Chapter 2 - The Child Who Called Him Daddy
Dante moved before anyone else.
He crossed the bedroom in three strides.
Marco blocked the doorway.
“Wait.”
The boy stood behind him.
He looked perhaps five years old.
Dark hair.
Pale face.
A gray sweatshirt far too large for his thin frame.
His eyes were wet.
Elena stared at him.
The resemblance was immediate enough to hurt.
The same dark eyes.
The same stubborn chin.
The same way Dante’s eyebrows pulled together when he was frightened.
Dante’s voice dropped.
“Who brought you here?”
The child looked confused.
“Daddy?”
Elena felt as if someone had pressed a hand against her chest.
Dante crouched.
“What’s your name?”
“Michael.”
Sabrina covered her mouth.
Elena looked down at the shoe in her hand.
Michael.
The child stared at it.
“That’s mine.”
Every person in the room went silent.
Elena slowly knelt.
“This shoe?”
Michael nodded.
“My mommy kept them.”
“Who is your mommy?”
The boy looked toward Sabrina.
Sabrina recoiled.
“Not me.”
Then Michael pointed past her.
At the hallway.
“My mommy came with me.”
Dante stood immediately.
“Marco.”
Security flooded the corridor.
Nobody was there.
They searched every room.
The elevators remained locked.
The stairwell alarm had never triggered.
Yet the woman was gone.
Michael was taken to the sitting room while Elena insisted on staying with him.
Dante objected.
Elena ignored him.
“You don’t get to decide what I can handle anymore.”
Michael sat on the sofa clutching the white shoe.
A housekeeper brought warm milk.
He refused it.
Elena sat across from him.
“Michael, can you tell me your mommy’s name?”
He nodded.
“Maria.”
Dante stood near the fireplace.
His face turned pale.
Elena noticed.
“You know Maria too.”
Dante looked at Michael.
“Yes.”
Sabrina whispered, “Dante, don’t.”
Elena stood.
“Everyone keeps telling you not to talk. I’m done with that.”
Dante finally looked at her.
“Maria Vale worked for my family six years ago.”
“What did she do?”
“She handled financial records.”
“And?”
“She discovered someone stealing from us.”
Elena waited.
Dante continued reluctantly.
“My father believed she was responsible.”
“Was she?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
“She disappeared.”
Michael looked up.
“My mommy didn’t disappear.”
Dante stared at him.
“She hid.”
“From whom?” Elena asked.
Michael’s lower lip trembled.
“The bad man.”
Dante crouched again.
“What bad man?”
Michael whispered, “The man with the silver ring.”
Marco’s head lifted.
Dante’s expression hardened.
Elena noticed.
“You know what that means.”
Dante stood.
“Several people in my organization wear rings.”
“Silver?”
He didn’t answer.
Sabrina stepped forward.
“Dante, tell her about Luca.”
Dante turned sharply.
“Enough.”
“Luca is dead.”
“I said enough.”
Elena looked between them.
“Who was Luca?”
Dante closed his eyes briefly.
“My younger brother.”
Elena knew Dante had lost a brother.
She had never known the circumstances.
“He died six years ago,” Dante said. “The same week Maria disappeared.”
“And Michael?”
Dante looked at the boy.
“I didn’t know he existed.”
Elena studied his face.
For the first time that night, she believed him.
Michael wasn’t Dante’s son.
The resemblance suddenly made another possibility obvious.
“Luca’s child?”
Dante nodded.
Sabrina sat down.
“Maria and Luca were together secretly.”
Elena’s anger shifted into something colder.
“Then why hide it from me?”
“Because Luca was murdered,” Dante said.
Michael flinched.
Elena immediately lowered her voice.
“Not here.”
She led Dante into the adjoining office.
The moment the door closed, she faced him.
“You knew your brother was murdered?”
“I suspected it.”
“And Maria?”
“I thought she was dead.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody sent me photographs.”
Dante unlocked a safe behind a painting.
Inside was an old folder.
He removed several photographs.
Elena wished he hadn’t.
A wrecked car.
Blood on the driver’s seat.
A woman’s purse beside the road.
No body.
“You never found her?”
“No.”
“Yet you decided she was dead.”
“I was twenty-nine. My father had just died. Luca was gone. Half the organization wanted my position. I had three assassination attempts in four months.”
Elena stared at him.
“That doesn’t explain Sabrina.”
“Sabrina’s father helped investigate.”
“And?”
“He concluded Maria killed Luca and fled.”
Elena turned toward the glass door.
Sabrina was sitting beside Michael.
The boy looked uncomfortable around her.
“What do you believe now?”
“That Sabrina’s father lied.”
The office door opened.
Sabrina had heard him.
“My father protected your family.”
Dante faced her.
“Your father protected someone.”
“You have no proof.”
“I have a living child who should have been dead according to his report.”
Sabrina shook her head.
“You think I knew?”
“I don’t know what you knew.”
Elena watched them.
There was history here.
But not the history she had feared.
Sabrina wasn’t Dante’s lover.
She was connected to the secret.
That didn’t excuse the robe.
It didn’t excuse Dante ordering Elena away.
But the betrayal was different.
Potentially worse.
Michael suddenly screamed from the sitting room.
All three ran out.
The boy stood beside the sofa.
The milk glass had shattered.
A red laser dot moved across the wall behind him.
Dante grabbed Michael and dropped.
“DOWN!”
A gunshot exploded against the penthouse window.
The reinforced glass cracked but held.
Marco’s guards rushed toward the windows.
Elena crouched behind the sofa.
Dante covered Michael with his body.
Another shot struck the glass.
Then silence.
Marco shouted orders.
Within seconds, curtains closed automatically and armored shutters began descending.
Elena crawled toward Michael.
“Are you hurt?”
He shook his head.
Dante examined him.
Nothing.
Elena looked at Dante.
“Someone tried to kill him.”
“Yes.”
“Because he can identify the man with the ring?”
“Probably.”
Michael grabbed Elena’s sleeve.
“Mommy said you would help.”
Elena froze.
“Me?”
Michael nodded.
“She showed me your picture.”
Dante stared.
“What did she tell you?”
“That you were having a baby.”
Elena’s skin prickled.
“What else?”
Michael reached inside his sweatshirt.
He pulled out a folded photograph.
It showed Elena leaving her obstetrician’s office.
Taken three weeks earlier.
On the back were five words.
PROTECT HER FROM THE MARINOS.
Elena looked at Dante.
His own family name.
Dante took the photograph.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Michael whispered, “Mommy said the bad man is in your family.”
Marco approached.
“We traced the shot.”
“Where?”
“Building across the street. Shooter’s gone.”
Dante swore.
Marco hesitated.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“The security system was overridden before the shot.”
“Externally?”
Marco shook his head.
“From inside the penthouse.”
Dante looked toward his guards.
Everyone went still.
Elena understood.
The person helping the shooter was already inside.
Michael suddenly tugged her hand.
“He’s here.”
Elena looked down.
“Who?”
“The man with the silver ring.”
Michael pointed toward the dark hallway.
May you like
A bedroom door at the far end slowly moved.
Someone had just closed it.
