My Sister Popped The Bubble Of My Happy Marriage Chapter 08

Dante used the Rinaldi family’s security and private investigators to find out I had gone to Boston. He came overnight, only to find an empty hotel room. I had already checked out and moved into a short-term

apartment.

He stood in the empty room and kept texting me.

[Come back. We can talk about the divorce.]

[I’ll make Serafina move out.]

[As long as you come back, we can start over.]

I didn’t reply to a single one.

The Boston apartment was small, but the balcony looked out over the Charles River.

I scheduled my post-op checkup, sent out a few resumes, and for the first time seriously planned a life

without Dante and without the Santoro family.

Father soon realized he couldn’t reach me and had the bank freeze the supplementary card he had given me.

But when the bank checked the records, they told him the card hadn’t been used in two years.

Mother went back to the townhouse and searched. Only then did she realize that the old clothes she had

shoved at me, the bills Matteo had dumped on me, and the jewelry Dante had given me were all still there. I

hadn’t taken a single thing.

I hadn’t taken anything they gave me.

And they still had no idea where I was.

In New York, the online backlash stripped Serafina of her usual composure. She lost control, sobbing until

she couldn’t breathe. Mother had no choice but to call Dante back.

“Serafina is falling apart, and you’re still running around looking for that ungrateful girl?”

Dante stood in the doorway. He didn’t walk over and hold Serafina the way he used to.

He only asked one question.

The room went quiet. Mother looked at him, furious.

“Who knew she’d be heartless enough to get rid of her own baby?”

Serafina, in tears, reached for Dante.

“Dante, it’s all my fault. Don’t blame them.”

Dante looked down at her.

“Did you want that baby gone all along?”

Serafina’s hand went stiff.

The emotions she had been holding back for days finally broke loose. She screamed through her tears,

“That baby should never have existed! As long as there was no baby, Celeste would have given you back to

me sooner or later!”

A thud came from outside the door.

Matteo stood there, the papers in his hand fallen to the floor.

He had always thought Serafina was just blinded by love. He never imagined she had calculated against her

own sister and an unborn child.

This time, he didn’t defend her.

And in Boston, I met Anthony Russo.

He had been Don Salvatore’s personal attorney in his later years and was legal counsel for the independent

trust.

I had always believed that after Grandpa died, most of the family shares and real estate went to Serafina and

Matteo. My parents had never told me I had any other assets.

Anthony pulled out a trust document that had been preserved for years.

“Don Salvatore set up an independent trust for you. Under his instructions, the trust could only be released

from its restrictions when you left your parents’ direct control and personally applied to the independent trustee. Then you would take control.”

I stared at the document.

“But I never received any notice.”

“Because your father intercepted every notice.”

Anthony pushed another document toward me.

“All these years, Vittorio has controlled the trust income as temporary administrator without disclosing the full accounts to you. Our preliminary review found that a significant number of Santoro family assets are

tied to this trust,”

He opened a thick income statement and set a few pages in front of me.

Company funds. Property expenses. Multiple related-party transactions.

I looked at the familiar addresses and company names, and my hands slowly tightened.

So a considerable portion of the wealth my father called the family’s had come from my trust.

Anthony closed the file, his tone serious.

“Celeste, your father has been using assets that belong to you. You now have the right to demand a full accounting and to pursue unauthorized transfers of funds.”

I looked down at my grandfather’s signature.

For all these years, I had believed I was the least valued, least important daughter in the Santoro family. Only

today did I learn that the one truly kept in the dark had been me all along.