Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Never Abandoned Her Son
I hated Silas's smile.
Not because it was arrogant.
Because it was familiar.
I had seen it across my conference table for fifteen years.
At funerals.
Weddings.
Business negotiations.
He had advised me through wars.
He knew where I slept.
Which doctors I trusted.
Which men guarded my home.
I had let a traitor stand closer than most family.
Eli stopped halfway across the snow.
Hannah cried.
“Go back!”
Silas raised both hands.
“Dante. We should talk.”
“You buried me alive.”
“Technically, contractors did.”
Frank swore.
Silas smiled.
“Still dramatic, Frank.”
That confirmed history between them.
I stepped forward.
Marco's men moved into position.
So did Silas's.
Nobody fired.
Hannah stood between both sides.
“Let her go.”
Silas looked almost offended.
“She isn't my prisoner.”
Hannah's expression said otherwise.
“Then walk over here,” I told her.
She didn't move.
Silas whispered something.
Hannah went pale.
There was leverage.
Always.
“Where have you been for seven years?” Frank shouted.
Hannah looked at her father.
“Keeping Eli alive.”
Again.
Protection through disappearance.
I was beginning to hate that word.
Silas explained.
Seven years earlier, Hannah discovered his archive.
Inside were records my father had desperately wanted destroyed.
Vittorio Moretti had secretly paid Silas for years to locate something.
A missing Moretti child.
“What child?”
Silas looked at me.
“Your sister.”
I almost laughed.
“I don't have a sister.”
“You did.”
My mother, Sofia, had delivered a daughter before Luca was born.
Stillborn.
At least that was what we were told.
Her name was Isabella.
Silas shook his head.
“She lived.”
My father discovered the truth decades later.
A nurse had been bribed to alter records.
The baby was placed through an illegal private adoption.
“By whom?”
Silas smiled.
“Your grandfather.”
Why?
Because the child wasn't Vittorio's.
My mother's affair would have caused a family war.
So baby Isabella disappeared.
Years later, Vittorio learned she survived.
He spent millions searching.
Silas found her.
“Who?”
He looked at Hannah.
Frank staggered backward.
“No.”
Hannah Carter was Isabella Moretti's daughter.
My sister's daughter.
That made Hannah my niece.
And Eli—
My grandnephew.
But the photograph with the Moretti ring still didn't make sense.
Silas knew.
He enjoyed that.
“Who is Eli's father?”
Hannah shouted:
“Don't!”
Silas looked toward the boy.
Then toward me.
“Ask your brother.”
Luca.
My stomach tightened.
Hannah had been my niece.
Luca couldn't—
“No.”
Silas laughed.
“Relax. Luca isn't the father.”
Then who wore the ring?
Silas reached into his coat.
Marco's men reacted.
“Easy.”
He removed another photograph.
The torn image.
Complete.
The man beside Hannah was Dominic Moretti.
My cousin.
Dominic had been twenty-eight.
Hannah twenty-four.
They apparently didn't know they were distantly related through Isabella's hidden branch when they met.
Dominic died before Eli's birth.
Car explosion.
Supposedly rival violence.
Silas looked at me.
“Your father discovered the relationship.”
My jaw tightened.
“What did he do?”
“He ordered Dominic eliminated.”
The world went quiet.
My father had killed my cousin.
Then paid Hannah to disappear.
But Hannah refused.
So Silas created another solution.
He hid her.
Not from me.
From Vittorio.
“Why take her away from Eli?”
Hannah cried.
“I didn't leave him.”
She looked at Frank.
“I was taken.”
Silas's smile vanished.
For the first time, anger appeared.
“Because you stole something.”
“What?”
Hannah looked directly at me.
“Your father's ledger.”
Silas turned toward her.
“Enough.”
There.
His first mistake.
Fear.
Hannah continued:
“It proves Silas didn't just help your father find Isabella.”
Silas stepped toward her.
“He was the one who sold her.”
Frank's face twisted.
Decades earlier, Silas's father ran the illegal adoption network.
Silas inherited it.
Then built an empire around family secrets.
My father eventually discovered the truth.
And Silas had been blackmailing him ever since.
“Where's the ledger?”
Silas asked.
Hannah smiled through tears.
“I gave it to someone you could never threaten.”
Silas looked toward Eli.
So did I.
Hannah shook her head.
“Not Eli.”
Then Goliath began barking.
Silas stared at the dog.
Hannah whispered:
“Good boy.”
Everyone looked at Goliath.
Silas's face changed.
And suddenly I understood.
The dog hadn't accidentally found me beneath the snow.
May you like
Goliath had been trained to find something.
Or someone.
