“Leonardo was D’Angelo’s son,” Salvatore revealed, and it instantly caught my attention.I shook my head and diverted my eyes from the paper to Salvatore.Bruno darted a shocked look at me.Salvatore then pointed at the second picture of the man I didn’t recognise.“This is Nicola Luciano, one of D’Angelo’s men, and the last is Ariana...his daughter,” Salvatore whispered as he moved the pictures away.
“Nicola is someone I have never met, so dig deeper into him.I need everything I can have on D’Angelo before I bring him down.I want to prove to Vicenzo that my ‘theory’ about him is correct!”
I moved away from the table to leave the room, but Salvatore stopped me by calling my name.I looked over my shoulder to find both Bruno and Salvatore watching me in disbelief.Salvatore held a phone while he stood close to Bruno; Bruno blinked between me and the screen.
“Alessandro...”Salvatore started, confusion written across his face, but he didn’t finish.
“What?”I asked.
“These photographs were taken recently, but it doesn’t make sense...”He shoved the phone onto the table and grabbed the pictures again—Ariana’s in particular—and glared at it.“I thought Ariana died?”
I furrowed my brows and stared at Salvatore.He made no sense.If these pictures were recent, then how could Ariana—
“Alessandro,” he said, looking up and shaking his head, “Ariana didn’t die...it’s in the files.”
Salvatore’s words went in one ear and out the other.My body froze as I stared wide-eyed at her photo and tried to hold onto sense; it couldn’t be true.I’d done the research, convinced myself she was dead—her father had killed her.I’d spent five long years telling myself she was gone.The revelation hit like a sucker punch.Ariana had been alive all these years and I didn’t even know—
“S—she...she’s dead.”My voice trembled as the shock slipped away.“Ariana can’t be alive...I...I saw her...”
Salvatore’s face fell.He stood, watching me with a look I’d never seen before.“She’s alive, buddy.Ariana didn’t die that day, Alessandro.”He repeated it, and for the first time in years, something inside me broke.My chest ached with each breath; my vision blurred with tears I never thought I’d let fall.
My head spun with a thousand questions.How?My body went numb — I couldn’t feel or hear anything properly.I fell back into the chair and tried to make sense of news I never expected to hear.Hell, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to hear it.
“Alessandro...don’t let this push you back,” Salvatore said.“We still need to do this.”
I looked at him, hollow.“This has to be a mistake, Salvatore.Ariana isn’t alive.She died years ago—she died in front of me.”
“No, Alessandro.There is no mistake.In fact, the only mistake here is that you didn’t check if she really died.”Salvatore stepped closer and sat next to me.“Tell me—did you physically check if she was dead?”I closed my eyes as realization hit and then shook my head.
“Exactly.You did not check.Don’t be naive about this, Alessandro.Ariana isn’t dead.”
“What are we going to do now?”Bruno broke the silence.
“A lot of things,” I whispered.“First, we find Ariana—whereabouts, what happened to her.Then I’ll bring the fucker down.”I turned to Salvatore.“I don’t want Ariana caught in this.I want her clear of all this.”Salvatore nodded.
I would find Ariana no matter the cost.I needed answers.I couldn’t accept that she’d been alive all these years without me knowing.My head kept asking why: if she was alive, why didn’t she stay that night?Why did she leave?
My stomach dropped.The room tightened.
“You tell him!”
“No!You fucking tell him!”
Bruno and Salvatore’s whispering snapped me out of my thoughts.They watched me, faces tight with something like disturbance.
“Tell me what?”I cut in.“Ragazzi, speak up!I have no time for this bullshit!”
“Boss, Nicola Luciano is Ariana’s fiancé—”."
***
BULLETS CRACKED THROUGHthe mansion as I moved down the corridor, and when they did my feet stalled like they’d hit concrete.I glanced over my shoulder, eyes skimming the dark rooms to see what the hell was happening.
What was going on?
“H-hey...w-where are y-you taking me?”a trembling voice called from somewhere ahead.
A giggle answered from the main hall — that stupid, familiar giggle I’d been aching to hear — and it shoved me back onto my feet.I had come for that face, for that sound.I headed for the hall, but when I reached the threshold I froze.
