Chapter 4 – THE BLOOD ON THE SNOW

Luca didn’t hesitate.

He drew a black handgun from a hidden holster at his waist—a terrifying reminder of exactly who I worked for—and sprinted toward the French doors that led to the balcony.

I ran after him, my heart hammering against my ribs.

We burst out into the freezing October wind. Below us, the sprawling grounds of the Moretti estate were bathed in the pale light of a full moon.

“Over there!” I shouted, pointing toward the dense tree line near the estate’s towering iron gates.

A figure was staggering through the fresh, powdery snow.

Luca vaulted over the stone railing, dropping ten feet into the snowbank below. I didn’t have his training, so I turned and raced back down the grand staircase, my apron flying behind me.

By the time I pushed through the heavy front doors and ran out into the biting cold, Luca had already reached the figure.

It wasn’t a child.

It was David Vance.

The wealth manager was collapsed on his back in the snow, clutching his stomach. Dark crimson blood was pooling rapidly around his expensive suit jacket, staining the pristine white ground.

Luca kicked David’s gun away and knelt beside him.

“Where are they, David?” Luca demanded, pressing his hand hard over the bleeding wound.

David coughed, a wet, rattling sound. “I tried… Luca, I swear to God I tried to stop her.”

Answer one: David had chased after the children, but he had been shot in the process.

Open two: Who shot him? Vanessa was still locked inside the dining room.

“Who shot you?” Luca barked.

David’s eyes rolled back slightly. “She’s here, Luca. The mother. She came back for them.”

My breath caught in my throat.

Sofia.

“She thought… she thought I was taking them away again,” David gasped, his fingers weakly gripping Luca’s sleeve. “She was waiting by the gates. She didn’t know they were running away. She just saw me chasing them.”

Reversal: Sofia hadn’t abandoned her children. She had been watching the estate, waiting for the perfect moment to break in and take them back. And when she saw David running toward her kids, she pulled the trigger to protect them.

“Where did she go?” Luca asked urgently.

“The woods,” David wheezed, pointing a shaking, blood-stained finger toward the dense pine forest that bordered the property. “She took the boy. But the girl… the girl ran the other way.”

Luca swore violently. They were separated.

“Hannah,” Luca said, turning to me. His dark eyes were filled with a desperate, raw vulnerability I had never seen in him. “Stay with him. Press on the wound. I have to find my niece.”

Before I could answer, Luca took off running into the dark forest, his dress shoes slipping in the snow.

I dropped to my knees beside David, the freezing slush soaking through my thin skirt. I pressed my hands hard against his stomach. The blood was warm and sticky.

“Hold on, Mr. Vance,” I stammered, my teeth chattering. “The guards are coming.”

David looked up at me, his face turning gray in the moonlight.

“Hannah,” he whispered.

“Don’t talk,” I said, pressing harder.

“You have to listen to me,” he choked out, grabbing my wrist with shocking strength. “Vanessa… she didn’t just forge the relinquishment papers.”

I froze. “What do you mean?”

“The money,” David gasped. “The millions of dollars Sofia supposedly owed the Romano family. It was a lie. There was no gambling debt.”

Answer one: Vanessa made up the Romano debt to justify stealing the children.

Open two: If the Romanos didn’t get the money, where did the millions of dollars go?

“Where is the money, David?” I asked, leaning closer.

David’s eyes filled with tears of pure terror.

“Vanessa stole it from the syndicate’s offshore accounts,” he confessed, his voice failing. “She framed Sofia for the theft. But she didn’t keep it. She used it to pay off someone who knew her secret. Someone who has been blackmailing her for three years.”

My mind raced. Who could possibly blackmail the ruthless future wife of a mafia boss?

“Who?” I demanded. “Who is she paying?”

David’s grip on my wrist tightened until it hurt.

He pulled me down until my ear was inches from his mouth.

“She’s paying the woman who delivered the twins,” David whispered. “The nurse who helped Vanessa fake the stillbirth records so no one would know Sofia had children.”

My heart stopped.

Reversal: The blackmail payments weren’t going to a rival mafia family. They were going to a medical professional.

“What nurse?” I asked, my voice suddenly hollow.

David looked directly into my eyes.

“Her name is Margaret Collins,” he said.

The breath was completely knocked out of my lungs. I let go of his wound, stumbling backward into the snow.

Margaret Collins.

My mother.

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