Chapter 2 - Dante Refused to Believe Tommy Was His Son—Until He Saw the Birthmark His Family Had Spent Seven Years Claiming Had Died With the BabyDante ordered his men out.
Not the basement.
The building.
Everyone.
His guards hesitated.
He looked at them once.
They left.
That frightened me more than if he had shouted.
Dante Calvetti didn't need to raise his voice.
The world adjusted itself around him.
He crouched in front of Tommy.
The boy stared.
Dante slowly rolled up his sleeve.
A small scar crossed his wrist.
Tommy touched it.
“I have that.”
He lifted his sleeve.
The same tiny mark.
Dante froze.
I knew it.
I had seen it before.
It was a crescent-shaped birthmark near his wrist.
Ruth had told me that both mother and child had it.
Dante stared at it.
“Who told you this?”
Tommy shrugged.
“Mommy.”
“What was your mother's name?”
Tommy looked at me.
“Ruth.”
Dante closed his eyes.
He whispered:
“Ruth is dead.”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
“She told me the baby died.”
I said nothing.
Dante looked at Tommy again.
“What's your full name?”
“Thomas Foster.”
Dante's face changed.
“Foster?”
He stared at me.
“What's your name?”
I swallowed.
“Olivia Foster.”
His eyes hardened.
“You're Ruth's sister.”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“You knew who this was.”
“Yes.”
“You hid my son from me.”
I flinched.
“He was never supposed to be hidden from you.”
“Then why?”
“Because Ruth was terrified.”
“Of me?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
I took a breath.
“Your family.”
That answer silenced him.
Dante stood.
“What does my family have to do with this?”
I looked at the children.
Everything.
Ruth had discovered something seven years ago.
A secret inside the Calvetti organization.
She had been working as a bookkeeper.
She saw payments.
Hospitals.
Private clinics.
Unregistered transfers.
And one file that contained the names of six children.
The children in the basement.
Their parents had all crossed paths with the Calvetti organization.
Some had died.
Some disappeared.
One child had been removed from his mother's custody.
That child was Tommy.
Ruth found the file because she was pregnant.
She was afraid.
She told me Dante was the father.
I remembered the night she confessed.
“Olivia, if he finds out about the baby, they will take him.”
“Dante?”
“His family.”
“Does Dante know?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don't know who I can trust.”
After Tommy was born, Ruth disappeared.
For three months.
Then she returned with the children.
She said she had found evidence proving someone inside Dante's organization had been moving children through private facilities.
She believed the babies were being used as leverage.
Then she died.
I thought it was natural.
Until last month.
I found her notebook.
And realized she had been murdered.
Dante stared at me.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I didn't trust you.”
His jaw tightened.
“Now you work for me.”
“I needed access.”
“To what?”
“The files.”
I reached into my bag.
I pulled out copies.
Payment records.
Names.
Dates.
Hospitals.
Six children.
Six families.
Every case connected to Calvetti Holdings.
Dante read the first page.
His expression changed.
“I never authorized these.”
“I know.”
“Then who did?”
I pointed to a name.
Victor Romano.
Dante's chief of operations.
His right hand.
The man who had managed everything for twenty years.
Dante stared.
“Victor?”
“Yes.”
He looked toward Tommy.
“Why would Victor take my son?”
“Because Tommy was leverage.”
“For what?”
“Control.”
Dante's face hardened.
“Who else knows?”
I swallowed.
“Everyone who matters.”
The basement suddenly felt cold.
Then the lights came back on.
Dante's phone rang.
He answered.
“Speak.”
A voice.
His face changed.
He ended the call.
“What?”
“Victor knows I'm here.”
I looked at the children.
“How?”
Dante stared at me.
“Because someone inside this building just sent him a photograph.”
He showed me.
It was a picture of Tommy sitting beside him.
Taken thirty seconds earlier.
Dante looked at me.
“Everyone downstairs has a gun.”
I looked at the children.
“Then we have to move.”
He nodded.
“There's a tunnel.”
I stared.
“You have tunnels?”
“This is Chicago.”
“Of course.”
Dante lifted Tommy into his arms.
The boy rested his head against his chest.
Dante looked down at him.
For the first time, the terrifying crime boss looked like a father.
He whispered:
“I thought you were dead.”
Tommy closed his eyes.
“I waited for you.”
May you like
Dante stopped breathing.
Then he carried him into the darkness.
Related Stories
