Chapter 8 - The Secret Maria Had Never Told MeBack home, Maria finally told me the truth.
Lily wasn't her biological daughter.
I stared at her.
“What?”
Maria cried.
“I adopted her.”
“Then whose child is she?”
Maria hesitated.
“Bellini's granddaughter.”
Silence.
I looked at Lily.
The child who had trusted me.
The child who had called me family.
She wasn't Romano by blood.
But she was connected to the enemy.
Bellini had used her mother as leverage.
Her mother had died protecting her.
Maria had adopted her.
The pendant had belonged to our family because Maria gave it to Lily as a symbol of the promise she made to protect her.
I felt relief.
And something else.
Love.
Blood didn't matter.
Lily was family because we chose her.
Then Bellini escaped custody.
He came for Lily.
He believed she possessed the final key to his fortune.
He was wrong.
The key was already in my hands.
But Bellini didn't know that.
We created a trap.
Maria and Lily hid in a safe house.
I waited.
Bellini came at midnight.
He brought twenty men.
He walked into the warehouse.
“Dante.”
I stepped from the darkness.
“Looking for me?”
He smiled.
“Where is the girl?”
“Safe.”
“You'll never protect her.”
“I already have.”
Then the police entered.
Bellini's organization collapsed.
But Bellini escaped through a hidden tunnel.
Again.
This time, he left behind a photograph.
My mother.
Alive.
Taken one week before her death.
May you like
On the back was a message.
She forgave you.
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