Chapter 7 - The Woman Dante Never TrustedThe photograph changed everything.

Alina stared at her mother’s face until the room blurred. Rosa Valdez was younger in the picture, dressed in a simple cream blouse, her dark hair pinned at the nape of her neck. She stood beside Rafael Vale with one hand resting on a ledger.

They looked like business partners.

They looked like conspirators.

They did not look like enemies.

“My mother worked for him,” Alina said.

“She worked against him,” Mara replied.

“The picture says otherwise.”

“Pictures lie.”

“People lie more.”

Dante took the clipping from the desk. His eyes moved over the details, but he stopped at the date.

“This was printed three days after my mother’s death.”

“Yes.”

“Why did the papers say the fire killed her when the police report called it an electrical accident?”

“Because Rafael paid for the story.”

“And why was Rosa in the photograph?”

Mara’s gaze returned to Alina. “Because your mother was Elena’s closest friend.”

“That doesn’t explain the words.”

“The dragon’s wife was a name used by people who knew the old organization. It referred to the woman who held the books, the secrets, and the keys.”

Alina looked at the dragon on Dante’s neck.

“Then my mother was part of it.”

“She was trapped inside it.”

“That is what everyone says about the dead.”

Dante’s phone vibrated. He stepped away to answer, but Alina watched his face change.

“What?” he demanded.

He listened.

“Bring him here.”

He ended the call.

“Who was that?”

“A hospital contact.”

“About Leo?”

“Someone tried to access his birth records.”

Alina looked at the baby.

Leo had fallen asleep against her shoulder, unaware of the danger attached to his name.

“Why would anyone care about his records?”

“Because his mother’s death was not an accident.”

The statement was so direct that Alina felt it in her chest.

“What happened to Leo’s mother?”

Dante’s jaw hardened.

“Her name was Isabella. She died after giving birth.”

“How?”

“Complications.”

“You don’t believe that.”

“I believed it until tonight.”

Mara crossed herself.

The door opened, and a young doctor entered with two security men. He carried a leather folder and looked terrified.

“Dr. Moreno,” Dante said. “Tell me what happened.”

The doctor placed the folder on the desk. “Someone used an authorization code to retrieve the baby’s genetic screening.”

“Whose code?”

“Isabella Rosselli’s.”

Dante went still.

“Isabella is dead.”

“The code was used yesterday.”

Alina felt Leo’s fingers tighten around her shirt.

“What did they find?” she asked.

The doctor looked at her. “A genetic anomaly.”

“What kind?”

“Leo is not a biological Rosselli.”

The room seemed to tilt.

Dante stepped toward the doctor. “Say that again.”

“The laboratory compared Leo’s sample with the file labeled Isabella Rosselli. There is no maternal match. The original file appears to have been replaced.”

“Then whose child is he?”

Dr. Moreno opened the folder. “We don’t know. But the false file contains a second name.”

He turned the page.

The name was Rosa Valdez.

Alina’s breath stopped.

“My mother?”

“The system lists her as a genetic relative.”

Dante looked from the folder to the baby in Alina’s arms.

“That’s impossible,” he said.

Alina’s mind raced through fragments of her childhood: her mother’s secretive phone calls, the locked room at the back of the apartment, the night Rosa had told her that some families were born in blood and others were chosen.

“My mother died fourteen years ago,” Alina said.

“The record was entered six months ago,” Dr. Moreno replied.

Six months.

The same month Luca supposedly died.

Dante turned toward Enzo. “Who had access to the system?”

“The hospital administrator, the chief surgeon, and Isabella’s private nurse.”

“Find them.”

“We already tried. The administrator is missing. The surgeon is dead.”

“And the nurse?”

Enzo hesitated.

“She is at the Rosselli estate.”

Dante’s gaze sharpened. “Who is she?”

Enzo looked at Mara.

Mara’s face had turned gray.

“Her name is Clara,” she said.

“The woman who disappeared from the nursery?” Alina asked.

“She never disappeared,” Mara whispered. “She has been hiding inside the house.”

At that instant, a gunshot sounded from the upper floor of the office building.

The doctor screamed.

Dante pushed Alina behind him, but Leo woke and began crying. Enzo drew his weapon. Security men rushed into the room.

Then the office lights flickered.

On the computer screen, the memory card began playing by itself.

Luca’s face appeared again.

But this time, he was not alone.

A woman stood behind him, her face hidden in shadow.

She leaned toward the camera and whispered one sentence.

“Tell Alina her mother is waiting.”

May you like

He let his mother throw his grieving wife’s purse into the mud, unaware...

His girlfriend dumped him for a man in a G-Wagon on graduation day—then...

My sister ripped open my blouse at Dad’s retirement gala to show 200 gue...

The screen went black.

From somewhere beyond the office wall, a woman began to sing the lullaby Rosa used to sing when Alina was a child.