Chapter 13
Silvio’s trial began in the spring.
The courthouse steps were packed with reporters.
They shouted my name.
Mara Hayes.
Mara Bellagio.
Lost sister.
Mafia heiress.
Living twin.
I hated every version.
Dante walked beside me, not touching me unless I asked.
Agent Voss cleared the path.
Inside, Silvio sat in a tailored suit, calm and clean.
Like he had not threatened a baby.
Like he had not shattered my life.
Like Sofia was not dead because she found the truth.
The prosecutor opened with Sofia’s video.
My sister’s face filled the courtroom screen.
Her voice was steady.
“If I am dead, Silvio did it.”
A sound moved through the jury.
Dante looked down.
I forced myself to watch.
Sofia deserved witnesses.
The trial exposed everything.
The hospital theft.
The adoption payments.
The false accident report.
The courier.
The attempted attack at the safe house.
The locked council room.
The trust manipulation.
Silvio’s lawyer tried to make me look greedy.
He asked why I accepted Sofia’s voting rights.
I answered, “Because a two-year-old cannot fight a grown man with lawyers.”
He asked if I wanted money.
I said, “I wanted my life to be ordinary. Your client ruined that before I was old enough to remember.”
He asked if I hated Silvio.
I looked at him.
“Yes.”
The courtroom stilled.
Then I added, “But hate is not evidence. Sofia left evidence.”
That mattered.
Even the judge looked up.
My mother testified last.
Silvio stared at her.
“You sold the child,” his lawyer said.
My mother nodded.
“Yes.”
“Then why should anyone believe you now?”
She looked at me.
“Because the lie made me a mother. The truth is the only way I can become human again.”
I cried then.
May you like
I did not forgive her.
But I heard her.
