Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Disappeared
I couldn't speak.
"My mother died when I was three," I finally whispered. "I have her death certificate. I saw her grave."
Dante leaned back.
"Your mother was declared dead in 1999. My brother, Matteo, disappeared in the same year. He was twenty-three months old."
I stared at the photograph.
"Are you saying my mother kidnapped your brother?"
"No."
His answer came so quickly that I looked up.
"I'm saying somebody wanted us to believe she did."
He explained that Matteo had been born with a rare heart condition. His mother had died shortly after childbirth, and his father had raised both boys with the help of a private medical team.
One evening, Matteo vanished from the family estate.
A nurse was found unconscious. A security guard was discovered dead near the rear entrance. And the only person who disappeared along with the child was a young hospital caregiver named Eleanor Marshall.
My mother.
"She was a nurse?" I asked.
Dante nodded.
"She worked for my family. She was the last person seen carrying Matteo."
"Then why would she take him?"
"That's the question nobody could answer."
He opened another document.
For twenty-seven years, the Moretti family had believed Matteo was dead. A private investigator had eventually discovered records suggesting that Eleanor had died in a small fire outside Albany.
But no body had ever been identified.
I shook my head.
"My mother never mentioned any of this."
"Perhaps she was protecting you."
"From what?"
Dante didn't answer.
Instead, he looked toward the doorway.
Orion was lying outside the study, his enormous head resting between his paws.
When I stood, he immediately rose and followed me.
I knelt beside him.
"What's wrong, boy?"
He pressed his nose into my palm.
Dante watched us.
"There's something else."
I looked up.
"Your mother left something in a safe-deposit box three months before she died. My father discovered the existence of that box shortly before his death. He never managed to retrieve it."
"Where is it?"
"Queens. A bank that closed its private vault division years ago. The contents were transferred to another institution."
I swallowed.
"And you think I can open it?"
"I think she left something specifically for you."
He pushed a small envelope across the desk.
Inside was a photograph of my mother standing beside a man I didn't recognize.
The man was holding a little boy.
On the back, my mother's handwriting read:
Olivia, if you ever meet the Moretti family, remember that the man who smiles at you may be the one who destroyed us.
I felt sick.
"Who is he?"
Dante took the photograph.
His expression changed.
For the first time, the dangerous Mafia boss looked genuinely shaken.
"That's my father."
He turned the photograph over again.
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
"What?"
His expression darkened.
"Say that again."
A long silence followed.
Then he slowly lowered the phone.
"Someone broke into my father's old medical archive last night."
"Did they steal something?"
Dante looked directly at me.
"Yes."
He picked up the photograph.
"Your mother's original medical records."
May you like
Orion suddenly stood and growled toward the study doors.
A second later, a gunshot shattered the silence outside.
