Chapter 3 - Shadows in the Estate
Moving into the Castellane estate was like stepping into a fairytale. The sprawling mansion sat on a cliff overlooking the ocean, surrounded by manicured rose gardens. Mateo and Lily became fast friends, their shared age and energetic spirits bridging any gap that wealth might have created.
For the first few weeks, Elena found a peace she hadn't known in years. Mateo’s health flourished under the care of the private doctors Julian hired. Julian himself proved to be a hands-on father whenever he wasn't buried in corporate mergers, often joining Elena, Lily, and Mateo for casual dinners in the family kitchen rather than the grand dining room.
However, the mystery of the locket haunted Elena. One rainy afternoon while Lily and Mateo were napping, Elena was tasked with organizing the family archives in the grand library. As she dusted the heavy leather-bound albums, a loose ledger fell from a high shelf, spilling old documents onto the Persian rug.
Elena knelt to gather them. Among the papers was a birth registry from a private clinic in Switzerland, dated thirty-two years ago. It detailed the birth of twin girls to Eleanor Castellane.
Elena’s breath caught. According to public knowledge, Julian was an only child until his parents adopted his younger brother, Arthur, years later. The public record stated Eleanor Castellane had never given birth to daughters.
She flipped the page and found a medical note signed by the family's old doctor, Dr. Charles Vance. It read: “Infant A (Valerie) healthy. Infant B (Clara) presented with severe respiratory distress. Per instructions of the Patriarch, Infant B is to be quietly relocated to minimize public scandal regarding hereditary frailties in the bloodline. Financial settlement finalized.”
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Clara. That was Elena’s mother’s name. Her mother had suffered from chronic, severe asthma all her life—the very same genetic trait passed down to Elena and now to Mateo.
Elena sat in the dim light of the library, the pieces crashing together with terrifying clarity. Her mother, Clara, wasn't a random poor woman from the outskirts of the city. She was Julian Castellane’s biological aunt. Elena wasn’t just the housekeeper. She was Julian’s first cousin, and Mateo was Lily’s second cousin.
