Chapter 2 - The Reason She Disappeared
Victor’s estate had not changed.
The iron gates were taller.
There were more cameras.
More guards.
But the stone mansion beyond them remained exactly as Elena remembered.
Noah pressed his face to the SUV window.
“Is that a castle?”
“No,” Elena said.
Victor answered at the same time.
“Yes.”
Noah looked delighted.
Elena glared at Victor.
“Don't encourage him.”
Victor almost smiled.
It disappeared quickly.
Inside, Elena refused breakfast, refused a bedroom, and refused to let Noah out of her sight.
Victor tolerated it for exactly twenty minutes.
Then he closed the library doors.
“We talk now.”
Elena crossed her arms.
“Noah stays with me.”
“He’s twenty feet away with Marco.”
“No.”
Victor opened the door.
“Marco.”
The guard appeared.
“Bring Noah here.”
Seconds later Noah entered carrying a wooden dinosaur someone had apparently found within minutes.
Elena stared.
“Where did that come from?”
Marco cleared his throat.
“Mr. Moretti had someone buy it.”
“In twenty minutes?”
Victor shrugged.
“I have efficient employees.”
Noah climbed onto the couch.
“Can I play?”
“Yes,” Elena said.
Victor sat across from her.
“Start talking.”
She looked at Noah.
Victor understood.
He lowered his voice.
“Why did you leave?”
“Because someone inside your family wanted me dead.”
Victor went still.
“Who?”
“I didn’t know.”
“You never told me.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“The night before I filed for divorce.”
Victor frowned.
“You told me you couldn’t live this life anymore.”
“Because someone had been inside our bedroom.”
His expression changed.
Elena continued.
“I found photographs.”
“What photographs?”
“Me leaving the doctor.”
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
“What doctor?”
“My obstetrician.”
Victor stopped breathing.
“I was eight weeks pregnant.”
Noah continued playing quietly.
Victor stared at Elena.
“You knew before you left.”
“Yes.”
“And someone else knew.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“A photograph was left on my pillow.”
Victor’s jaw flexed.
“What was written on it?”
Elena remembered every word.
“Moretti heirs don’t belong to outsiders.”
Victor stood abruptly.
Noah looked up.
Elena pointed at him.
“Sit down.”
Victor actually obeyed.
She continued.
“The next morning, my brakes failed.”
His face darkened.
“I thought it was an accident. Then someone called me.”
“Who?”
“A distorted voice.”
“What did they say?”
Elena swallowed.
“They said the next accident would happen after the baby was born.”
Victor stared at her.
“So you ran.”
“I went to you first.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, Victor. I did.”
“When?”
“You were meeting your uncle Salvatore.”
Victor froze.
“I waited outside your office. I heard you arguing.”
“About what?”
“The succession.”
Victor remembered.
Salvatore had wanted Victor’s cousin Luca positioned as heir to the Moretti organization.
Victor had refused.
Elena leaned forward.
“I heard Salvatore say a child would make you weak.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“And you thought my uncle threatened you?”
“I didn’t know who to trust.”
“You could have trusted me.”
“Could I?”
“Yes.”
“You had men following me without telling me. Phones monitored. Guards outside restaurants.”
“To protect you.”
“That was your answer to everything.”
Victor looked away.
Elena lowered her voice.
“I needed Noah to grow up without learning to check underneath cars.”
Victor flinched.
“You decided I was more dangerous to him than the person trying to kill him.”
“I decided disappearing was the only way to make everyone believe the baby never existed.”
Victor said nothing.
Then Noah approached.
“Victor?”
Both adults turned.
Noah held out the wooden dinosaur.
“I named him Cinnamon.”
Victor stared at it.
“Why Cinnamon?”
“Because the bakery smelled like cinnamon.”
The room became painfully quiet.
Noah frowned.
“Did I say something bad?”
Victor immediately shook his head.
“No.”
He took the dinosaur.
“You said something perfect.”
Noah smiled.
Victor handed it back.
Then Marco entered.
His expression was serious.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We identified the sedan from the bakery.”
Victor stood.
“Who owns it?”
“Shell company.”
“And?”
Marco glanced at Elena.
Victor noticed.
“Say it.”
Marco hesitated.
“The company traces back to Salvatore Moretti.”
Elena went pale.
Victor’s face became stone.
“My uncle died four years ago.”
Marco nodded.
“Yes.”
“So who controls the company now?”
Marco placed a photograph on the table.
Victor looked down.
His expression changed.
Elena stepped closer.
The man in the photograph was older now.
But she remembered him.
She had seen him standing beside Salvatore many times.
Victor whispered the name.
“Luca.”
His cousin.
The man Victor had trusted with half his empire.
May you like
And the man who had spent six years quietly helping Victor search for Elena.
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