CHAPTER 6: THE WOMAN WHO WAS NEVER A FRIEND
CHAPTER 6: THE WOMAN WHO WAS NEVER A FRIEND
Three hours later...
Rain still battered Manhattan.
The maternity floor had become a fortress.
Private security stood beside every entrance.
Hospital administrators stayed far away.
No one wanted to interfere with Alessandro Romano tonight.
Inside Genevieve's recovery suite, the lights were dim.
Their son slept peacefully beside the bed.
Genevieve remained exhausted but awake.
Alessandro sat across from her.
Neither had spoken for several minutes.
Finally...
"There was someone else."
Genevieve broke the silence.
Alessandro looked up immediately.
"Who?"
She hesitated.
"As dangerous as Vincenzo."
Mateo stepped closer.
"You know the name?"
Genevieve nodded slowly.
"Bianca."
The room fell silent.
"Bianca Moretti."
Alessandro's jaw tightened.
"I saw the surveillance."
Genevieve looked surprised.
"She came here?"
"Tonight."
Genevieve closed her eyes.
"Then she knows you've found me."
Alessandro leaned forward.
"What was her role?"
Genevieve looked toward the sleeping baby.
Then back at Alessandro.
"She wasn't helping Vincenzo."
A pause.
"She was leading him."
Mateo frowned.
"Impossible."
"It isn't."
Genevieve swallowed.
"The first person who visited me after I learned I was pregnant..."
"...was Bianca."
Flashback.
Seven months earlier.
The Romano estate.
Genevieve had just returned from her doctor's appointment.
She hadn't even told Alessandro yet.
She wanted the announcement to be special.
She imagined candles.
Dinner.
The ultrasound hidden inside a gift box.
Instead...
Bianca appeared unexpectedly.
Champagne in one hand.
Flowers in the other.
They sat together in the garden.
Bianca smiled warmly.
"I'm so happy for you."
Genevieve blinked.
"I haven't told anyone."
Bianca's smile never changed.
"I know."
A chill ran through Genevieve.
"How?"
Bianca only laughed.
"The Romano family always knows everything."
Then her expression changed completely.
Cold.
Calculating.
She leaned closer.
"You need to leave Alessandro."
Genevieve laughed nervously.
"What?"
"If you love your child..."
"...run."
Back in the hospital...
Alessandro's face had become stone.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I tried."
Genevieve answered quietly.
"But every time..."
"Vincenzo intercepted me."
She explained everything.
Her phone replaced.
Emails disappearing.
Letters never arriving.
Bodyguards changing without explanation.
Even her own driver reporting directly to Vincenzo.
"I was completely isolated."
She looked down.
"I didn't even realize it until it was too late."
Mateo suddenly received another call.
He answered immediately.
Thirty seconds later...
He looked at Alessandro.
"We've located Bianca."
"Where?"
"Private airfield."
"Westchester."
"Her jet is preparing for departure."
Alessandro stood.
"So stop it."
Mateo hesitated.
"It's already moving."
Alessandro grabbed his coat.
"Then we move faster."
Genevieve's voice stopped him.
"Don't."
He turned.
She struggled to sit upright.
"That's what she wants."
"What?"
"She wants you chasing her."
"Why?"
"So someone else can finish what Vincenzo started."
Alessandro frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Genevieve slowly reached beneath her hospital pillow.
She removed a sealed white envelope.
"I never opened this."
"It was delivered yesterday."
She handed it to Alessandro.
Across the front were only seven handwritten words.
OPEN ONLY AFTER YOUR HUSBAND FINDS YOU.
Alessandro carefully broke the seal.
Inside...
There was only one photograph.
A recent photograph.
Taken less than twenty-four hours ago.
It showed the nursery inside the Romano estate.
Their nursery.
The one Genevieve had decorated before disappearing.
Someone was standing inside it.
A little girl.
Perhaps six years old.
Dark curls.
Large brown eyes.
She was holding a stuffed rabbit.
On the back of the photograph, a single sentence had been written in black ink.
"Before your son was born... there was another child."
Alessandro's blood turned to ice.
Genevieve stared at the words.
Her lips trembled.
"What... does that mean?"
No one in the room had an answer.
But every instinct Alessandro possessed told him one thing.
The conspiracy surrounding his family had never been about a single missing wife.
May you like
It had begun years earlier.
And someone had just opened the first door to an even darker secret.
