Chapter 8 - THE SHADOW OF THE PAST
Elena backed up until her spine hit the cool glass of the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the Chicago skyline.
"Mr. Duca, please," Elena sobbed quietly, her strength completely failing her. "I didn't mean to bring any trouble into your home. I don't know what that pendant means to you... he just gave it to me before he disappeared!"
Alessandro walked toward her, his long, heavy strides making no sound on the white marble floor. He held Mia securely against his chest with his left arm, while his right hand kept the silver pendant pinched firmly between his fingers.
He stopped three feet from her, towering over her slender frame, the afternoon sunlight framing his broad silhouette.
"He gave it to you...?" Alessandro asked, his voice dangerously low. "When?"
"Sixteen months ago," Elena whispered, tears tracking through her fair skin. "In Boston. He told me it was a family heirloom... he said if anything ever happened to him, I had to keep it safe for our child. Two weeks later, he was gone. I never saw him again."
Alessandro’s eyes closed briefly as he absorbed her words. The timeline matched perfectly. The location matched. The worn silver pendant—a piece of craftsmanship forged in Sicily over forty years ago—belonged to a legacy that Alessandro had spent the last five years trying to bury under blood and concrete.
He slowly opened his dark eyes, looking down at eight-month-old Mia.
May you like
The baby was staring up at his neck, reaching out her tiny hand to touch the black ink tracing up his skin, completely unfazed by the storm raging between the adults.
"Sixteen months ago..." Alessandro murmured, his chest rising and falling sharply beneath his black suit jacket. "He didn't disappear, Elena. He was taken."
