Chương 6 - THE FATHER MY MOTHER NEVER NAMED
For thirty-one years, I had believed Thomas Vance was my father.
He raised me.
Loved me.
Taught me how to drive.
Cried at my college graduation.
Biology wasn't going to erase that.
But truth still mattered.
Especially when people were apparently willing to kill for it.
Alessandro refused to answer.
That told me he knew.
“Who?”
“Elena—”
“Who is my biological father?”
Nico stood beside me.
Not touching.
Just there.
Alessandro finally spoke.
“Salvatore Rizzi.”
I laughed.
Because sometimes reality becomes so absurd your body chooses the wrong reaction.
“No.”
“Camille was twenty-two. Salvatore was married. It lasted less than a year.”
My skin crawled.
“He knew about me?”
“Eventually.”
“When?”
“After Camille left Bellandi Imports.”
“Did Thomas know?”
“Yes.”
That hurt.
Not because Thomas wasn't my biological father.
Because he'd carried this secret his entire life to protect me.
“Why would Salvatore want me dead if I'm his daughter?”
Alessandro's answer came quietly.
“He doesn't.”
I remembered the surveillance photographs.
The demand to trade me.
The hidden messages.
“What does he want?”
“An heir.”
Nico turned.
“What?”
Salvatore's marriage had produced one son, Luca.
Luca died ten years earlier without children.
Publicly, Salvatore had no surviving descendants.
If I was his biological daughter, that changed everything.
Especially because Rizzi assets were tied up in an old family trust.
Hundreds of millions in legitimate real estate.
Shipping interests.
Hotels.
If Salvatore died without a direct descendant, control shifted to distant cousins he hated.
If I was legally recognized?
I could inherit voting control.
“I don't want it.”
Alessandro gave me a grim look.
“Salvatore doesn't care what you want.”
Nico's entire posture changed.
Now he understood.
Salvatore didn't intend to kill me.
He intended to claim me.
Use me.
Perhaps force me to sign something.
Perhaps marry me into another alliance.
Property.
Just more expensive property.
I felt sick.
Then Arthur received a message.
Unknown number.
A video.
Valentina sat in a dark room.
A newspaper beside her proved she'd recorded it that morning.
She looked thin but unharmed.
“Elena, I'm sorry.”
My heart stopped.
Valentina continued.
“I gave you the card because I knew you'd leave Nico if you learned what our fathers were hiding.”
Nico's jaw tightened.
She looked directly into the camera.
“But I didn't expect Salvatore to discover who you are.”
She leaned closer.
“He doesn't only want you because you're his daughter.”
A door sounded behind her.
Valentina spoke faster.
“Camille wasn't hiding financial records.”
My mother had hidden something much more dangerous.
“Your mother recorded Salvatore confessing to three murders.”
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The video cut.
One of those murders was hers.
