Chapter 11 - THE BOY WHO KNEW MY MOTHER
Three years after Leo Rosselli first reached across a restaurant table for Alina Valdez, Alina had finally stopped believing every unexpected knock meant trouble.
That was why the boy at the gate frightened her so badly.
Leo was almost four now.
Talkative.
Opinionated.
Completely convinced blueberries were poisonous but blueberry muffins were not.
That Saturday, Dante had opened the Rosselli estate grounds for a small foundation event supporting restaurant workers and single parents.
Alina had insisted the event use her name nowhere.
She had spent enough of her life being introduced through dangerous men.
Around four in the afternoon, one of Dante’s security officers approached.
“There’s a kid at the east gate.”
Alina frowned.
“A kid?”
“Maybe thirteen.”
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
Dante was beside her instantly.
“What does he want?”
The guard looked at Alina.
“He asked for Lena Valdez.”
Nobody outside her old life called her Lena anymore.
Alina’s stomach tightened.
They walked toward the gate.
The boy stood outside carrying a battered backpack.
Dark hair.
Thin face.
Old sneakers.
He looked exhausted rather than dangerous.
Dante did not open the gate.
Alina stepped closer.
“What’s your name?”
“Gabriel.”
“Gabriel what?”
The boy hesitated.
“Vale.”
“Do I know you?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know me?”
Gabriel reached into his backpack.
Security immediately tensed.
“Slowly,” Dante ordered.
Gabriel froze.
Then removed a photograph.
He pressed it against the metal bars.
Alina stopped breathing.
Her mother.
Much younger.
Standing beside a little boy.
Gabriel.
Maybe five years old.
On the back, in her mother’s handwriting:
GABRIEL—KEEP HIM AWAY FROM THE DRAGON UNTIL HE IS OLD ENOUGH TO CHOOSE.
Alina read it twice.
Then looked at Dante.
His dragon tattoo disappeared beneath the collar of his black shirt.
Leo’s small voice came from behind them.
“Mommy?”
Alina turned sharply.
“Stay with Rosa.”
Leo ignored the nanny and peered around her.
Gabriel looked at him.
Something strange passed across the boy’s face.
Not anger.
Recognition.
Alina faced Gabriel again.
“Where did you get that?”
“Your mom.”
“When?”
“She gave it to my guardian.”
“Where is my mother?”
Gabriel swallowed.
“I don't know.”
That answer reopened an old wound.
Dante’s voice became colder.
“What do you want?”
Gabriel looked straight at him.
“Nothing from you.”
Then at Alina.
“I came because I turned thirteen yesterday.”
He removed a brass key from his pocket.
A tiny dragon was engraved into its head.
Alina felt herself go cold.
Gabriel continued.
“Your mom said on my thirteenth birthday I should give this to you.”
“Why me?”
He looked toward Leo.
“Because she said if Dante Rosselli ever had a son, the key would belong to both of us.”
Dante stepped forward.
Gabriel did not move.
Then the boy said the words that changed everything.
May you like
“Lena, I think your mother was my mother too.”
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