Chapter 9
While Isabella treated my wounds, I had drifted in and out of consciousness. Once, I remembered hearing another woman speaking in the back room.
I assumed it had been a fever dream.
But now I saw Elena’s photograph.
“You knew Elena before the alley,” I said.
Isabella went very still.
It was the smallest reaction, but I had spent fifteen years reading fear across negotiating tables.
“You didn’t find me by accident.”
Lily looked between us.
Isabella lowered her voice.
“She asked me to watch you.”
“Why?”
“She believed the people hunting her would eventually come after you.”
“So she sent you to follow me?”
“I worked at a clinic two blocks from the restaurant where you were attacked. Elena told me to contact her if I saw anything unusual.”
“You were there before the shooting.”
“Yes.”
The admission ignited my anger.
“You watched them ambush me?”
“I saw three men follow you into the alley. I called the police anonymously, but no one came. Then I heard gunshots.”
“You knew who I was.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Elena was my sister.”
“Yes.”
“And you let me search for you for eight years while raising her daughter less than twenty miles from my home?”
“I was protecting Lily.”
“From me?”
“From the people around you.”
My palm struck the table hard enough to rattle the glasses.
Lily flinched.
The sight instantly cooled my rage.
I stepped back.
“I’m sorry,” I said to her.
Most men in my world would have considered apologizing to a child a weakness.
I had never cared less what those men thought.
Isabella pulled Lily closer.
“This is why I was afraid to tell you.”
“No. You were afraid because there’s more.”
Her silence confirmed it.
I leaned forward.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Before she could answer, her phone vibrated inside her handbag.
She checked the screen.
The color vanished from her face.
“Who is it?”
“No one.”
“Isabella.”
Her hand trembled.
I held out my palm.
After a moment, she gave me the phone.
The message came from Sofia.
I know Lily is with Alessandro. Bring her to the mansion tonight, or I will tell him who ordered the alley ambush.
For several seconds, I could not breathe.
Sofia knew about Lily.
Sofia knew about the attack.
And somehow, the woman I was supposed to marry tomorrow had found a secret Elena died protecting.
I looked at Isabella.
“How long has she known?”
“Three months.”
“How?”
“She recognized Lily.”
“From where?”
“She found Elena’s photograph in my room at the estate.”
“You work for Sofia’s family.”
“I needed the job.”
“Why didn’t you leave after she found out?”
“Because she threatened to expose Lily to your father.”
“My father has been dead for three years.”
Isabella stared at me.
May you like
Then she whispered, “No, Alessandro. He hasn’t.”
The air left the room.
