Chapter 5 - Vanessa Betrayed Her Own Family to Save Herself—Then Revealed the Woman Who Had Ordered My Kidnapping Twenty Years AgoVanessa broke.
She told us everything.
She had been working with Victor for three years.
At first, she only helped him move money.
Then he told her about Amara.
He said my father had abandoned his missing daughter.
He convinced Vanessa that she was the rightful heir.
She believed him.
When I appeared, she panicked.
Victor ordered her to destroy me.
She refused.
So he threatened her.
Dante listened without speaking.
"Who took Amara twenty years ago?"
Vanessa looked at me.
"Victor."
"And who helped him?"
She hesitated.
Then said:
"Your mother."
The room went silent.
I stared at her.
"My mother?"
Vanessa nodded.
"She didn't want you dead."
"Then why?"
"Because Victor told her Dante was going to kill you."
I couldn't breathe.
My mother had believed she was saving me.
But Victor had manipulated her.
He took me.
Changed my identity.
Abandoned me.
And convinced everyone I was dead.
Dante looked shattered.
"My wife..."
He sat down.
For the first time, I saw the weight of twenty years fall onto his shoulders.
My mother had died when I was twelve.
I had never known her.
Now I learned she had spent the rest of her life believing she had saved me.
That night, Dante found her old letters.
There were dozens.
Never sent.
Every one addressed to Amara.
I read them through tears.
My mother had written about me.
About my birthday.
About the first Christmas after I disappeared.
She had never forgotten me.
Neither had my father.
The tragedy wasn't that they didn't love me.
The tragedy was that someone had convinced them they had lost me forever.
But Victor Crane was still alive.
And he had spent twenty years profiting from my disappearance.
I looked at Dante.
"Find him."
May you like
Dante's eyes hardened.
"I will."
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