Chapter 5 - The Child in the PhotographThe gunfire stopped as abruptly as it had begun.
Matteo and I remained inside the study until Vincent reached the corridor and confirmed that the attackers had fled.
Three vehicles had escaped through the rear gates. One of our guards was wounded but alive.
Whoever had ambushed us had not come to kill me.
They had come for the documents.
Matteo handed me Alessandro's letter.
“Read it.”
The envelope was sealed with the Vescari family crest. My brother's handwriting appeared beneath the wax.
I opened it carefully.
Dominic,
If you are reading this, then I failed to protect the people I love.
There are things about our family that I wanted to tell you, but every time I prepared to speak, I feared what Salvatore would do.
Maria is carrying my daughter. Her name will be Lily if she is born healthy. If anything happens to me, find Maria and protect her.
There is another child. His name is Gabriel. He was born from a relationship I kept private because the boy's mother was connected to people who wanted our family destroyed.
Gabriel's mother disappeared before I could bring him home. I have spent months searching, but the trail ends at a private clinic.
If both children survive, please make sure they know that I loved them.
And Dominic, do not trust the man who tells you that he is protecting the family.
I read the final sentence twice.
“Who was Gabriel's mother?” I asked.
Matteo shook his head.
“I don't know. Alessandro never told me.”
“Then how did you find the photograph?”
“It was hidden in a safe belonging to my father. Salvatore had kept it because he believed it could be used to control Alessandro.”
The boy in the picture appeared to be around six years old.
He had Alessandro's eyes.
I felt as if someone had reached into my chest and twisted something that had been broken for twenty years.
“Where do we start looking?”
Matteo handed me the medical record.
“The clinic closed four years ago. Its director was a man named Dr. Elias Mercer. He disappeared shortly after the investigation into Salvatore's finances began.”
I called Vincent.
“Find Elias Mercer. Every address, every financial record, every person who knew him.”
“Understood.”
“And Matteo?”
“Yes?”
“If you lie to me again, I won't give you a second opportunity.”
He accepted the threat without argument.
“I wouldn't expect one.”
We returned to the safe residence shortly after midnight.
Maria was awake when I entered her room. Lily slept beside her, curled around a stuffed rabbit that one of my men had purchased.
Maria looked at the photograph.
“Gabriel.”
“You know him?”
She nodded.
“Alessandro told me about him. He wanted to bring the boy into the family, but Gabriel's mother disappeared before he could.”
“Who was she?”
“I never met her. Alessandro only said she was a good woman who had made a terrible mistake by trusting the wrong people.”
I looked at Lily.
She shifted in her sleep and whispered something unintelligible.
“Does Matteo know about her?”
“Yes.”
“Does he know where Gabriel is?”
Maria shook her head.
I sat beside the bed.
For decades, I had believed my brother died leaving nothing behind but a grieving family and an unfinished war.
Instead, he had left two children and a truth that could tear my empire apart.
A knock sounded at the door.
Vincent entered carrying a folder.
“We found Dr. Mercer.”
“Where?”
“He's been living under another name in Milwaukee. He left his apartment three days ago.”
“Where did he go?”
Vincent hesitated.
“Someone paid for a room at a private boarding school outside Chicago. The payment was made through one of our shell companies.”
I opened the folder.
The school photograph showed a dozen children standing in front of a brick building.
At the far end stood a boy with dark hair and familiar eyes.
Gabriel.
Beside him was a man whose face I recognized immediately.
Matteo.
He was standing outside the school six months earlier.
But Matteo had told me he had never met the boy.
I slowly closed the folder.
The betrayal was no longer an old mystery.
May you like
It was happening right in front of me.
And the man who claimed he wanted the truth had been hiding it for years.
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