Chapter 4 - The Name Behind the Scar
Dante did not confront Isabella.
That frightened Elena more than anger would have.
He became calm.
Methodical.
Almost unnaturally quiet.
At breakfast, Isabella sat across from him discussing flowers for a charity gala.
Dante drank coffee.
Adrian read financial reports.
Elena served them.
Nobody mentioned the warehouse.
Nobody mentioned Samuel.
Nobody mentioned the hospital.
Then Isabella looked at Dante's left leg beneath the table.
"Are you having trouble with the prosthetic again?"
Elena nearly dropped the coffee pot.
Dante looked at his aunt.
"No."
"You stumbled at the party."
"People stumble."
Isabella smiled.
"Of course."
Dante smiled back.
Elena finally understood why people feared him.
Not because he shouted.
Because he could discover that someone had changed the course of his life and still sit across from them as though discussing weather.
After breakfast, Dante found Elena in the library.
"We need Samuel."
"You think he's alive?"
"I think Isabella believes he is."
"Why?"
"Because she keeps watching you."
Elena crossed her arms.
"She's been watching me since the party."
"Exactly."
They decided to contact the Montreal postal box.
Not directly.
Dante sent a coded message based on a phrase Samuel used in his original letter.
The machine still remembers.
Three days passed.
Nothing.
On the fourth morning, an envelope arrived.
Inside was a train ticket.
New York to a small town in Vermont.
No letter.
No explanation.
Dante insisted on going with Elena.
They traveled without his usual security detail.
For the first time Elena saw Dante outside Moretti Estate.
No employees.
No men waiting for instructions.
No ballroom full of people afraid to breathe around him.
At a quiet roadside café, a child stared at Dante's prosthetic.
The boy's mother apologized.
Dante shook his head.
"It's fine."
The boy approached.
"Is that a robot leg?"
Dante looked down.
"Something like that."
"Is it strong?"
"Stronger than my other one."
The child smiled.
"So you're part robot?"
Elena covered a laugh.
Dante looked at her.
"Apparently."
It was the first time she saw him smile without calculation.
The moment stayed with her.
By evening they reached an old lakeside cabin.
The door was unlocked.
Elena entered first.
Photographs covered one wall.
Her childhood.
Her graduation.
Her mother.
Elena froze.
Someone had been watching her life.
On a table was a photograph taken only six months earlier.
Her father.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Alive.
Elena broke down.
Dante caught her before her knees reached the floor.
"He's alive."
She pressed the photograph against her chest.
"My father is alive."
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Dante immediately moved Elena behind him.
A man appeared at the top of the stairs.
Sixty-three.
Thin.
Gray beard.
A scar along his temple.
Elena stared.
The man stared back.
"Ellie?"
Her childhood nickname destroyed whatever remained of her composure.
"Dad?"
Samuel Rose descended slowly.
Elena ran to him.
Seven years collapsed into one embrace.
She struck his chest once.
Then again.
"You were alive."
"I know."
"You were alive!"
"I'm sorry."
She cried against him.
Dante turned away, giving them privacy.
Eventually Samuel looked over Elena's shoulder.
His eyes met Dante's.
"You found it."
"The memory card?"
Samuel nodded.
Dante's jaw tightened.
"You put it inside my prosthetic?"
"I had help."
"When?"
"During your rehabilitation."
"Why didn't you come to me?"
"Because someone close to you was reporting everything."
"Adrian."
Samuel shook his head.
"No."
Dante frowned.
"Then who?"
Samuel looked frightened even after seven years.
"Your father."
Silence.
Dante stared at him.
"My father?"
"He knew Isabella was moving money."
"Then why protect her?"
"Because the money wasn't the real secret."
Samuel opened a safe beneath the floor.
Inside were documents.
He placed them on the table.
"The Moretti organization was already changing when you were injured. Your father wanted to move the family completely into legitimate businesses. Isabella didn't. Adrian didn't."
Dante read.
Samuel continued.
"But your father had another problem. He had helped Isabella hide financial crimes years earlier. If she went down, she could take him with her."
"So he protected her."
"At first."
Dante's hands tightened.
"And my leg?"
Samuel looked at him.
"Your father didn't know Isabella gave the hospital that order."
Dante said nothing.
"When he discovered what she'd done," Samuel continued, "he tried to expose her."
"Why didn't he tell me?"
"Because Isabella threatened Elena."
Elena looked up.
"Me?"
Samuel nodded.
"She knew who you were. She knew where we lived."
That was why Samuel disappeared.
He believed remaining dead was the only way to keep his daughter alive.
Dante paced toward the window.
Seven years.
Everyone had been protecting everyone with lies.
And those lies had destroyed them anyway.
Samuel placed another document on the table.
"There is enough here to destroy Isabella's control over every company she touches."
"What about Adrian?"
Samuel hesitated.
"Adrian is complicated."
"He was at the warehouse."
"Yes."
"Did he cause the explosion?"
"No."
Dante turned.
"Then who did?"
Samuel looked toward Elena.
Then back at Dante.
"Isabella."
Dante had expected the answer.
It still hurt.
Samuel continued.
"Adrian came because he discovered what his mother planned."
"To help her?"
"No."
Samuel's next words changed everything again.
"He came to stop her."
Elena stared.
"But the recording said not to trust Adrian."
Samuel nodded.
"Because after the explosion, Adrian made a different choice."
"What choice?" Dante asked.
Samuel's face hardened.
"He realized his mother's plan had failed."
Dante waited.
Samuel took a breath.
"So he decided to finish it himself."
"Finish what?"
"You."
The cabin suddenly went dark.
Every light died simultaneously.
Dante moved.
"Elena, down."
A car engine sounded outside.
Samuel rushed to the window.
Headlights appeared through the trees.
One vehicle.
Then another.
Then another.
Samuel whispered:
"They found us."
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And Dante realized the only people who knew where he and Elena had gone were the people inside Moretti Estate.
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