Chapter 14 - THE TRUTH HE NEVER TOLD HER
Dante had never spoken about the woman he'd loved before Isabella.
Because that woman had never been his lover.
She had been his younger sister.
Her name was Lucia Romano.
And she'd died at nineteen.
Sophia stared at him.
"You had a sister?"
Dante nodded.
"She was seven years younger than me."
"What happened?"
"She discovered something in my mother's private accounts."
Sophia sat beside him.
For the first time, Dante looked less like a powerful mafia boss and more like a boy who'd been carrying grief for years.
"Lucia thought our mother was stealing money from medical trusts. She confronted her."
His voice broke.
"Three days later, Lucia disappeared."
Sophia swallowed.
"Did they find her?"
Dante nodded.
"Her body was recovered from the lake."
Sophia covered her mouth.
"The police ruled it an accident. I believed them."
He stared at his hands.
"Until now."
Rebecca entered with a folder.
"We recovered Clara's letter from a sealed medical archive."
Sophia stood.
Rebecca handed it to her.
The paper was old and fragile.
Clara's handwriting was uneven.
To my daughter Sophia,
If you ever find this letter, please know that I never abandoned you.
I was told you died.
Every day since then, I have prayed the doctors were wrong.
Sophia began crying.
She pressed the paper against her chest.
Dante remained beside her.
She continued reading.
There was a young woman who tried to help me.
Her name was Lucia Romano.
She discovered the records that proved I had been imprisoned under false medical authority.
Sophia looked up.
Dante stared.
"Lucia found Clara?"
Rebecca nodded.
"Apparently."
Sophia continued.
Lucia promised she would return with the police.
But she never came back.
The final line made Sophia's hands tremble.
If you ever meet her brother, tell him Lucia was brave.
Dante turned away.
For several seconds, he couldn't speak.
Sophia reached for his hand.
He looked at her.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
He shook his head.
"No. I'm the one who's sorry."
She frowned.
"For what?"
"For every time I put power before people. For every time I trusted my name more than the truth. For the night I made you feel like you didn't matter."
Sophia's eyes filled.
Dante took a breath.
"I love you, Sophia."
The words hung between them.
He continued.
"But I won't ask you to return to me. Not after what I did."
Sophia looked at him for a long moment.
Then she whispered, "I love you too."
Dante closed his eyes.
"But love isn't enough," she added.
He nodded.
"I know."
Rebecca's phone rang.
She listened, then looked up.
"Victoria has been arrested."
Dante turned.
"Where?"
"At a private airfield outside Milwaukee."
Rebecca continued.
"She was carrying financial records, forged identities, and a document signed by Marcus Vale."
Sophia frowned.
"What document?"
Rebecca opened a digital photograph.
It was a confession.
Marcus had admitted helping Victoria falsify Clara's death records, steal from the trusts, and arrange the attack that killed Anthony Romano.
But the final paragraph revealed something neither Sophia nor Dante expected.
Lucia Romano had survived the night she disappeared.
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Her death had been staged.
And according to the most recent document, she was still alive.
