Chapter 6 - Elena's Confession
Elena Russo looked nothing like a woman who had willingly disappeared.
Her left wrist was fractured.
Stitches crossed her temple.
Bruises covered her arms.
Yet when Dante entered the private hospital room, she insisted Carlo hadn't kidnapped her.
"I contacted him."
Dante stared at his wife.
Maya remained outside with Sophia.
"Why?"
"Because he told me he had proof."
"Of what?"
"That you killed my brother."
Dante went still.
Elena's brother, Julian, had died six years earlier in what police called a boating accident.
Carlo had convinced Elena otherwise.
He showed her photographs.
Bank transfers.
A falsified order carrying Dante's signature.
Elena had spent months secretly investigating.
Three days earlier, Carlo promised final proof.
She agreed to meet him.
Instead, he took her phone.
Then her car.
Then he told her the truth.
Julian had discovered Carlo's secret operation.
Carlo had killed him.
Elena had been bait.
Carlo knew Dante would search for her, and while Dante's attention turned outward, Carlo intended to find Alessandro's half of the ledger.
"Why didn't he kill you?" Dante asked.
Elena looked toward the window.
"Because he needed me."
"For what?"
"To get into this house."
Dante's blood ran cold.
Elena knew security codes.
Private entrances.
Safe combinations.
But there was another truth waiting.
Their marriage had been ending long before her disappearance.
Elena admitted she'd planned to ask for a divorce.
Not because she hated Dante.
Because they'd stopped being husband and wife years earlier.
They had become two wounded people protecting Sophia from the silence between them.
"I loved you once," Elena whispered.
"I know."
"But you stopped letting anyone know you."
Dante looked down.
"I know that too."
Elena studied him.
"There's someone else."
His gaze rose.
"Not for me."
"For you."
He didn't answer.
Elena smiled sadly.
"The waitress?"
Dante almost laughed.
"How do you know?"
"Because Sophia said her name before she said mine."
That hurt them both.
Elena reached for his hand.
"Don't punish Maya for what happened to us."
"I'm not—"
"You will."
Dante frowned.
"You'll decide she's safer without you. You'll push her away and call it protection."
He withdrew his hand.
Elena knew him too well.
That evening, Dante did exactly what she'd predicted.
Maya found him in the hospital corridor.
"How is she?"
"Alive."
"And?"
"Carlo used her."
Maya waited.
Dante looked at her.
"This arrangement is over."
She stared.
"What?"
"You shouldn't return to the house."
"Because?"
"It's dangerous."
"So was it dangerous yesterday."
"Things have changed."
"No. You're scared."
His face hardened.
"Don't."
"Don't what? Notice?"
"Maya."
"You're pushing me away."
"I'm protecting you."
"From Carlo?"
"From me."
The words landed between them.
Maya stepped closer.
"You don't get to decide what I'm afraid of."
"I know exactly what I am."
"Do you?"
His expression darkened.
"You saw a father making cookies with his daughter. That isn't all of me."
"I know."
"No, you don't."
"Then show me."
Dante went silent.
"That's what terrifies you, isn't it?"
His eyes flashed.
"You can order fifty men around, but you can't stand in a hallway and tell one woman you're afraid she matters."
Dante's breathing changed.
Maya felt tears sting her eyes.
"Fine."
She stepped back.
"You want me gone? Say it."
He couldn't.
"Say you don't want me there."
Silence.
Maya nodded.
"That's what I thought."
She left.
For three days, Dante didn't contact her.
Neither did Sophia.
That hurt worse.
Maya returned to Bellanote.
She worked.
She baked.
She tried to rebuild the life she'd had before Dante Russo entered it.
On the fourth night, Tony found her crying in the pantry.
"You love him."
"No."
Tony waited.
Maya wiped her face.
"Maybe."
"Ah."
"Don't sound pleased."
"I'm not. Love is inconvenient."
She laughed weakly.
Tony handed her an envelope.
"This came for you."
No return address.
Inside was a photograph.
Maya's apartment.
Taken from across the street.
Written on the back:
Dante can't protect everyone.
Maya's blood turned cold.
Tony reached for the phone.
But the restaurant lights suddenly went out.
The kitchen fell silent.
Then glass shattered in the dining room.
Tony pushed Maya behind him.
A figure stepped through the darkness.
"Miss Carter."
Maya recognized Carlo from photographs.
He smiled.
"Your father left me something."
Maya backed toward the kitchen.
Carlo raised a gun.
"And you're going to help me find it."
A second voice came from the darkness behind him.
"No."
Carlo froze.
Dante stepped into the faint emergency lighting.
May you like
His expression was terrifyingly calm.
"She isn't."
