left Boston several days earlier after receiving anonymous messages warning her not to contact her husband.
She had gone to stay with a friend in Providence.
Matteo did not send security officers to retrieve her.
Instead, he asked the attorney to contact her, explain that Elias was alive, and offer a confidential meeting with Grace.
Elena agreed.
She arrived at the townhouse the following evening.
Grace was waiting in the sitting room.
When Elena entered, both women stopped.
Neither moved.
For a moment, the only sound was Lily babbling in her carrier.
Elena was twenty-four, with dark brown hair, tired eyes, and the same crescent-shaped birthmark near her left ear.
Grace stood slowly.
“What's your name?” she whispered.
“Elena Ward.”
Grace covered her mouth.
“Do you know who I am?”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
“I'm Grace Harper.”
The young woman's face changed.
She had heard that name before, in the story about the stranger at the charity event.
Grace took one cautious step forward.
“I don't expect you to believe me. I don't expect you to call me your mother. I only want you to know that I never stopped looking for you.”
Elena's eyes filled with tears.
“Why did you let me go?”
Grace's face crumpled.
“I didn't know where you were. They told me you had died.”
“Who?”
“The people who controlled the hospital records. Your file was changed. I was given documents that said you hadn't survived.”
Elena looked toward Matteo.
“Is this true?”
He placed the original records on the table.
“We found evidence that your birth record was altered. The documents suggest you were transferred to a private clinic under a false identity. We have not yet established every detail, but the records are being independently verified.”
Elena read the papers.
Her hands began to shake.
“All my life, I thought nobody wanted me.”
Grace started crying.
“I wanted you every day.”
Elena looked at her for a long time.
Then she asked the question that had haunted her since childhood.
“Did you give me away?”
“No,” Grace whispered. “Never.”
Elena crossed the room and embraced her.
Grace held her daughter as though she feared the world might take her away again.
Matteo quietly stepped outside.
Luca was waiting in the corridor.
“That's one secret solved,” Luca said.
“Not solved. Confirmed enough to investigate.”
“And Northstar?”
“Still operating.”
Luca handed him a folder.
“We traced several recent transfers. Julian has been moving money into an account controlled by a company registered in Delaware. The company is linked to a property development project near the waterfront.”
Matteo opened the folder.
The project was scheduled to receive final city approval the following week.
Several city officials appeared on the list of people who had received payments from Northstar-linked companies.
“If the records are genuine,” Matteo said, “this isn't just corporate fraud. It may involve bribery, identity fraud, unlawful confinement, and interference with public officials.”
“We should take everything to the authorities.”
“We will. But first, I want the originals secured so no one can destroy them.”
Their attorney arranged a meeting with federal investigators who handled complex financial crimes. The team provided the documents and explained which facts had been verified and which remained allegations.
The investigators accepted the material for review.
Matteo knew it would take time.
That evening, Julian called.
“I heard Elena is back in Boston.”
Matteo said nothing.
“You should be careful,” Julian continued. “People remember things incorrectly when they're emotional.”
“Is that what happened to you?”
“What does that mean?”
“You've spent years moving money through Northstar. Elias says you imprisoned him. Grace says your family altered her daughter's records.”
Julian's voice hardened.
“Your father built the organization. Don't pretend you're morally superior.”
“I never said I was.”
“Then stop acting like the innocent heir.”
Matteo looked toward the sitting room, where Grace and Elena were talking quietly while Mia showed her sister how to stack wooden blocks.
“You're right about one thing,” Matteo said. “My family has done things that cannot be excused.”
“Then you understand why you need to stop digging.”
“No. I understand why I have to continue.”
Julian hung up.
Minutes later, the townhouse's security system alerted them to an unauthorized attempt to access the underground archive.
The cameras showed a masked person entering through the old service passage.
Luca led the security team toward the basement while Matteo secured the children and the two women in the protected suite.
The intruder escaped before they reached the passage.
But he left something behind.
A small envelope containing a photograph of Matteo's father and a handwritten note.
Your father didn't start Northstar to control Boston. He started it to protect someone. Find out who before you destroy everything.
Matteo read the note.
For the first time, he wondered whether his father had created Northstar for a reason that was not entirely selfish.
It didn't make the harm disappear.
May you like
But it meant the truth was still incomplete.
And someone was determined to ensure Matteo never discovered the whole story.
