Chapter 9 - His Most Feared Rival
The maid’s name was Rosa.
She had worked for the Castellanos for three years.
“She helped me escape,” Nadine said.
Adrian nodded.
“Which is why we never suspected her.”
Dante studied the photograph.
“She wasn't helping you escape. She was directing you toward Vittorio’s checkpoint.”
Nadine remembered the car keys.
The route.
Everything.
“Where is she?”
“Gone.”
Adrian’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“Lock the house.”
Dante immediately reached for Lucia.
“What happened?”
“Rosa’s car was found two miles away.”
“Empty?”
Adrian shook his head.
“Dead.”
Nadine felt sick.
Vittorio was cleaning up.
Again.
Adrian ordered everyone moved to an underground safe location.
This time Nadine agreed.
Not because a man ordered her.
Because Lucia came first.
During the next forty-eight hours, Dante and Adrian worked together.
Badly.
They argued constantly.
But they worked.
Nadine watched the strange relationship between them.
Half-brothers who had spent years trying to destroy one another were now protecting the same infant.
Lucia became an accidental ceasefire.
One evening Adrian held the baby while Dante prepared a bottle.
“You’re doing that wrong,” Adrian said.
Dante glared.
“Have you ever made one?”
“No.”
“Then shut up.”
“The water looks too hot.”
“It isn't.”
Nadine almost laughed.
It was the first time she had wanted to laugh in weeks.
Then Celeste entered.
She carried Rosa’s phone.
“We recovered something.”
A deleted video.
They played it.
Rosa was crying.
“If you find this, Vittorio knows about the ledger. He knows Nadine has it.”
The camera shook.
“He doesn’t need her signature anymore.”
Nadine frowned.
“Why?”
Rosa continued.
“There is another heir.”
Dante went still.
The recording ended.
Adrian looked at him.
“What other heir?”
Dante said nothing.
Nadine stared.
“Dante.”
His face had gone pale.
“There’s something I never told anyone.”
Nadine’s stomach dropped.
“Another child?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Dante looked at Adrian.
“Our father had three sons.”
Silence.
Adrian laughed once.
“You’re joking.”
“I wish I was.”
“Who?”
Dante walked to the ledger.
He turned to a coded page.
One name appeared repeatedly.
V.C.
Adrian’s expression hardened.
“Vittorio Castellano?”
Dante shook his head.
“No.”
He pointed to another document.
May you like
A birth record.
And Nadine realized the third brother had been beside them almost from the beginning…
