Chapter 2 - The Seven Years He Thought Were Lost
Marello took us to a private residence overlooking the city.
It was not his main estate.
I knew why.
He trusted the house less than he trusted his enemies.
The walls were covered in security cameras.
Every entrance had armed guards.
Yet when we arrived, he immediately ordered everyone outside the living room.
"I want no one listening."
The doors closed.
Leo sat at a small table eating strawberries.
Marello watched him.
He couldn't stop.
Every few seconds, his eyes returned to his son.
"You really like strawberries?" he asked.
Leo nodded.
"Mama says they're good for my heart."
Marello smiled faintly.
"Your mother is right."
I watched them.
It was painfully beautiful.
And painfully late.
Marello eventually sat opposite me.
"Start seven years ago."
So I did.
I told him everything.
The pregnancy.
The first ultrasound.
The night I planned to surprise him.
The kidnapping.
The warehouse.
The men.
The threats.
The woman with the gold bracelet.
The order to disappear.
The fake medical file.
The message claiming my pregnancy had ended in miscarriage.
I told him how I had been forced onto a train under a false identity.
How I spent months moving from town to town.
How I eventually gave birth in a small hospital under the name Elena Ward.
How terrified I had been when Leo was born.
How I held him and promised him that, no matter what, I would keep him safe.
Marello listened without interrupting.
When I finished, the room stayed quiet.
Then he asked:
"Why didn't you come back after the first year?"
"Because I saw the newspaper."
"What did it say?"
"That you had buried my body."
His expression darkened.
"You were alive."
"I know."
"You could have contacted me."
"I tried."
He looked down.
"How many times?"
"Twelve letters. Three phone messages. One package."
"Nothing reached me."
"I know."
Marello stood.
He walked to a locked cabinet.
Inside were newspaper clippings.
One article had a picture of me.
Under it:
ELENA VECCHIO DIES IN SUSPECTED OVERDOSE.
I stared.
"They told you I died?"
"Yes."
"Do you believe it now?"
"No."
"Why?"
He looked at Leo.
"Because you're standing here."
He shut the cabinet.
"Who helped you?"
"Helen."
"Who?"
"An old nurse who worked for my aunt. She knew what happened to me."
Marello immediately called one of his men.
"Find Helen. Quietly."
He sat again.
"What happened to your aunt?"
"She disappeared."
"Convenient."
"Very."
He rubbed his temples.
"I spent seven years believing you killed our baby."
Tears filled my eyes.
"We buried him?"
"There was a tiny coffin."
I gasped.
"They made you believe that?"
He nodded.
"I stood there alone."
I covered my mouth.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't."
"I would have changed everything."
"You didn't have the information."
"But I loved you."
"I know."
The words were soft.
More painful than anger.
Leo looked up.
"Papa?"
Marello smiled.
"Yes?"
"Can I have another strawberry?"
Marello laughed.
It was the first real laugh I had heard from him in years.
"Take the whole bowl."
Leo grinned.
Then he pointed toward a photograph on the wall.
"Who's that lady?"
It was Bianca.
My stomach tightened.
Marello followed his gaze.
"My fiancée."
Leo stared.
"She's pretty."
I almost smiled.
"Yes."
Marello didn't.
"She's also dangerous."
Leo didn't understand.
Marello stood.
"Elena, stay here."
"Where are you going?"
"To cancel the wedding."
I grabbed his wrist.
"Not yet."
He looked at me.
"What?"
"If Bianca is part of the conspiracy, canceling the wedding may warn them."
His eyes narrowed.
"You're suggesting I marry her?"
"No."
"I'm listening."
"Let her think everything is normal."
Marello stared at me.
"You want to walk into a trap."
"No."
I looked at Leo.
"I want them to think they still control the trap."
Marello's expression changed.
He understood.
"For the first time in seven years," he said quietly, "we're thinking the same way."
He called his security chief.
"Wedding proceeds."
The man hesitated.
"Boss?"
"Exactly as planned."
After the call, Marello looked at me.
"Until we know the entire network, no one can know Elena and Leo are alive."
"Agreed."
"What about the people in this house?"
"They're loyal."
"Everyone is loyal until money changes hands."
He had a point.
That night, we moved Leo to a secure children's suite.
I stayed nearby.
Marello refused to leave the hall outside.
Around two in the morning, I found him sitting alone.
"You don't sleep?"
"Not much."
"Why?"
"I used to sleep when you were beside me."
I looked at him.
He didn't look away.
For a moment, seven years disappeared.
Then he said:
"I hated you."
"I know."
"I thought you chose another man."
"I never did."
"I thought you killed our child."
"I would die before hurting him."
"I know."
His voice cracked.
"I know now."
He looked toward Leo's room.
"I lost seven years."
"You can have the rest."
He stared at me.
"Can I?"
I swallowed.
"I don't know."
Neither of us moved.
Then an alarm sounded.
Marello stood immediately.
Security rushed toward the children's wing.
We ran.
Leo was standing in the doorway holding his toy car.
He was crying.
"What happened?"
A guard pointed to a vent.
Someone had tampered with it.
A sedative canister was found inside.
My blood ran cold.
They had already found him.
Marello picked Leo up.
"Get the car ready."
He ordered the entire house sealed.
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
The kind of calm that usually came before violence.
But then he looked at Leo.
His expression softened.
"We're changing locations."
We left through an underground tunnel.
At the safehouse, Marello checked every lock himself.
Then he sat beside Leo's bed.
I watched from the doorway.
The boy turned in his sleep.
"Papa..."
Marello froze.
Leo had fallen asleep while saying it.
Marello lowered his head.
I saw tears fall onto his hands.
He whispered:
"Seven years."
Then he looked at me.
"I will never lose another day."
I wanted to believe him.
May you like
But somewhere across the city, Bianca was preparing for a wedding.
And she had no idea that the man she planned to kill had just found the son she thought was dead.
