Chapter 6 - A FATHER WITHOUT PERMISSIONBen disappeared for eleven minutes.
Those eleven minutes nearly destroyed Amelia.
Mrs. Alvarez had taken him to a secured police facility after being advised that Dante’s penthouse might be compromised.
Two uniformed officers escorted them.
A security vehicle followed.
Everything should have been safe.
Then a delivery van crashed into the vehicle outside the station.
Smoke filled the street.
People screamed.
A second car blocked traffic.
During the confusion, someone grabbed Ben.
Eleven minutes later, an officer found him hiding behind dumpsters in an alley.
Alone.
Crying.
But unharmed.
Whoever had taken him had abandoned him when patrol cars flooded the area.
Amelia learned this while still in Nevada.
She collapsed against the wall.
“I’m going home.”
Dante was already arranging the plane.
Ethan insisted on joining them.
“You can’t hide anymore,” Amelia told him.
“I know.”
“You disappear again, I’ll kill you myself.”
“Fair.”
The flight to Chicago was silent.
Dante sat opposite Amelia but did not attempt to comfort her.
He seemed to understand she would have rejected it.
She watched the city lights appear below them.
“Do you think Raymond did it?”
“Yes.”
“You said facts.”
“I saw enough facts.”
“And Voss?”
“Different problem.”
“Which problem comes first?”
Dante looked at her.
“Ben.”
The word settled between them.
Not my son.
Not our son.
Ben.
Dante was keeping his promise.
At the hospital, Amelia found Ben sitting on a bed eating crackers.
He launched himself into her arms.
“Mommy!”
She hugged him until he protested.
“I can’t breathe.”
“Sorry.”
“You’re squishing my dinosaur.”
She laughed and cried simultaneously.
Dante remained outside the room.
Ben noticed him.
“Mr. Dante!”
Dante entered reluctantly.
Ben held up the plastic dinosaur.
“They said I was brave.”
“You were.”
“I kicked the bad man.”
Dante’s face changed.
“You did?”
“In his knee.”
“Good.”
Amelia gave him a look.
Dante corrected himself.
“I mean… following adult safety instructions is good.”
Ben nodded.
“I screamed too.”
“That was very smart.”
The boy pointed at Dante’s suit.
“You always wear black.”
“Mostly.”
“Are you Batman?”
Amelia nearly choked.
Dante considered the question.
“No.”
“Do you have a Batmobile?”
“No.”
“Then probably not.”
Ben returned to his crackers.
Dante looked helplessly at Amelia.
She smiled despite everything.
Later, while Ben slept, a doctor swabbed his cheek.
Amelia had agreed to the DNA test.
Not because Dante pressured her.
He hadn’t mentioned it again.
She needed to know.
Dante gave his sample in another room.
Results would take twenty-four hours.
Meanwhile, Ethan met federal investigators vetted by Dante’s attorneys and supplied them with a limited portion of the ledger.
Enough to prove fraud.
Not enough to expose every witness.
“We release everything at once,” Ethan argued.
“No,” Dante said.
“Why?”
“Because Voss expects panic.”
“So?”
“You don’t beat a man like Conrad Voss by making him desperate before you know where all his people are.”
Amelia stared at him.
“You sound like him.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“I’m trying not to.”
“Then let law enforcement handle it.”
“Some of law enforcement is in the ledger.”
“Not everyone.”
“No.”
“So choose the people who aren’t.”
Dante didn’t answer.
Ethan smiled faintly.
“She always did that.”
“What?”
“Made everybody annoyed by being right.”
Amelia threw a napkin at him.
For several hours, they worked.
A federal prosecutor named Rebecca Sloan arrived.
She was forty-five, blunt, exhausted, and apparently immune to Dante Castellano’s reputation.
“If you interfere with my investigation,” she told him, “I will put you in handcuffs myself.”
Dante nodded.
“Understood.”
“You say that now.”
“I say what I mean.”
Rebecca looked unimpressed.
Amelia liked her immediately.
They devised a plan.
Ethan would authenticate the ledger.
Federal agents would quietly obtain warrants.
Voss would not be alerted until simultaneous searches began.
Raymond, however, remained missing.
Until 10:40 p.m.
Then Amelia’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Dante told her not to answer.
Rebecca said, “Put it on speaker.”
Amelia answered.
“Hello?”
Raymond laughed.
“You look awful on television.”
Her skin crawled.
“What do you want?”
“You know.”
“The files?”
“Ethan.”
“He isn’t here.”
“Don’t lie.”
“Leave Ben alone.”
A pause.
Then Raymond’s voice changed.
“You really did make me raise another man’s kid.”
Dante’s fists tightened.
Amelia stared at him, warning him silently.
Raymond continued.
“I changed diapers. Paid for formula.”
“You hit me while I was pregnant.”
“You deserved worse.”
Amelia closed her eyes.
Dante moved toward the phone.
Rebecca stopped him with one raised hand.
Amelia asked, “Why did you come to Castellano’s?”
“To remind you who you belong to.”
“I don’t belong to you.”
“You always did.”
“No.”
Raymond’s breathing changed.
For years Amelia had feared that sound.
Tonight, she realized something.
He was the one hiding.
He was the one calling from an unknown location.
He was the one being hunted.
And suddenly, for the first time, she heard weakness inside his anger.
“You’re scared,” she said.
Silence.
Dante looked at her.
Amelia continued.
“You’re terrified.”
“Watch yourself.”
“You hit me because I walked away.”
“Shut up.”
“You hunted Ethan because he knew what you were.”
“I said shut up.”
“You threatened a four-year-old because every grown adult in your life eventually sees what you are.”
Raymond shouted, “I MADE YOU!”
“No.”
Her voice remained steady.
“You almost killed me.”
Silence.
“But you didn’t.”
She ended the call.
Her hands immediately began shaking.
Dante stepped forward.
“You okay?”
“No.”
He nodded.
“Good answer.”
Rebecca’s technical team had traced the call.
Warehouse district.
South Chicago.
Federal and local tactical units moved.
Dante was ordered to remain behind.
He hated it.
But he obeyed.
An hour later, officers found the warehouse.
Empty.
Except for one chair.
One phone.
And one printed photograph placed beneath a lamp.
It showed Dante leaving the hospital.
A red circle had been drawn around his head.
On the back:
YOU STOLE MY FAMILY. I TAKE YOURS.
Amelia read it.
“What family?”
Dante went still.
He had no wife.
No children he knew of besides possibly Ben.
His mother was dead.
Then realization struck.
“Lucia.”
“Who?”
“My sister.”
Dante called immediately.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
His security team raced toward Lucia Castellano’s townhouse.
The front door was open.
Her living room was empty.
Her purse sat on the table.
Her phone lay smashed on the floor.
And beneath it was a message written in black marker.
TRADE ETHAN FOR LUCIA. MIDNIGHT TOMORROW.
Amelia looked at Dante.
His face had gone white.
She had never heard him mention a sister.
“You said you didn’t have family.”
“I said I had more rooms than I needed.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Lucia left Chicago years ago because of me.”
“Because of what you do?”
His silence was answer enough.
Dante stared at the photograph of the message.
Raymond had finally found leverage.
And for the first time, Amelia understood something terrifying.
Dante Castellano might be powerful.
He might have money, security, connections, and a name people feared.
But power did not protect you from loving someone.
It merely gave your enemies more expensive targets.
At 6:15 the following morning, the hospital called.
The DNA results were ready.
Amelia opened the envelope alone.
Probability of paternity:
99.9998%.
She closed her eyes.
Dante Castellano was Ben’s father.
But before she could tell him, Dante received a video.
Lucia appeared tied to a chair.
Raymond stood behind her.
May you like
And Conrad Voss stood beside him.
The two enemies they believed were fighting each other had been working together all along.
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