The Mafia Boss Exploded With Rage When He Found His Secretary Freezing in the Snow on Réveillon Night—Then He Learned Why

At dawn, Elias brought Maya to a private suite above one of his family's legitimate hotels.

He called it protection.

Maya called it another cage.

"You can't keep me here," she said as he checked the locks.

"I'm not keeping you anywhere. The door is unlocked."

"And the six men outside?"

"They're concerned citizens."

She stared at him.

For the first time that morning, Elias almost smiled.

Then his phone rang.

Marco's voice came through, low and urgent.

"We found the scarred man. His name is Victor Raines. Former head of security for your father. Officially dead since 2019."

"Officially?"

"His death certificate was filed by a doctor who disappeared six months later."

Elias looked through the window at the snow-covered streets.

"Where is he now?"

"We don't know. But there's another problem."

"What?"

"Your father had a second son."

The room went silent.

Elias slowly lowered the phone.

"Say that again."

"Victor's records connect him to a private clinic in Connecticut. Twenty-eight years ago, Elena Hart gave birth there to a boy. The birth certificate lists Antonio Conti as the father."

Maya's face went white.

"My mother had a son?"

"She never told me," Elias said.

His voice sounded strange even to himself.

Marco continued. "The boy was adopted under another name. We traced the file to a man named Adrian Vale. He's currently the chief financial officer of Conti Holdings."

Elias stared at Maya.

Adrian Vale had worked beside him for six years. He had handled acquisitions, cleaned up financial disasters, and sat at Elias's right hand during negotiations.

He was the one person Elias trusted to tell him when he was making a mistake.

"Bring him in," Elias said.

"There's something else. Adrian requested an emergency meeting with the board this morning. He's claiming you're mentally unstable and that your disappearance from the New Year's party endangered the company."

Elias's expression became deadly.

"He knows about Maya."

"We think so."

Maya rose from the bed.

"Don't bring him here."

"Why?"

"Because when I was nineteen, a man came to my mother's funeral and left a white rose on her coffin. I saw him from the church steps. He had a scar across his cheek."

Elias went still.

"Was it Victor?"

"No. It was Adrian."

For the first time, Elias looked genuinely shaken.

His trusted adviser had attended the funeral of a woman he'd never met, a woman who had spent her life hiding a secret connected to Elias's family.

Maya reached into her purse and pulled out a small silver key.

"My mother gave me this before she died. She said it opened the only thing she had left from my father."

Elias took it carefully.

"What does it open?"

"I never found out."

He turned the key over in his palm.

A tiny number had been stamped into its surface.