Buried Alive, I Left the Don My Blood-Written Truth Chapter 03
“I didn’t make the medicine. Before Connor died, he saw…”
The second half had been torn off. Adrian’s fingers slowly tightened.
“Who tore off the rest?”
No one spoke. Margaret sneered.
“You believe a dead woman’s ravings?”
Ava said, “If it was just nonsense, why tear it off?” Margaret stared at her.
“Who sent you?”
Ava raised her head.
“Elena once saved my life.”
“Margaret forgot. I didn’t.”
Vivian’s eyes flickered for a second.
“Lock down the Moretti compound.”
The butler gasped. “Don Moretti?” Adrian looked at everyone.
“From this moment on, no one leaves. Not the backyard maids, not the kitchen staff, not Vivian, and not a single person from Margaret’s household.”
Margaret snapped, “Adrian, you would imprison your own mother?” Adrian stared at her. Each word cut clean and cold.
“If you killed Lily, I’ll drag you into criminal court myself.”
Margaret shook with rage.
“I’m your mother.”
Adrian lifted Lily’s bones into his arms. His voice sounded as if it had been dragged through blood.
“And she was my daughter.”
I remembered three months ago. Martha had stood outside my door.
“Elena, Mrs. Moretti asks you to come to the chapel and pray for a male heir for the Moretti family.”
There was no respect on Martha’s face when she said it. I was fitting Connor for a new pair of shoes. The child was only five. His instep was thin, and the shoe never sat right on his foot. Connor looked up at me.
“Mom, do I have to go to Grandma’s?”
Lily leaned against the edge of the table, her little voice tiny. “Connor is scared of Grandma.” I touched Connor’s head.
“Don’t be scared. I’m right here.”
Martha let out a sharp little laugh.
“Worry about yourself first, Elena.”
“Mrs. Moretti said you’ve been married into the Moretti family for four years and given Don Moretti nothing but a daughter. Now Connor has been registered as your son. That was a favor. It gave you standing.”
“If you can’t even pray, what use are you to the Morettis?”
I looked at her.
“Before Adrian comes back, no one touches those two children.”
Martha laughed louder.
“Don Moretti is at the Mexican border handling the family’s turf war. Do you think he has time to worry about what happens inside the compound?”
“Besides, Don Moretti has always listened to Margaret.”
Back then, I still believed in Adrian. I thought everything would be fine once he came home. Connor wasn’t my biological child. He was the orphaned son of Adrian’s cousin, killed in a Moretti shootout. When Connor was three, he was made my legal son and started calling me Mom. He was shy with everyone else. He would only eat food I made. The first night I held him, he clutched the corner of my dress.
“Mom, please don’t send me away.”
I promised him. From then on, I loved him as my own. In the chapel, Margaret sat on a kneeling cushion. Beside her stood a maid draped in black cloth. The maid shook a brass bell in one hand. Too much white showed in her eyes. Margaret introduced her.
“This is Mara. She reads the fate of the Moretti bloodline.”
Mara stared at me and grinned.
“A woman’s blood drags a bloodline down. It rots the male line at the root.”
I frowned.
“Margaret, if this is only prayer, I can do it.”
“But I’m not listening to this filth.”
Margaret slapped the table.
“Elena, how dare you talk back?”
Mara walked a circle around me.
“The Morettis want a male heir. First, the curse of daughters must be cut off.”
“Drown the girl. Sacrifice the boy. Only then will the heir come.”
I stood.
“What did you say? Lily is Adrian’s daughter.”
“Daughter?” She laughed.
“A girl born from blood like hers thinks she has the right to call herself a Moretti?”
I lunged forward. Two maids pinned my shoulders down.
“If you touch her, I’ll fight you to my last breath.”
Margaret looked down at me.
“And what life do you think you still have to risk?”
“Elena, the Moretti family is the only reason you’re still alive.”
That day, I was locked inside the small chapel. Outside the door, Lily began to cry.
