Chapter 4 - The Secret Elena Kept
The next morning, Adrian made a decision.
Elena and Lily could not return to their apartment.
Not yet.
Vincenzo had people across the city. If he wanted to find them, he would.
Elena stood in Adrian’s office with her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
“I can’t stay here forever,” she said.
“You’re not staying forever.”
“But you’re telling me I can’t leave.”
“I’m telling you it isn’t safe.”
“You don’t get to decide my life because someone from your world sends a threat.”
Adrian looked up from behind his desk.
His first instinct was to command. To insist. To make the decision for her.
That was what he had always done.
But Lily was sitting in the corner, quietly playing with Buttons.
And Adrian remembered her question.
Is Mister Big House a bad guy?
So he took a breath.
“You’re right,” he said.
Elena blinked.
“I don’t get to decide for you. But I need you to understand the risk. Vincenzo is dangerous. He knows you and Lily are here. If you leave, I will provide security. If you stay, I will protect you here.”
Elena searched his face.
“Why?”
The question was simple.
Why would Adrian Romano, feared by half the city, care what happened to a housekeeper and her daughter?
He looked toward Lily.
“She’s a child.”
“That’s not enough for men like you.”
Adrian’s eyes darkened.
“No,” he said. “It should be.”
Elena looked away.
For a moment, the room was quiet except for Lily humming softly to Buttons.
Then Elena spoke.
“There’s something I should have told you.”
Adrian’s body tensed.
“What?”
“My husband didn’t leave us.”
Elena’s voice was low.
“He died.”
Lily stopped humming.
Elena’s expression changed immediately. She walked to her daughter and gently brushed a curl from her face.
“His name was Mateo,” Elena continued. “He was a mechanic. A good man. He worked long hours and always came home smelling like oil and coffee.”
“What happened to him?” Adrian asked.
Elena looked at him.
“He worked at one of Vincenzo Moretti’s garages.”
The room became still.
“Mateo found something he wasn’t supposed to find,” she said. “Weapons hidden in car shipments. Money moved through fake repair invoices. He wanted to report it.”
Adrian’s jaw clenched.
“He disappeared three days later.”
Elena swallowed hard.
“Police called it an accident. They said his car went into the river. But I knew it wasn’t true.”
“Did Vincenzo know about you?”
“I don’t know. I changed apartments twice. I changed jobs. I kept Lily out of sight.”
“And then you came here.”
“I didn’t know you and Vincenzo were enemies when I applied. I only knew your house paid enough for me to take care of my daughter.”
Adrian stood slowly.
The anger inside him sharpened into something colder.
Vincenzo had not just threatened Elena because she was close to Adrian.
He may have already destroyed her life years earlier.
And now he had found her again.
“Marco,” Adrian said into the intercom.
His lieutenant answered immediately.
“Yes, boss?”
“Find everything about a mechanic named Mateo Morales. Every garage, every payment, every police report. And get me every man Vincenzo had working in Chicago five years ago.”
Marco paused.
“Understood.”
Elena looked frightened.
“Adrian, please don’t make this worse.”
He met her eyes.
“I’m going to make it end.”
That afternoon, Lily found Adrian in the library.
He was standing beside the fireplace, staring at an old photograph of his mother. She had been beautiful, elegant, and sad-eyed. Adrian had been seven when she died.
Lily walked over and held up a crayon drawing.
“This is for you.”
It showed Adrian, Elena, Lily, and Buttons standing outside the mansion. Above them, she had drawn a large rainbow.
“Why am I holding Mommy’s hand?” Lily asked.
Adrian studied the picture.
“Maybe because you think we should be friends.”
Lily nodded seriously.
“Friends protect each other.”
Adrian looked down at her.
“You’re right.”
Then Lily added, “And friends don’t lie.”
The words struck deeper than she could know.
Because Adrian had lived his life surrounded by lies.
And because, somewhere inside the Romano mansion, another lie was waiting to be uncovered.
May you like
One that would change everything Elena thought she knew about Mateo’s death.
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