Chapter 6 - THE SISTER NO ONE MENTIONED
Mara Duca had been sixteen when she vanished.
Gabriel was eighteen.
Luca was twelve.
Their father told the family that Mara had run away.
He said she had stolen money and left Chicago with an older boyfriend.
Gabriel never believed it.
Mara loved Luca too much to disappear without saying goodbye.
She had promised to take him to the lake that weekend.
She never came home.
For years, Gabriel searched quietly.
Private investigators.
Old friends.
School records.
Nothing.
His father refused to discuss her.
Eventually, Gabriel stopped asking.
Not because he stopped caring.
Because every question led to another locked door.
Olivia listened without interrupting.
Gabriel stared at the strip of paper.
“Mara used to leave notes under furniture.”
“Why?”
“She said people never look beneath the things they sit on.”
Olivia smiled faintly.
“Smart girl.”
Gabriel looked up.
“She was.”
His voice broke slightly on the last word.
Matteo examined the note.
“Could Luca have left it?”
Gabriel nodded.
“He knew her habits.”
“Then he may be directing us toward her.”
Olivia looked at the writing.
“Or someone wants you to believe that.”
Gabriel studied her.
She continued.
“Whoever is doing this knows your family history. That's all we know.”
He nodded.
“You're right.”
That evening, Gabriel opened a locked cabinet in his private study.
Inside were photographs.
Mara at thirteen, holding a birthday cake.
Mara at fifteen, laughing beside Luca.
Mara in a blue dress, standing beside Gabriel beneath the estate's old oak tree.
Olivia studied the photographs.
Mara had dark hair and serious eyes.
In the last picture, she was holding a black puppy.
“Nero?” Olivia asked.
Gabriel shook his head.
“His great-grandfather.”
She smiled.
“Your family has been keeping Cane Corsos a long time.”
“My father bred them.”
Gabriel paused.
“Mara was the only person who could calm the most difficult ones.”
Olivia looked at him.
“Maybe Nero inherited good instincts.”
Gabriel smiled sadly.
“Maybe.”
A week later, investigators located a sealed financial account connected to Vittorio Duca's estate.
The account had been accessed repeatedly after Vittorio's death.
Someone had transferred money through shell companies.
The transactions were linked to a private medical facility in Wisconsin.
Gabriel stared at the records.
“Why would my father fund a medical facility?”
Matteo looked grim.
“I don't know.”
Then an investigator placed another document on the table.
A patient admission record.
The name was redacted.
But the birth date matched Mara's.
Gabriel's hands began shaking.
“Is she alive?”
The investigator hesitated.
“We don't know yet.”
That night, Gabriel sat alone in the library.
Nero rested at his feet.
Olivia found him there after returning from a meeting with the forensic team.
She stopped in the doorway.
“Sorry. I didn't know you were here.”
Gabriel looked up.
“It's all right.”
She hesitated.
Then entered.
“Any news?”
“Not yet.”
She nodded.
He looked at her.
“Do you think I'm a fool?”
Olivia frowned.
“For what?”
“For believing my father.”
She considered.
“You were eighteen when your sister disappeared.”
“I should have protected her.”
“You were her brother, not her parent.”
Gabriel looked away.
Olivia sat across from him.
“People who control information can make even intelligent people believe things that aren't true.”
He looked at her.
She continued.
“That doesn't make the people they deceive foolish.”
For a long moment, Gabriel said nothing.
Then he whispered, “Thank you.”
May you like
It was the first time Olivia had heard the most feared man in Chicago sound like an ordinary person.
And it frightened her less than his power ever had.
