Chapter 19 - ISABELLA'S LAST REQUEST
Alessandro did not open the packet until Mara invited him to sit beside her. They chose a small room at the public library, not the estate. Neither wanted Isabella's words surrounded by the walls that had kept her silent.
Inside were three letters: one for Alessandro, one for Mara, and one addressed to whoever eventually controlled the Romano companies.
Alessandro read his first. Isabella wrote that she had loved him even when the family taught him to mistake fear for respect. She begged him not to answer her death with another killing. If the truth ever emerged, she wanted her evidence put before a judge, not delivered in a private act of revenge.
His eyes filled. "She knew what I would want to do."
"She knew you," Mara answered.
The second letter was for the little girl Isabella had hoped to raise. It described Mara's first steps, her fierce refusal to eat carrots, and the way she liked to sleep with a toy rabbit tucked beneath her chin.
Mara laughed once through tears. "I thought I made up the rabbit."
The third letter requested that any recovered family assets be audited and that stolen funds be returned before anyone claimed an inheritance. Whatever remained in Isabella's name should support children whose parents had disappeared or been taken away.
"She was planning for people she never met," Mara said.
"Then we can honor that, if the court approves the distributions," Alessandro replied.
For the funeral, Mara chose a hillside cemetery outside the city. She invited Celia, Lidia, Nina, Frank, and the people who had helped preserve the evidence. Alessandro came without bodyguards at his side and stood toward the back until Mara waved him forward.
When the service ended, she pressed her mother's silver hawk pendant into his palm.
"Keep this today," she said. "I want you to remember what she asked."
May you like
Before he could reply, his phone rang. Elena had news from the independent audit.
The family fortune was far smaller than anyone believed, and the estate itself might have to be sold.
