Chapter 3 - The Ghost of the PastThe heavily armored SUV tore through the midnight downpour toward my isolated estate in the Hudson Valley. Inside the darkened vehicle, the tension was suffocating.
Lila had finally fallen asleep on the leather backseat, her small head resting in Elena’s lap, still holding her pink backpack.
I sat across from them in the shadows, sipping scotch, watching the woman who had shattered my world six years ago.
"Talk," I ordered coldly. "And don't leave out a single word."
Elena hugged herself, looking out the tinted window at the passing trees.
"Six years ago, the night before I disappeared... Vincent came to my apartment," she began, her voice trembling. "You were in Europe expanding the syndicate. Vincent showed me photos of your enemies' hit squads. Then he put a file on my table."
She looked up, meeting my gaze with raw vulnerability.
"It was an ultrasonic scan of our baby, Luca. He found out I was pregnant before I even had the chance to tell you. He told me that a baby was a fatal weakness for a man like you. He said if I didn't take five million dollars and disappear forever, he would make sure neither I nor the baby survived the night."
I froze. The glass of scotch shattered in my grip, dark liquor and crystal fragments spilling over my gloves.
"Vincent threatened my child?" I whispered, lethal rage surging through my veins like liquid fire.
"He told me you would be targeted through us," Elena sobbed quietly so as not to wake Lila. "He said your power depended on your merciless reputation. A family made you soft. A family made you vulnerable. I ran to save her, Luca. And to save you."
"You should have trusted me!" I roared softly, leaning in close. "I would have burned the entire world to protect you both! Instead, you let me believe you walked away because you didn't love me!"
"I loved you enough to ruin my own life!" Elena cried back, repeating the exact words Lila had spoken on the plane. "I spent six years living in cheap motels, changing names, hiding in the dark just to keep our daughter breathing! Do you have any idea what that did to me?"
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I stared at her, the terrible weight of her sacrifice crashing down on me. She hadn't betrayed me. She had suffered a six-year living hell to keep my bloodline alive.
And my own blood—my uncle Vincent—was the monster behind it all.
