Chapter 6
The investigation returned to Serena’s disappearance.
Her apartment had been cleaned too thoroughly.
That had been noted eight years earlier, then buried under louder crises.
Her laptop was missing.
Her prenatal vitamins were left on the counter.
Her passport was gone, but no confirmed international travel was found.
The “do not look for me” note was typed.
No handwriting.
No fingerprints except Serena’s on the paper, likely from normal handling before printing.
At the time, Vincent’s own men had searched first.
Police searched second.
That mattered.
Crime scenes do not improve when a Mafia family arrives before detectives.
Now investigators reviewed old phone records.
Serena’s last confirmed call had been to Marcella.
Nine minutes.
Marcella had told police back then:
“She wanted money and space.”
Phone records proved timing.
Not content.
But an old email from Serena to Lydia filled part of the gap.
If anything happens, Marcella knows where Matteo hid the vendor files. She is not just his widow.
That email had been dismissed years earlier as fear from a woman under stress.
Now it mattered.
Serena had been scared of Marcella specifically.
Then investigators found a sealed storage unit rented under a name linked to one of Marcella’s assistants.
Inside:
Old charity-vendor records.
Prenatal clinic brochures.
A payment ledger.
And a folder labeled:
M.E. placement
M.E.
Marie Ellis.
The false surrendering mother.
The folder contained copies of documents used in Elsie’s adoption.
Some were identical to the court file.
Others were drafts.
One draft listed the infant’s birth mother as:
Serena C.
That copy had a line through it.
A later draft replaced it with Marie Ellis.
No signature from Serena appeared anywhere.
No surrender video.
No hospital social-worker note.
No evidence that Serena had chosen adoption.
That was the second confirmed clue.
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Elsie had not been an unknown baby placed into the Corvino family.
She had been Serena’s daughter, routed through a false identity.
