Buried Alive, I Left the Don My Blood-Written Truth Chapter 04
“Mommy, I’m scared.”
I pounded on the door with everything I had.
“Don’t be scared, Lily. Mommy is right here.”
Martha’s voice came through the door.
“Lily, Grandma is taking you to see the fish.”
Lily sobbed, “I want Mommy.” Another maid laughed.
“There are fish in the well. Pretty ones.”
I slammed my shoulder against the door until half my body went numb.
“Open the door.”
“If Adrian finds out, he’ll never let you get away with this.”
Outside the door, there was a moment of silence. Then Margaret’s voice came through.
“Then let her see if her Adrian can save her.”
After that, the crying stopped. When I was released, the well in the backyard had already been covered with
wooden boards. I threw myself at them like a madwoman. Margaret stood beside the well. A strand of her
rosary was wet.
“The child wandered off on her own.”
I lunged at her.
“Give Lily back to me.”
The maids beside her held me down. They forced a bowl of medicine down my throat. Vivian crouched in
front of me and wiped the corner of my mouth.
“Elena, stop this.”
“Mrs. Moretti is doing this for the good of the family.”
I glared at her.
“You saw it, didn’t you?”
Her hand paused. Then tears fell at once.
“I didn’t see a thing.”
“Elena, are you trying to ruin me with a lie?”
I was imprisoned in the back annex. On the third day, Connor died. Martha led people into my room and
found traces of poison there. A kitchen maid came forward and accused me.
“Elena ordered me to make the medicine.”
I screamed until my throat tasted of blood.
“I didn’t.”
Connor’s body was laid in the hall. His lips were black. In one hand, he still clutched the little shoe I had made for him. Margaret threw a written confession in front of me.
“Sign.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
She bent down. Her voice was so low only I could hear it.
“If you don’t confess, I’ll have that well opened tonight, and whatever is left of Lily will be fed to the dogs.”
My hand stopped. Vivian cried as she urged me.
“Just confess, Elena.”
“Connor is already dead. At least let Lily stay whole.”
I looked at her.
“You will all pay for this.”
Margaret smiled.
“If there is such a thing as retribution, let it come for me.”
I pressed my bloody handprint onto the confession. As my palm came down, I scratched a crude well mark
into the corner of the paper with my nail. It was the only clue I had left. What reached Adrian wasn’t my
screams for help. It was a cleaned-up confession, stripped of every line that could have saved me. Only later
did I learn he had written back.
“Wait until I return to New York. Then I’ll review the case myself.”
But that letter never reached me. Margaret came to my bedside with another sealed order bearing the mark
of his signet ring.
“Don Moretti says a sinner doesn’t deserve a place in the family cemetery. Bury her at once.”
My thoughts returned. Adrian was sitting in the hall now. Lily’s bones lay on the long bench beside him. He would not let anyone take her away. The butler offered him a wooden box with both hands.
“Don Moretti, Margaret used this letter to order the coffin sealed that day.”
A guard whispered beside him, “Don Moretti, before you left for the Mexican border outpost, you gave Margaret your signet ring and authorization to sign emergency documents. You said that if an urgent family matter came up, she could sign for you once.” Adrian closed his eyes. He remembered. Three months ago, at the Mexican border outpost, he had received the investigation file. He had written back, “Wait until I return to New York. I’ll review the case myself.” But right after he sent that reply, a second urgent order followed.
“The evidence is conclusive. Close the case at once.”
At the time, he thought someone in New York was pressing for closure, so he did not stop it. It turned out the
pressure had come from his own signet seal all along. Adrian opened the wooden box. I floated behind him and saw the letter that had sent me into the coffin. The wax seal was real. The handwriting looked like his
too. Adrian stared at the bottom of the letter. His voice turned cold.
“Who touched my signet ring?”
