Chapter 4 - The Bride Who Was Never the Bride
Gemma had vanished.
For four days, nobody knew where she was.
Then she called me.
“Please don't tell Casius.”
“What happened?”
“I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
“I knew.”
My stomach tightened.
“Knew what?”
“The wedding wasn't supposed to happen.”
I looked around.
Casius was in a meeting.
“Tell me.”
Gemma began crying.
“My father arranged everything because he needed Leone protection.”
“Protection from whom?”
“The Bellandis.”
My blood ran cold.
She continued.
“He promised Casius that if I married him, Rizzo properties would become part of the Leone network.”
“And you agreed.”
“I thought I had no choice.”
“That doesn't explain why you attacked the estate.”
“I didn't.”
“Someone used your family.”
Silence.
“Gemma?”
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“My father has been meeting someone from inside the Leone family.”
“Who?”
She whispered a name.
I froze.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“That's impossible.”
“That's what everyone said.”
“Who?”
“Casius's uncle.”
The line went dead.
I immediately found Casius.
“You have to hear this.”
He listened.
Then said nothing.
We drove to the Rizzo estate.
It was abandoned.
Doors open.
Furniture overturned.
A safe cracked open.
Casius walked through the house like a man remembering a battlefield.
We found Gemma's father in the library.
Dead.
There was no blood visible.
Only a cup of coffee beside him.
Casius called the police.
I stood frozen.
Then I saw something on the desk.
The same handwriting as Victoria's note.
I picked it up.
Run.
Someone behind you knows your name.
I turned.
Casius grabbed me.
“Don't touch anything else.”
“I think this is connected.”
“I know.”
That night, Casius finally told me the truth about his uncle.
Salvatore Leone had been running parts of the family business while Casius built the legitimate side.
Salvatore had wanted Casius dead for years.
But Casius had never been able to prove it.
“Now you can,” I said.
“Maybe.”
“What do you mean?”
“My uncle is too careful.”
“Then someone is helping him.”
Casius looked at me.
“Exactly.”
We returned to the estate.
Dante brought security files.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Nadia Vale.
I stared.
“That isn't my name.”
“I know.”
“What?”
“There is a second Nadia Vale.”
He showed me a photograph.
A woman who looked enough like me to be my sister.
My breath caught.
“Who is she?”
“We don't know.”
“Find her.”
“We're trying.”
Three days later, they did.
Her name was Nadia Vale.
She had been raised in Chicago.
Her mother had died when she was sixteen.
Her father was unknown.
And she had been hired by a Bellandi front company two years earlier.
I stared at her photograph.
“She looks exactly like me.”
Casius nodded.
“Now we know why.”
“Why?”
“Your mother had another daughter.”
I couldn't breathe.
“She was my sister?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
“Because she was given away.”
I stared at him.
“To protect her.”
“From what?”
“From your father.”
I shook my head.
“My father loved me.”
“Maybe.”
I looked at him.
“Don't do that.”
“Do what?”
“Put doubt into everything I remember.”
He stepped closer.
“I'm not trying to.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
He took a breath.
“Your father was not just a bookkeeper.”
The room went silent.
“Who was he?”
“An intelligence courier for the Bellandi organization.”
I laughed.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You're wrong.”
“I wish I were.”
My father had spent his life as a quiet accountant.
At least that was the story.
Now Casius was telling me he'd been connected to the most dangerous criminal network in the region.
“And my mother?”
“She discovered what he was doing.”
“So she took one child and left the other?”
“She tried.”
“Which child?”
“You.”
“Then where was my sister?”
“Your father kept her.”
I covered my mouth.
Casius took my hand.
This time, I didn't pull away.
The next morning, Nadia Vale appeared at the estate.
She stared at me.
I stared back.
Neither of us spoke.
Finally, she whispered:
“Your father said I'd be safer without you.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“Why?”
“He said anyone connected to him would be hunted.”
“Were you?”
“Yes.”
She looked at Casius.
“Especially by him.”
I frowned.
“By whom?”
“Marco Bellandi.”
That name again.
The man behind everything.
The woman who claimed to be my sister.
The wedding.
The dress.
The murders.
Everything converged.
May you like
Then Nadia said something that made Casius go pale.
“Marco Bellandi isn't dead.”
