Chapter 4 - The Man Dominic Thought Was Dead
My mother vanished at 6:20 a.m.
No struggle.
No broken lock.
No witnesses.
Only an empty apartment.
And one note.
I DID WHAT I HAD TO DO TO KEEP YOU ALIVE.
Dominic read it twice.
“She's protecting someone.”
“Luca.”
“Maybe.”
“Then we find him.”
We traced my mother's last phone signal to an abandoned hospital.
The place had been closed for fifteen years.
Inside, we found old medical files.
I recognized her handwriting.
She had treated someone under the name Michael Ross.
But the medical description matched Luca.
He had survived the accident.
My mother's notes said:
PATIENT CANNOT RETURN TO ROSSI FAMILY.
I felt sick.
“Why?”
Dominic stared.
“Because someone wanted him dead.”
We found Luca.
Alive.
Older.
Scarred.
Living in a small cabin outside Albany.
When Dominic entered, Luca raised a gun.
“Don't come closer.”
Dominic froze.
“Luca.”
The man's eyes filled.
“Your father said you would never find me.”
Dominic whispered:
“I thought you died.”
“You were supposed to.”
I stood behind him.
Luca looked at me.
“You're Mara.”
“Yes.”
“Your mother saved me.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew who ordered the attack.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“Who?”
Luca's expression hardened.
“Carmine.”
Dominic shook his head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“But Carmine is missing.”
“He was never loyal to you.”
“Then who was he loyal to?”
Luca hesitated.
“Your uncle.”
Dominic froze.
“My uncle is dead.”
“No.”
“What?”
“He disappeared.”
Luca explained.
Dominic's uncle, Alessandro Rossi, had survived an assassination attempt twenty years earlier.
He built a secret network.
He had been manipulating the family.
Carmine worked for him.
But there was more.
Alessandro had been obsessed with control.
He believed Dominic was too independent.
He wanted to eliminate him and install Luca as the new head.
Luca refused.
So Alessandro staged his death.
And Carmine had spent years preparing the final betrayal.
The documents against me were only the beginning.
The attack on the estate was designed to force Dominic into isolation.
Then Alessandro would appear as the savior.
Dominic stared at Luca.
“Where is he?”
Luca looked at me.
“Closer than you think.”
The door opened.
A man stood outside.
Alessandro Rossi.
Dominic's supposedly dead uncle.
He smiled.
“Hello, nephew.”
Gunfire erupted.
Luca pulled Dominic behind a wall.
I ducked.
Alessandro's men entered.
We ran through the back.
The cabin caught fire.
Smoke filled the room.
Luca shouted for us to leave.
We escaped into the forest.
Dominic looked at me.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“You're bleeding.”
I looked down.
A cut had opened along my arm.
I laughed.
“Apparently we have a thing for blood.”
He smiled despite everything.
Then his expression changed.
“My uncle knows about you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he'll come after you.”
“Then let him.”
Dominic stared.
“You're not afraid.”
“I am.”
“But?”
“But I'm tired of running.”
He kissed me.
Not gently.
Desperately.
Like a man who had spent too long thinking tomorrow wasn't guaranteed.
When we separated, he whispered:
“I should have trusted you from the beginning.”
“Yes.”
“I don't deserve forgiveness.”
“No.”
He almost laughed.
“You're honest.”
“Always.”
We returned to Boston.
The public believed Dominic was dead.
The Rossi empire fell into chaos.
Alessandro took control.
Dominic vanished underground.
I became the one person who could move between his old life and his new one.
My mother returned.
She revealed the final secret.
Luca was not Dominic's brother.
He was Dominic's half-brother.
Their father had two families.
And I had another connection.
My father was the man who had helped Alessandro hide.
He had died before I knew him.
I had been born into the middle of the Rossi war.
May you like
I hadn't chosen it.
But now I had to end it.
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