Chapter 2 - ROSE MORETTI’S WARNING
Galen had seen his mother angry.
He had seen her suspicious.
He had seen her throw men twice her size out of Moretti dinners with nothing more than a look.
But Rose had never spoken openly against Ainsley.
That was what made the photograph worse.
Ainsley had known the Morettis since she was seventeen.
Her father supplied wine to several family restaurants.
She met Serena at a charity dinner.
The two women became close.
Years later, Ainsley stood beside Serena at her wedding to Galen.
Everyone called them sisters.
Galen had never questioned it.
Now his dead mother had apparently distrusted Ainsley before the marriage even happened.
He brought Serena’s old keepsake box from storage.
Eira had inherited it.
Galen had never searched it.
Some things felt too personal.
That night he stopped treating grief like a locked door.
He opened everything.
Letters.
Photographs.
Birthday cards.
A broken bracelet.
A dried flower from Eira’s birth.
Nothing about Ainsley.
Then Galen found the bottom panel.
It lifted.
Beneath it sat three envelopes tied together with faded ribbon.
All were addressed to Rose.
None had been sent.
The first was from Serena.
Galen opened it.
Rose, I think you were right about Ainsley.
His jaw tightened.
Serena wrote that Ainsley had begun asking strange questions before the wedding.
Not about Galen.
About the Moretti family.
Who made decisions.
Who controlled the estate.
Which relatives Galen trusted.
Which people he listened to when angry.
Serena thought it was curiosity.
Rose did not.
The second letter was written months later.
Ainsley had started appearing whenever Serena and Galen argued.
Never obviously.
Always helpful.
Always sympathetic.
If Serena complained that Galen worked too much, Ainsley agreed.
If Galen complained that Serena did not understand family pressure, Ainsley agreed with him too.
She became the person standing between both of them.
Not healing arguments.
Collecting them.
Galen stopped reading.
He remembered.
Ainsley had always known what he and Serena were fighting about.
He assumed Serena told her.
Maybe Serena assumed Galen did.
The third envelope was different.
No letter.
Only a small audio recorder.
Old.
Galen pressed play.
Rose’s voice filled the room.
“If Galen is hearing this, then I waited too long.”
Galen closed his eyes.
His mother had died before Eira was born.
Before Serena became ill.
Before Ainsley became his fiancée.
Yet Rose had already seen something.
“I don’t believe Ainsley wants Galen,” Rose said.
A pause.
“I believe she wants what standing beside him makes everyone else believe about her.”
Galen looked toward the door.
Ainsley sat downstairs under guard.
Rose continued.
“She studies this family the way frightened people study locked doors.”
“She wants to know which one opens first.”
Then Rose said something Galen did not expect.
“This is partly my fault.”
He looked sharply at the recorder.
Rose explained that when Ainsley was twenty, she came to the Moretti house after her father suffered a financial collapse.
Not asking for money.
Asking for work.
Rose gave her a temporary position helping organize family events.
Ainsley learned quickly.
She watched people move when Rose spoke.
Watched staff straighten when Galen entered.
Watched guests remember every Moretti preference.
Ainsley became fascinated by one thing.
Not wealth.
Influence.
“She told me once that nobody had ever listened when her mother asked for help.”
Rose’s voice softened.
“I should have understood what that meant.”
Galen frowned.
Ainsley’s mother, Claire Vale, had died when Ainsley was sixteen.
The story was simple.
A difficult marriage.
A woman who left.
Ainsley rarely discussed her.
Rose continued.
“Claire did not leave her daughter.”
Galen froze.
“Ainsley believes she did because her father told her so.”
The recorder clicked.
Then Rose’s voice returned.
“And Serena knows where Claire went.”
Galen stood.
Serena had known Ainsley’s mother was alive?
He searched the box again.
Nothing.
Then Eira appeared in the doorway holding her stuffed rabbit.
The bodyguard behind her looked apologetic.
“She wouldn’t sleep.”
Galen lifted her.
Eira pointed toward the recorder.
“Mommy voice?”
“No.”
“Grandma Rose.”
Eira frowned.
Then she said:
“Mommy had another talking thing.”
Galen looked at her.
“Where?”
Eira pointed toward Serena’s old dressing room.
“Inside the red shoe.”
Galen carried her there.
The wardrobe had been mostly emptied after Serena died.
But one pair of red heels remained inside an upper drawer.
Galen checked one.
Nothing.
Then the other.
A tiny recorder slid from the toe.
He pressed play.
Serena’s voice appeared.
Weak.
Tired.
Recorded only three weeks before her death.
“Ainsley found Claire.”
Galen went still.
“She knows her mother never abandoned her.”
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A pause.
“And she is terrified Galen will find out what she did after learning the truth.”
