Chapter 5 - THE MAN WHO CAME BACK FOR ELENA'S DAUGHTERS
The first shot shattered the ceiling light.
Dante dragged me behind the concrete wall.
Rachel fired back.
Orion lunged.
The old man retreated into the corridor.
Marco shouted:
“Father!”
No answer.
Dante’s guards moved through the basement.
Thirty terrifying seconds later, silence returned.
Marco Bellini Sr. was gone.
A hidden exit led into the woods.
Marco stood frozen.
“My father died in Sicily.”
Rachel laughed bitterly.
“Apparently everyone in this family gets two funerals.”
Dante did not smile.
He called in more men.
Police were not an option yet.
Not until Dante knew which officers still belonged to old Moretti networks.
That sentence should have terrified me.
Strangely, it did not terrify me as much as it should have.
Maybe because Orion was pressed against me.
Maybe because Dante had put his body between me and a bullet without hesitation.
We returned to Manhattan before dawn.
Rachel refused to stay at Dante’s estate.
I refused to let her leave alone.
Eventually, Dante placed both of us in a secure apartment owned through a company that did not carry the Moretti name.
“You’re giving orders again,” I told him.
“You were shot at.”
“Near.”
“That is not better.”
Rachel looked between us.
“Do you two always do this?”
“We’ve known each other two days,” I said.
Rachel raised an eyebrow.
Dante left before I could throw something at her.
The next morning, I read Elena’s letters.
Most were addressed separately.
One was for both daughters.
Isabella, protect your sister, but do not confuse protection with control.
I glanced at Rachel.
She pretended not to hear.
Olivia, if Laura succeeded in giving you an ordinary life, do not be ashamed of it. Ordinary is what I wanted most for you.
I cried.
Not elegantly.
Rachel sat beside me.
Eventually, she leaned against my shoulder.
Two sisters who had lived entirely separate lives.
One raised in hiding.
The other searching.
Both believing their mother was gone.
Then I found a letter addressed to Dante.
I hesitated.
Rachel saw.
“Open it.”
“It isn’t mine.”
“She probably assumed you’d find him.”
I called Dante instead.
He arrived thirty minutes later.
Still too fast.
I handed him the letter.
He read silently.
Then stopped.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“Elena says Orion’s bloodline was bred specifically to recognize a scent marker.”
I frowned.
“That sounds ridiculous.”
“Not a person’s identity. A training compound.”
Elena had used a unique botanical oil while raising Nero and later his descendants.
Laura had apparently kept the same formula.
My mother’s favorite perfume.
Cedar.
Orange blossom.
Something herbal I could never identify.
I had inherited the bottle after she died.
I wore it rarely.
But I had worn it the night I met Orion.
“So he recognized the scent.”
Dante nodded.
“That explains why he trusted you.”
I looked at Orion sleeping nearby.
“Not magic.”
“No.”
“Still pretty romantic.”
Dante almost smiled.
Then his expression changed as he reached the final page.
“What?”
Elena had written:
If Olivia ever returns, do not let Marco Bellini Sr. learn that she carries the key.
I stared.
“What key?”
Rachel looked confused too.
Dante turned the page.
Nothing.
Then I remembered something.
My mother’s moon pendant.
The one missing from my childhood.
Recovered from my restaurant locker.
I brought it from the evidence bag.
Dante examined it.
The back twisted open.
Inside was no photograph.
No memory card.
A tiny metal key.
Rachel stopped breathing.
May you like
Elena had hidden it around my neck as a baby.
And someone had spent twenty-five years trying to find it.
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