Chapter 3 - CECILIA'S PERFECT LIE
By sunrise, Dante had locked down the estate's records room.
No employee could enter without authorization. His lawyers were instructed to preserve every document connected to Isabella's death, while his private investigators began reviewing the hospital's archived files.
Helena wanted to return to her duties.
Dante refused.
“You're staying here until we understand what's happening.”
“Am I a witness or a prisoner?”
The question irritated him because it was fair.
“A witness,” he replied. “And someone my sons trust.”
“Then let me choose where I stay.”
For the first time in years, Dante had no immediate answer.
He arranged a private guest suite near the children's bedrooms. Helena accepted it only after he promised that she could leave whenever she wished.
Meanwhile, Cecilia began quietly contacting people who owed her favors.
She had spent six years building a reputation as the devoted guardian of her brother's children. She attended charity galas, appeared in society magazines, and managed several family foundations.
Nobody suspected that her generosity had been carefully staged.
Years earlier, Cecilia had discovered that Isabella planned to change the family trust. Isabella intended to establish independent funds for the twins, protected from Dante's business associates and family members alike.
Cecilia feared losing access to the fortune.
She had also discovered that Mariana Duarte possessed evidence of financial misconduct inside the Montenegro organization.
After Isabella's death, Cecilia had helped arrange the disappearance of several records. She believed Mariana had left São Paulo permanently.
She had been wrong.
Now Helena had returned carrying the one object Cecilia had never managed to recover.
The pendant.
That afternoon, Cecilia cornered Helena in the nursery.
“You have no idea what you're getting involved in,” she said.
Helena was arranging picture books on a shelf while Tomás and Miguel played nearby.
“I know that you don't want me here.”
“I want what's best for those children.”
“Then why are you frightened when they feel safe?”
Cecilia's smile disappeared.
“You think a few minutes of singing makes you their mother?”
“No. I think they're children who deserve kindness.”
Cecilia leaned closer.
“Your mother should have kept her promises.”
Helena froze.
“What promises?”
But Cecilia had already turned away.
That evening, Dante confronted his sister-in-law in the library.
He placed the photograph on the desk.
“You knew Mariana Duarte.”
Cecilia didn't answer.
“You knew my wife trusted her.”
“Isabella trusted too easily.”
“Did you have anything to do with her death?”
Cecilia looked genuinely offended.
“How dare you?”
“Answer me.”
She began to cry, a performance Dante had seen many times before.
“I spent six years helping you raise those boys. I stayed when everyone else abandoned you. And now you're going to believe a maid over your own family?”
“I'm going to believe the evidence.”
For the first time, Cecilia's tears stopped immediately.
That night, Dante's investigator called.
They had located a former hospital administrator who had handled Isabella's case. He had retired to a coastal town and refused to discuss the past over the phone.
But he had agreed to meet Dante privately.
Before hanging up, the investigator added one detail.
The administrator claimed Isabella had survived the initial medical emergency.
She had been alive when someone removed her from the hospital.
The official death certificate had been issued hours later.
Dante stood motionless.
His wife had supposedly died before he could reach her.
He had spent six years blaming himself for not being there.
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Now someone was suggesting that the final hours of her life had been deliberately concealed.
And the last person known to have visited her hospital room was Cecilia Montenegro.
