Chapter 4 - What Leah’s Mother Hid
Leah could barely breathe.
The phrase repeated in her head.
Your mother had a daughter.
She stared at Damian.
“I am the daughter.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“Your mother had another child.”
Leah felt the world go silent.
“There was another daughter?”
Gabriel looked at the files.
“The dates don't match.”
“Then find the dates.”
They spent the next twelve hours digging through private hospital records.
A newborn girl.
Born under the surname Moreno.
Transferred to a private clinic.
Then disappeared.
The file was marked deceased.
But no death certificate existed.
Leah stared at the empty space where the signature should have been.
“She lived.”
Damian nodded.
“Probably.”
“Who is she?”
“We don't know.”
“Then why does Roman care?”
“Because she may have inherited something your mother hid.”
“What?”
The old ledger.
The same ledger every powerful person in Chicago seemed willing to kill for.
Leah’s mother had been an accountant.
Not a waitress.
Not a clerk.
An accountant who had discovered Sable’s network.
She had hidden the evidence.
Then she disappeared.
Leah's father had tried to protect her.
And someone had spent seventeen years watching Leah.
A private investigator found a clue.
An adoption record.
A baby girl named Isabel Moreno.
Adopted by a wealthy family in Milwaukee.
Leah stared at the photograph.
The girl was older now.
Twenty-nine.
Dark hair.
Green eyes.
A small scar above her eyebrow.
Leah touched the photograph.
“She looks like Mom.”
Damian watched her.
“She is your sister.”
Leah's eyes filled with tears.
She had spent seventeen years believing she had no family.
Now she had one.
They found Isabel living under another surname.
Isabel Carter.
A successful architect.
Married.
Pregnant.
Leah refused to bring Damian's world to her doorstep.
“I'll go alone.”
“No.”
“Damian.”
“If Roman finds out she exists, she becomes a target.”
“Exactly. Which means you staying visible might draw him away.”
Damian stared.
“You want to use yourself as bait.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You don't own me.”
“I know.”
“Then let me choose.”
He looked at her.
“I don't know how.”
“How what?”
“How to let someone I care about walk toward danger.”
Her expression softened.
“You care about me?”
He didn't answer.
He kissed her instead.
It wasn't planned.
It was not gentle.
It carried weeks of fear, frustration, and something neither of them had named.
Leah pulled away.
“This is a terrible idea.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Because I almost lost you.”
“You don't even have me.”
He looked at her.
“Not yet.”
The words stayed with her.
They found Isabel in a downtown office.
She opened the door.
The moment she saw Leah, she knew.
“You're her.”
Leah couldn't speak.
Isabel's eyes filled.
“Our mother?”
“Dead.”
“No.”
Leah shook her head.
“We don't know that.”
Isabel invited her inside.
They talked for hours.
Isabel had grown up wealthy.
Safe.
Loved.
But she always felt like something was missing.
Her adoptive parents had been told her biological family was dead.
She had never questioned it.
Until Leah showed her the bracelet.
Isabel recognized it immediately.
“Our mother had that.”
Leah nodded.
“Do you remember anything?”
“One thing.”
“What?”
“A song.”
Isabel hummed a few notes.
Leah knew it.
Their mother used to sing it while washing dishes.
Leah started crying.
So did Isabel.
They hugged.
For a few minutes, neither mafia nor money mattered.
They were just sisters.
Then a gunshot cracked the window.
Glass exploded.
Damian pulled Leah to the floor.
Security agents surrounded Isabel.
Another bullet struck the wall.
Gabriel shouted, “Move!”
They escaped through a back stairwell.
Outside, Damian checked Leah for injuries.
“You okay?”
She nodded.
Isabel clutched her stomach.
“I'm pregnant.”
Damian looked at her.
“Congratulations.”
She almost laughed.
“Bad timing.”
“Very.”
They moved Isabel to a safe house.
There, Leah discovered something even more shocking.
Isabel had inherited a locked box from her adoptive mother.
Inside was a key.
And the key matched the old flower engraving on Leah's mother's bracelet.
Damian placed the key into the watchmaker-style lock.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a folded ledger page.
Only one sentence had been written.
THE ROSSETTI HEIR IS NOT THE ONE YOU THINK.
Damian frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Gabriel's phone rang.
He listened.
Then looked at Damian.
“Roman has made a public statement.”
“What kind?”
“He claims you are not your father's biological son.”
Silence.
Leah looked at Damian.
“What?”
The statement spread across the city.
Roman claimed Damian's father had an affair.
He claimed Damian had inherited the empire illegally.
He claimed Damian's true identity had been hidden.
And worse.
He released documents supposedly proving it.
Damian stared at the television.
Leah took his hand.
“Do you believe him?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I don't know why.”
“Because you've spent your whole life fighting people who wanted to tell you who you were.”
He looked at her.
“And now you know.”
“What?”
“You're the man who saved me.”
The corner of his mouth lifted.
“Actually, you saved me.”
“Fine.”
He leaned closer.
“I'll remember that.”
But Roman had one final piece of information.
May you like
A DNA test.
And if the result was genuine, Damian's entire inheritance was built on a lie.
