Chapter 4 - The Secret Hidden Inside The Divorce Papers
The first thing I saw was Dante’s face.
Not anger.
Not surprise.
Fear.
It lasted less than a second.
But I saw it.
And that was enough.
Because Dante Bellandi was the kind of man who made other people afraid.
He did not hesitate.
He did not panic.
He did not show weakness.
Yet the moment he read the letter from the envelope, something changed.
I stood across from him, waiting.
Waiting for an explanation.
Waiting for him to finally tell me the truth.
But he folded the paper once.
Then twice.
Carefully.
Like the words inside were something dangerous.
"What does it say?"
Dante looked at me.
"Evelyn."
The way he said my name made my stomach tighten.
Not like before.
Not like a command.
Like a warning.
"What does it say?"
He glanced toward the children.
Livia was still holding my hand.
Her brothers were watching silently.
Dante noticed.
"Enzo."
The older man immediately understood.
"Children."
The boys looked unhappy.
Livia tightened her grip around my fingers.
"I want to stay."
Dante looked at her.
For a moment, the powerful man disappeared.
And I saw only a father.
"Five minutes."
Livia nodded.
The children walked away slowly with Enzo.
Only when they disappeared upstairs did Dante speak again.
"The person who sent this letter knew you would be here."
I stared at him.
"What does that mean?"
"It means Sebastian Crane was not the only person watching you."
A cold feeling moved through me.
"Who?"
Dante placed the envelope on the table.
"Someone who has been waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves."
I looked at the letter.
"Why was it sent to me?"
Dante was silent.
That silence was becoming something I hated.
Because every time he didn't answer, I learned something.
The truth was always worse.
"You know something about my divorce."
He looked at me.
"Yes."
The honesty surprised me.
But it also hurt.
"You knew before I came here."
"Yes."
"How?"
Dante walked toward the window.
"The Crane family has been connected to several business operations involving people I have been investigating."
I frowned.
"Investigating?"
"They are not as clean as they pretend."
I almost laughed.
"Sebastian was rich. Arrogant. Cruel. I already knew that."
"This is different."
His voice became darker.
"The Crane family has been moving money through companies connected to organized crime."
I froze.
"What?"
"Your divorce was not only about removing you from Sebastian's life."
He turned.
"It was about removing you from something you didn't know existed."
I thought back.
The arguments.
The sudden coldness.
The way Sebastian stopped bringing me to meetings.
The way his family started treating me like a problem.
"You think they used me?"
"I think they underestimated you."
That answer confused me.
"Why?"
"Because they thought you were harmless."
I looked away.
A painful truth.
For years, Sebastian had treated my kindness like weakness.
His family had too.
But they had never understood something.
Kindness was not the same as surrender.
"What was in the letter?"
Dante hesitated.
Then handed it to me.
I took it.
The paper was old.
The handwriting was unfamiliar.
Only one sentence was written.
Ask your husband why he married you.
My hands went cold.
I looked at Dante.
"That's it?"
"No."
He reached into the envelope.
Something small fell onto the table.
A photograph.
I picked it up.
And my breath stopped.
It was me.
Standing outside the Crane estate.
Three months before my wedding.
I remembered that day.
I had been waiting for Sebastian.
I had been happy.
But the photograph showed something I had never seen.
A man standing in the distance.
Watching me.
"Who is he?"
Dante took the photograph.
His expression changed.
"You know him?"
"No."
That answer came too quickly.
I looked at him.
"You do."
Dante didn't deny it.
The room felt smaller.
"His name is Alessandro Vieri."
The name meant nothing to me.
But Dante said it like it meant everything.
"Who is he?"
"A man who disappeared seven years ago."
"Why does he have a picture of me?"
Dante looked toward the staircase.
Then back at me.
"Because this is not the first time someone has been watching you."
I felt my chest tighten.
"What are you saying?"
"I am saying your divorce was not the beginning."
The words settled between us.
A beginning.
Not an ending.
Everything I believed about the last few years suddenly felt unstable.
I had thought Sebastian stopped loving me.
I had thought his family rejected me.
I had thought I was simply discarded.
But what if there was another reason?
"What does Sebastian know?"
Dante's expression became unreadable.
"Enough to be dangerous."
Before I could ask more, a small voice interrupted us.
"Miss Evelyn?"
I turned.
Livia stood at the bottom of the stairs.
Pearl was tucked under her arm.
Her eyes moved between me and Dante.
"Are you leaving?"
The question broke something inside me.
Because only a few days ago, I would have answered yes.
That I was leaving.
That I couldn't stay.
That this was too much.
But now?
I looked at the little girl.
The child who had asked me not to disappear.
"I don't know."
Her face fell.
I immediately regretted the answer.
"But I'm still here right now."
She walked toward me.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Then she hugged my waist.
It was the first time she touched me.
The first time she chose to.
I looked at Dante.
He was watching.
And there was something in his eyes that scared me more than anger.
Hope.
Because Dante Bellandi was not afraid of enemies.
He was afraid of losing the first person his children had trusted.
That night, I finally agreed to read the marriage contract again.
Not sign it.
Just read it.
Dante sat across from me in his office.
For the first time, we were not negotiating.
We were talking.
"You should know something."
I looked up.
"What?"
"If you marry me, enemies of the Bellandi family will consider you a target."
I nodded.
"I already figured that out."
"You don't understand."
His voice became serious.
"They won't care that you are innocent."
I closed the contract.
"Neither did Sebastian."
Dante went silent.
Because he knew I was right.
After a moment, he asked:
"Why do you still want to help my children?"
The question surprised me.
Because I had never asked myself.
I thought about Livia.
The boys.
The way they watched the world like it was always preparing to leave them.
"I know what it feels like when someone decides you are no longer worth keeping."
Dante looked at me.
"So you stay because you understand them."
"Yes."
A pause.
Then quietly:
"And because they need someone."
Something changed between us.
Not love.
Not yet.
Something smaller.
Trust.
The next morning, I woke up to find Livia sitting outside my bedroom door.
She was holding a folded piece of paper.
"What are you doing here?"
She looked embarrassed.
"I made something."
I opened it.
It was another drawing.
This time there were four people.
Three children.
And me.
But there was one more person.
A tall man standing beside us.
Dante.
At the bottom, Livia had written a sentence.
Her handwriting was messy.
But I could read it.
My family has five people now.
I smiled despite myself.
Then I noticed something.
There was a mark on the corner of the paper.
A symbol.
The same symbol from the envelope.
My smile disappeared.
Because Livia looked at me and whispered:
"Miss Evelyn..."
I looked at her.
"Who taught you to draw that?"
Her face changed.
Like she suddenly remembered something she was not supposed to say.
Then she whispered:
"The man who came to see me before you arrived."
My blood ran cold.
I crouched down.
"What man?"
Livia looked toward the hallway.
May you like
Then she said the words that made my entire body freeze.
"He told me my real mother was still alive."
