Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
The former administrator, Dr. Augusto Nunes, agreed to meet Dante at a quiet seaside café.
Helena insisted on accompanying him.
“My mother trusted Isabella,” she explained. “If her death was hidden from the family, I deserve to know why.”
Dante considered refusing.
Then he remembered how often powerful men had mistaken silence for protection.
“All right,” he said. “But we stay together.”
Dr. Nunes arrived carrying an old leather folder.
He looked at Dante with the exhausted expression of a man who had rehearsed an apology for years.
“I should have spoken sooner.”
“Then start now.”
The doctor explained that Isabella had suffered a severe medical emergency following childbirth. The hospital staff had managed to stabilize her, but she required further treatment.
Before arrangements could be completed, Cecilia arrived with documents claiming Dante had authorized a transfer to a private facility.
The paperwork was suspicious.
Dr. Nunes had questioned it, but Cecilia threatened to expose his involvement in a separate financial scheme if he refused to cooperate.
He had signed the transfer papers.
The facility listed on the documents had no record of Isabella ever arriving.
“What happened to my wife?” Dante asked.
“I don't know,” the doctor replied. “But Mariana believed Isabella had been taken somewhere against her wishes.”
Helena gripped the edge of the table.
“Why didn't my mother tell me?”
“Because she received threats. She believed that anyone who knew the truth would be endangered.”
Dante looked at the folder.
Inside were copies of medical reports, a transfer form, and a photograph of Isabella leaving the hospital in a dark vehicle.
The driver was not identified.
But the vehicle belonged to a company controlled by the Montenegro family's charitable foundation.
Cecilia had chaired that foundation.
On the drive home, Dante said nothing.
Helena watched the city pass outside the window.
“Do you think she's alive?” she asked.
“I don't know.”
“Will you keep looking?”
He turned toward her.
“Until I have the truth.”
When they returned to the estate, Miguel ran toward Helena and held up a drawing.
It showed three figures beneath a yellow sun.
One was a tall man in black.
Two were small boys.
The third had long brown hair and a silver star around her neck.
Helena knelt beside him.
“That's beautiful.”
Miguel touched the drawn pendant.
“Mama's star.”
Dante heard the words from the doorway.
For six years, his sons had barely spoken in unfamiliar company. Their world had narrowed to routines, familiar rooms, and the people they trusted.
Yet Helena had reached them without demanding anything.
He began to wonder whether her connection to Isabella was more profound than either of them understood.
That night, a message arrived on Dante's encrypted phone.
It contained a single photograph.
The image showed an elderly woman sitting beside a window in a small white room.
Beneath it were five words:
SHE IS ALIVE. FIND HER.
Dante enlarged the photograph.
The woman wore a simple chain around her neck.
On it hung a silver star.
May you like
The same star Helena wore.
And in the lower corner of the photograph, barely visible, was the reflection of Cecilia's face.
