Chapter 7 - The Brother Nobody Knew Existed
The photograph changed everything again.
Dominic placed it on the table.
Sadi stared.
A young boy stood beside her mother.
He was perhaps five years old.
The date on the back was the same year Sadi had been born.
“Who is he?”
Dominic shook his head.
“We don't know.”
Rosa did.
Her hand trembled.
“That is Adrian.”
Sadi looked at her.
“Who is Adrian?”
“Your brother.”
The words felt impossible.
She had spent her entire life believing she had no family.
Now she had an aunt.
A father she never knew.
And a brother.
Rosa explained that Elena had given birth to twins.
Sadi had been hidden.
Adrian had been taken by the Morettis.
The family had believed him dead.
He wasn't.
They found him living under another name in Milwaukee.
Dominic insisted on going with Sadi.
They arrived at a small repair shop.
A man stepped outside.
He had dark hair.
Gray eyes.
The same eyes Sadi saw in her reflection.
He looked at her.
Neither spoke.
Then he whispered:
“Sadi?”
She nodded.
Adrian covered his mouth.
He cried before she did.
They embraced.
For the first time in her life, Sadi understood what it meant to belong to someone by blood.
Adrian had been raised by a Moretti lieutenant.
He had spent years believing the Russo family had betrayed his mother.
He had been manipulated.
Used.
And ultimately abandoned.
His information revealed the final piece of the puzzle.
The true mastermind was not Matteo.
It was Vincent Moretti.
Vincent had manipulated Matteo.
He had wanted the archive because it contained proof of his own involvement in dozens of crimes.
Matteo had been disposable.
Vincent was not.
He had escaped before the arrests.
And he wanted Sadi dead.
They returned to Chicago.
Dominic increased security.
Sadi hated it.
“You can't put twelve people outside the bathroom.”
“There are eight.”
“That is not better.”
Gabriel laughed.
Dominic did not.
But even he began reducing the security around her.
Because Sadi was not fragile.
She had survived.
She had uncovered a conspiracy.
And she had become the one person Dominic trusted completely.
One evening, Sadi found Adrian and Dominic talking.
They stood in the library.
Adrian was angry.
“You don't understand what it was like.”
Dominic answered quietly.
“I don't pretend to.”
“You grew up with a family.”
“Not a peaceful one.”
“That isn't the same.”
“No.”
Dominic nodded.
“It isn't.”
Sadi entered.
“Enough.”
Both men looked at her.
“You are brothers now.”
Adrian smiled sadly.
“That is a terrifying sentence.”
Dominic almost smiled.
Then all three heard a noise.
A car outside.
Gabriel shouted.
Gunshots erupted.
The attack began.
Windows shattered.
Sadi pulled Adrian behind the wall.
Dominic moved toward the front hall.
Vincent's men had come.
This time, they were not trying to negotiate.
They wanted Sadi.
One bullet struck the chandelier.
Another shattered the library doors.
Dominic fired back.
The house became chaos.
Then a fire started in the east wing.
Sadi smelled smoke.
“Dominic!”
He turned.
The staircase was burning.
Adrian helped Rosa out through a side door.
Sadi found Dominic trapped beneath a fallen beam.
She tried to move it.
It would not budge.
“Leave me.”
“No.”
“Sadi.”
She screamed for help.
No one could hear.
Smoke filled the room.
Dominic looked at her.
“Get out.”
She shook her head.
“You said I would never be alone again.”
His eyes softened.
“Then don't leave me alone.”
Together, they pushed.
The beam shifted.
Dominic crawled free.
They escaped seconds before the room collapsed.
Outside, the mansion burned.
Sadi watched the flames.
The place that had once terrified her was disappearing.
Dominic came beside her.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For bringing you into this.”
She took his hand.
“You didn't bring me here.”
She looked at the burning mansion.
“I came because I loved you.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Then he kissed her forehead.
The same way he had in the hospital.
May you like
Only this time, there was no fear in it.
Just promise.
