Chapter 5 - The Mother Who Chose to Disappear
The apartment in Naples sat above a bakery.
Isadora climbed the stairs so quickly Gio had to follow at a near run.
She knocked.
Nothing.
Again.
Then the door opened.
Elena Marino stood there.
Older.
Smaller.
Alive.
For several seconds, neither woman moved.
Then Isadora slapped her.
The sound shocked all three of them.
Elena touched her cheek.
“I deserved that.”
Isadora began crying.
“Eight years.”
“I know.”
“You let me bury an empty coffin.”
“I know.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that!”
Elena reached for her.
Isadora stepped back.
“No.”
Gio quietly closed the apartment door.
Elena looked at him.
“You have Vittorio’s eyes.”
Gio stiffened.
“You knew my father.”
“I knew him for thirty years.”
Isadora stared.
“Tell me everything.”
Elena sat.
The truth came slowly.
Antonio Marino and Vittorio Rossi had grown up together.
When Vittorio inherited the family empire, Antonio refused involvement.
He became a fisherman.
But the friendship remained.
Years later, Antonio discovered Carlo Rossi using legitimate Rossi companies to hide stolen public money.
Antonio told Vittorio.
That made the Marino family a target.
“My cancer was real,” Elena said. “But I recovered.”
“Then why disappear?”
“Because Carlo believed I had copies of Antonio’s records.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
Isadora felt sick.
“And Papa?”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Your father’s boat accident was not an accident.”
Isadora stared.
Her father had died when she was sixteen.
The official report blamed a storm.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I had two children.”
Elena began crying.
“I thought silence would protect you.”
“Marco found the records,” Gio said.
Elena nodded.
“Years later.”
“And took them to Vittorio.”
“Yes.”
“Then vanished.”
“Yes.”
“Where is he now?”
Elena looked at Isadora.
“I don’t know.”
“But you knew he was alive.”
“Until three months ago.”
Isadora’s anger broke.
She stood.
“You let me spend six years believing my brother was dead!”
“I wanted to contact you.”
“You didn’t.”
“Vittorio made me promise.”
“Vittorio is dead!”
“That promise kept you alive.”
Isadora walked toward the door.
Then Elena said:
“Your brother came to see me three months ago.”
Isadora stopped.
“He had the ledger.”
Gio turned.
“What did he say?”
“That someone inside your family had betrayed Vittorio.”
“Carlo.”
Elena shook her head.
“No.”
Gio frowned.
“Then who?”
Elena looked terrified.
“Your father knew Carlo was dangerous.”
She swallowed.
“But Carlo wasn’t the man Vittorio feared most.”
Gio’s voice lowered.
“Who was?”
Elena whispered one name.
“Luca.”
Behind them, the apartment floor creaked.
Gio turned.
Luca stood in the doorway.
May you like
And he had heard everything.
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