Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be DeadElena's six-year secretWhen the emergency lights came on, the bathroom was empty.
Elena was gone.
So were the boys.
I ran into the restaurant.
Tables overturned.
Glasses shattered.
People crowded beneath the dim red exit signs.
My security men flooded the room.
“Find them.”
No one asked what I meant.
They already knew.
I shoved my phone toward Marco's message.
“Lock every street within three blocks.”
Marco's voice cracked through the earpiece.
“Dominic, listen to me. Get out.”
“Where is Elena?”
Silence.
“Marco.”
“I said get out.”
My jaw tightened.
“You knew she was here.”
“No.”
“Then how did you know her name?”
Nothing.
I walked toward the kitchen.
“You knew.”
“Dominic, there are things you don't understand.”
“Then explain them.”
A gunshot erupted from the service corridor.
I sprinted.
One of my guards was lying on the floor.
Blood spread beneath his shoulder.
Beside him lay a silver pendant.
Elena's pendant.
I picked it up.
A folded note was attached.
I opened it.
Six years ago, your father gave me a choice.
Marry Sloane's family.
Or watch your mother die.
I read it twice.
My father had died believing I was going to inherit everything.
But four years after his death, someone was still using his name.
I called Elena.
Straight to voicemail.
I called again.
Nothing.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
“Dominic Moretti.”
The voice was male.
Old.
Calm.
“You have something that belongs to us.”
“What?”
“Four boys.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“They belong to me.”
The man laughed.
“You still think blood is the only thing that matters.”
“Who are you?”
A pause.
“Ask your uncle why the hospital records were changed.”
The line went dead.
I immediately drove to Moretti Medical.
At 2:14 a.m., I stood in the basement archive.
Marco was already there.
He looked exhausted.
“You shouldn't have come.”
“You changed hospital records six years ago.”
His face fell.
“Who told you?”
“Elena.”
He closed his eyes.
“Your father ordered it.”
“Why?”
“Because she was pregnant.”
I stared at him.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
Marco swallowed.
“Four.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“You knew I had four sons?”
“They weren't supposed to survive.”
My blood stopped moving.
“What?”
Marco looked at the floor.
“Your father believed a Moretti heir could destabilize the family. Four at once would have made you impossible to control.”
I stepped toward him.
“You're telling me my father tried to have my children killed?”
Marco didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
I slammed him against the wall.
“You let six years pass.”
“I tried to protect them.”
“By letting me believe Elena betrayed me?”
“She disappeared because I helped her.”
“Why didn't she come back?”
“Because someone else found her.”
I froze.
“Who?”
Marco stared at me.
“Sloane Barrett.”
The door behind us clicked.
We both turned.
Sloane stood there.
Her white evening dress was immaculate.
Her diamond earrings glittered under the fluorescent lights.
She looked almost amused.
“Dominic,” she said softly.
I stared at her.
“You knew.”
She walked closer.
“Of course I knew.”
My hand moved toward my gun.
She smiled.
“But here's the part you don't know.”
She placed a folder on the table.
“The boys aren't the only thing Elena hid from you.”
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Elena, six years earlier.
Pregnant.
And standing beside her was my father.
But that wasn't what stopped my heart.
May you like
There was another woman in the photograph.
A woman with Elena's face.
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