Chapter 6 - THE DEADLIEST SECRET IN THE UNDERWORLD: WHO IS THE WAITRESS WITH TAPED SHOES?
I ripped the IV needle out of my arm, ignored the sharp spike of pain, and swung my legs off the bed. I tore through the curtain, slamming the door of Dante’s study open.
Dante was standing behind his grand desk, holding a single sheet of paper. His face was pale, his dark eyes wide as he looked at me. Dr. Mercer immediately backed away, clutching his tablet to his chest.
“He was mine,” I screamed, tears blinding my eyes as I advanced on the most feared mobster in the state. “David lied to me! He told me my baby died in the delivery room!”
Dante didn't move. He didn't raise his hand, nor did he offer a defensive excuse. He stood like an oak tree enduring a hurricane. “Maya—”
“You bought my child!” I sobbed, driving my fists into his chest with all the strength I had left. “You took him! You kept him in a palace while I was starving, taping my shoes together, crying myself to sleep every night for six years!”
Dante caught my wrists gently, holding them against his chest, right where his heart was hammering wildly against his ribs.
“Listen to me,” Dante commanded, his voice raw with an emotion I had never heard from him before. “I did not know.”
I choked on a sob, trying to pull away, but he held me firmly.
“Six years ago, my wife Elena was dying of terminal cancer,” Dante explained, his eyes burning with intense truth. “Her final wish was to leave me a child—something to keep me human after she was gone. She arranged the adoption privately through her family connections in North America. She told me the mother was a young girl who had willingly given the child up for adoption because she couldn't afford to raise him.”
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He stepped closer, pressing his forehead against mine. “I paid the hospital bills. I paid the legal fees. I thought I was giving a motherless boy a home and fulfilling a dying woman's dream. I never knew David forged your signature on those surrender papers. I never knew he stole him from your arms.”
The awful, heavy reality settled into the room. David hadn't just stolen my savings and my grandmother’s ring. He had sold my newborn son to a mob boss's dying wife to pay off his gambling debts.
