Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Dante found the woman in an old nursing facility outside Milwaukee.
Her name was Margaret Russo.
She had once been his mother's personal assistant.
For years, the family had claimed she moved overseas after a dispute over money.
The truth was much uglier.
She had been paid to disappear.
Dante entered her room with Marco.
Margaret was sitting beside the window, wrapped in a pale cardigan.
She looked up.
Then she began to cry.
"You look exactly like your father."
Dante pulled a chair closer.
"I need to know about the boy in this photograph."
Margaret's eyes moved to the picture.
"Where did you find that?"
"With my wife."
"Then it's already too late."
"Too late for what?"
Margaret folded her hands.
"Your mother had a second child before she married your father."
Dante didn't move.
"That's impossible."
"His name was Gabriel."
"Gabriel Russo?"
"Gabriel Moretti, technically. Your mother was engaged to a Moretti man before your father married her."
Dante stared.
"Who?"
"Antonio's older brother, Daniel."
Marco exchanged a glance with Dante.
Margaret continued.
"Daniel died in an accident. Your mother was pregnant when she married Vittorio. The child was raised away from the family."
"Why?"
"Because Vittorio wanted an heir of his own blood. He threatened to take you away if she ever acknowledged the other boy."
Dante felt sick.
"Where is he?"
Margaret looked toward the door.
"Alive."
"Where?"
"I don't know. But Isabella's mother did."
Dante leaned forward.
"What happened to my mother?"
Margaret's expression became distant.
"She spent years trying to find him. Your father told everyone she was unstable. He told the doctors she was imagining things. Then, one night, she disappeared."
Dante's voice dropped.
"My mother died in a car accident."
"That's what they told you."
He stood abruptly.
"You're telling me my father lied about her death?"
Margaret closed her eyes.
"I'm telling you that your father knows more than he has ever admitted."
At the cottage, Isabella was sorting through old photographs Eleanor had found in storage.
One showed her mother holding a baby.
Another showed Antonio standing beside a young woman Isabella didn't recognize.
Then she found a photograph that made her hands tremble.
Her mother was standing in front of a hospital.
Beside her was a little boy.
On the back were two words.
For Gabriel.
Isabella called her father.
He answered immediately.
"Sweetheart?"
"Dad, who was Gabriel?"
Silence.
Then Antonio sighed.
"Your mother's first child."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because your mother asked me not to."
"Was he Dante's brother?"
"Yes."
Isabella sat down.
"Then why did she give me the photograph?"
"She wanted you to find him."
"Where is he?"
Antonio's voice cracked.
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"Isabella—"
"Someone tried to take that photograph from me. Richard Hale is dead. And now people are threatening me. I deserve the truth."
Antonio finally spoke.
"Your mother believed Gabriel was living under another name. She spent years searching for him."
"Did she find him?"
"I think she did."
"Where?"
"At the time she died, she was preparing to meet someone in Chicago."
Isabella stared at the photograph.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
That evening, a package arrived at the cottage.
This time, it was addressed to Dante.
Isabella opened it carefully.
Inside was a small digital recorder and a letter.
The handwriting belonged to her mother.
My darling girl, if you're reading this, it means the truth has finally caught up with the people who buried it. Do not trust the man who says he is protecting you. Some secrets were hidden to save a child. Others were hidden to protect the people who hurt him.
Isabella pressed play.
Her mother's voice filled the room.
"Antonio, if anything happens to me, you must tell Isabella about Gabriel. He is alive. And he knows what happened to Dante's mother."
A pause.
Then another voice.
A man's voice.
"You're making a mistake."
Isabella froze.
She knew that voice.
She had heard it at every family dinner.
At every holiday gathering.
At her wedding.
It belonged to Vittorio Russo.
But the next sentence was the one that shattered everything.
"Gabriel isn't the only child I had removed from this family."
May you like
The recording stopped.
And someone knocked three times on the cottage door.
