Chapter 14 - THE MAN WHO KEPT THE BOY HIDDEN
Paolo had held Gabriel once.
The night he was born.
Elias told the story reluctantly.
Rosa Valdez had been involved with Paolo during the final year of his life.
Nobody in the Rosselli family knew.
Except Elias.
Paolo wanted out of the family business completely.
He planned to disappear with Rosa.
Then Gabriel was born.
Alina stared.
“My mother left me to run away with him?”
“No.”
Elias looked uncomfortable.
“She never planned to leave you.”
“Then why wasn't I there?”
“Because your mother was trying to separate two parts of her life.”
Alina laughed bitterly.
“Adults love that sentence.”
Elias explained.
Rosa feared Dante’s father.
Not Dante.
Not even Paolo.
Their father believed family blood belonged under family control.
If he discovered Paolo had a son, Gabriel could become leverage.
So Rosa hid the pregnancy.
Gabriel was registered under Teresa Vale’s name.
Paolo created the trust.
Then Paolo’s boat disappeared.
Rosa believed he had been killed.
She took Gabriel to Mara.
She kept visiting secretly.
Alina’s throat tightened.
“All those nights she said she was working.”
“Yes.”
“She was seeing him.”
“Yes.”
Gabriel looked toward her.
Neither sibling knew what to say.
They had both been loved in compartments.
Different rooms.
Different lies.
Then Dante asked:
“Why add Leo?”
Elias hesitated.
“I didn't.”
“But you knew it happened.”
“Yes.”
“Who did it?”
Elias looked toward Alina.
“Rosa.”
Alina stopped.
“My mother added Leo?”
“She contacted me two months after you met Dante.”
Alina’s hands went cold.
“When?”
“After the restaurant.”
Of course.
After the dragon tattoo.
After Leo reached for her.
After Rosa’s warning came back into Alina’s mind.
Rosa had known almost immediately that her daughter had encountered the Rossellis.
“She said the trust needed a second protected child.”
“Why Leo?”
Elias looked at Dante.
“Because she believed the person who wanted Gabriel would eventually use your son too.”
Dante became very still.
“What person?”
“Someone who believed Paolo left something besides money.”
Gabriel asked:
“What?”
“A ledger.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
The old Rosselli network had used private ledgers recording debts, shell companies and protected families.
Paolo allegedly copied one before disappearing.
If it existed, it could expose people who had spent years turning old criminal money into respectable businesses.
Alina stared at Elias.
“And you thought making Leo beneficiary would protect him?”
“No.”
“Then why allow it?”
Elias’s voice lowered.
“Because Rosa didn't ask my permission.”
She had used an old Rosselli master code.
A code only Paolo should have known.
Dante whispered:
“Paolo gave it to her.”
Elias nodded.
Then Gabriel interrupted.
“You keep saying my dad disappeared.”
Everyone looked at him.
“He didn't die?”
Dante answered carefully.
“We don't know.”
Gabriel reached into his backpack.
Removed another photograph.
Paolo.
Older.
Gray in his beard.
Alive.
The photograph had been taken only eighteen months earlier.
And on the back Rosa had written:
May you like
YOUR FATHER IS ALIVE. DO NOT LET DANTE FIND HIM UNTIL YOU KNOW WHICH DRAGON HE SERVES.
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