Chapter 4 - The Man Who Destroyed My ChildhoodWe moved Maria and Lily to my most secure estate.
Maria refused to sleep.
She sat beside Lily all night.
I stayed outside the bedroom.
At dawn, she came to me.
“You need to know about our father.”
I looked at her.
“What about him?”
“He wasn't murdered by strangers.”
My stomach tightened.
“What are you saying?”
“He was betrayed.”
“By whom?”
Maria shook her head.
“I don't know his name.”
“Then what do you know?”
She told me our father had been involved with a criminal organization before we were born.
He had tried to leave.
He wanted to take our family away.
But someone inside the organization betrayed him.
The attack on our home wasn't random.
It was punishment.
Our mother had been captured.
Maria had been taken.
I had escaped.
“Where was Mom?”
Maria looked down.
“She survived the fire.”
My heart stopped.
“You're lying.”
“She survived for years.”
“Where is she?”
“She died when I was seventeen.”
I couldn't speak.
Thirty years of grief had been built on a lie.
My mother hadn't died that night.
She had lived.
She had suffered.
And I had never known.
Maria gave me an old photograph.
On the back was a name.
Salvatore Bellini.
I recognized it.
An old crime lord.
A man who had disappeared twenty years ago.
My greatest rival had once worked for him.
I ordered my people to find him.
But before they could, another attack came.
This time, they targeted the estate.
The battle lasted six minutes.
When it ended, six attackers were dead.
One was alive.
I dragged him into the interrogation room.
“Who sent you?”
He refused.
I showed him Lily's photograph.
“You came for this child.”
His face changed.
“You don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
“She isn't just your niece.”
I froze.
“What?”
“She carries something.”
“What?”
“A key.”
“To what?”
The man laughed.
“The Romano inheritance.”
I had no idea what he meant.
Then he died before telling me more.
Maria entered.
She looked terrified.
“Dante.”
“What?”
“Our father had a secret.”
“What secret?”
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She whispered:
“He left something behind.”
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