Chapter 2 - The House on the Cliff
The world did not stop turning, though I desperately wished it would.
Mr. Carrillo didn't object when Dante Rosselli stood up, picked up his son, and guided me out of Aurelia by my elbow. Nobody asked for my apron. Nobody asked me to finish my shift. The restaurant staff watched in stunned, terrified silence as the king of Boston’s underground escorted a twenty-two-year-old waitress into the back of a blacked-out armored Suburban.
I sat in the middle row, flanked by leather seats that smelled of luxury and old tobacco. Leo sat in a child seat beside me, refusing to let go of my pinky finger. Every time I tried to gently pull my hand away, his small lip would quiver, and his gray eyes would fill with tears.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked, staring straight ahead at the dark headrest in front of me. “I have a cat. I have rent due on Tuesday. I have sixty-eight dollars in my apron.”
“Your rent is paid for the next fifty years if you want it to be,” Dante said from the front passenger seat. He didn't turn around, but I could see his profile reflected in the side mirror. “And your cat will be brought to the estate by midnight. As for your tips... you won't ever need an apron again, Helena.”
“Don't call me that,” I snapped, a sudden flash of heat breaking through my paralysis. “My name is Alina. My mother raised me. My mother fed me. She worked double shifts at laundromats and gas stations to keep a roof over our heads!”
Dante turned slowly in his seat. The streetlight outside flashed across his face, revealing a deep, hollow pain in his eyes.
“The woman who raised you was named Clara Vance,” Dante said softly. “She was my wife’s sister. And twenty years ago, she was paid one million dollars by my enemies to steal my infant daughter from her cradle.”
The words hung in the air, heavy and poisonous.
“That’s a lie,” I breathed, shaking my head violently. “She loved me! She protected me! We moved around because... because we were running from dangerous people!”
“You were running from me,” Dante corrected gently. “Because Clara knew that if I ever found her, I would tear this city apart with my bare hands to get my daughter back. For eighteen years, I thought you were dead, Helena. Clara left a burnt car in a ravine with a baby-sized skeleton inside. We buried that casket. My wife, your real mother, spent the rest of her life in a broken state of grief until her heart finally gave out six months after Leo was born.”
He pointed a steady finger toward the baby beside me.
“Leo is your half-brother,” Dante whispered. “My second wife died giving birth to him. He has been sick, weak, and failing to thrive since the day he was born. The doctors said he lacked the will to fight. But tonight... tonight he knew you.”
I looked down at the tiny boy holding my finger. His gray eyes were staring up at me with an uncritical, absolute trust that made my throat tighten.
“Why?” I asked, my voice cracking. “How could a baby know me?”
“Because blood remembers,” Dante said. “And Clara clearly couldn't hide the truth entirely. She gave you the dragon pendant. That was your mother’s piece. It belonged to the Rosselli family for three generations.”
The Suburban turned through massive iron gates decorated with family crests, climbing a steep, winding driveway lined with towering pine trees. At the top of the cliff stood the Rosselli mansion—a sprawling stone fortress overlooking the dark, crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean below.
It looked like a prison designed by a billionaire.
The vehicle came to a stop. The doors were opened from the outside by guards dressed in crisp black suits.
Dante stepped out and held out his hand to me. “Welcome home, Helena.”
May you like
I looked at his large, extended palm. The silver dragon tattoo peeked out from his sleeve. Everything inside me told me to run, to jump into the night, to scramble down the rocks and hide in the dark city streets I knew so well. But then Leo made a soft, whimpering sound, clutching my fingers tighter.
I took a deep breath, stepped out of the car, and walked straight into the lion’s den.
