Chapter 5
The name hit me like a slap.
Bellagio.
Not Hayes.
Not the name on my work badge.
Not the name on my rent notices.
Not the name my mother called when she wanted me to come home before dark.
Bellagio.
Dante stared at Silvio.
“What are you saying?”
Silvio smiled.
“Ask Father’s old lawyer. Ask the nurse. Ask the woman who ran with her.”
I held Nico tighter.
“Stop speaking in riddles.”
His eyes moved to me.
“Antonio Bellagio had daughters before Dante ever knew. Twins. Sofia and Mara.”
Dante went pale.
“My father?”
“Yes,” Silvio said. “Your noble father. The man who preached blood while hiding his own.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Silvio’s smile widened.
“One twin was placed with the Moretti family. Sofia. Close enough to watch. Useful enough to marry into power later.”
My throat closed.
“And me?”
“You were supposed to disappear.”
Nico began to fuss.
I rocked him automatically.
Silvio’s eyes followed the movement.
“You even hold the child like her.”
Dante stepped forward.
“You sent the envelope.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because secrets are only useful when released at the correct time.”
“What do you want?”
Silvio looked at Sofia’s photographs.
“What she stole from me.”
Dante’s voice dropped.
“Sofia stole nothing.”
“She stole Father’s trust. She stole voting rights. She stole your loyalty. Then she found the other twin and planned to bring another Bellagio daughter into the family.”
I whispered, “Did you kill her?”
The room went silent.
Silvio looked at me.
“Careful.”
That was not no.
Dante lunged.
This time, three men held him back.
Silvio laughed.
Then the phone on the table rang.
Dante answered on speaker.
My mother’s voice trembled.
“Mara?”
“Mom?”
“I’m sorry,” she cried. “I’m so sorry.”
Silvio’s smile disappeared.
My mother continued.
“I have the birth records. I have Sofia’s final video. He killed her, Mara. Silvio killed your sister.”
May you like
A gunshot cracked through the phone.
The line went dead.
