Chapter 2 - THE SISTER WHO KEPT HIS SECRET
Ava Marchetti had never been afraid of me.
Not when I became head of the family at twenty-seven.
Not when rival organizations threatened our territory.
Not when newspapers called me the most dangerous man in Chicago.
She was my little sister.
To her, I was the boy who once climbed onto the roof to retrieve her lost kite.
The teenager who taught her to ride a bicycle.
The brother who attended her graduation because our father had been too busy with business.
But standing outside Elena's hospital room, Ava looked frightened.
Not of me.
Of something she'd been carrying alone.
“What do you know?” I asked.
She looked toward Dr. Whitmore.
“Not here.”
We moved into an empty consultation room.
Ava closed the door.
Then sat down.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
I remained standing.
“Ava.”
She looked up.
“I knew Elena was pregnant.”
The world went silent.
“What?”
Her eyes filled.
“I found out six weeks ago.”
I stared.
Six weeks.
For six weeks, my sister had known I was going to be a father.
She hadn't told me.
“Why?”
Ava swallowed.
“Because Elena asked me not to.”
I stepped backward.
“She told you?”
“Yes.”
“And you kept it from me?”
Ava's expression hardened.
“She's an adult, Nico. It was her medical information.”
I opened my mouth.
Then closed it.
She continued.
“She found out after the divorce was final. She was terrified.”
“Of me?”
Ava hesitated.
“Of what being pregnant would mean.”
I felt something twist inside my chest.
“She thought I'd take the baby?”
“She thought you'd try to make decisions for her.”
I stared.
Ava looked down.
“She said she could survive losing her marriage, but she couldn't survive having her choices taken away again.”
The words hit me like a physical blow.
Again.
I remembered the courthouse.
Elena asking whether our marriage had been real.
Me telling her no.
My attorney placing papers between us.
Security escorting her out of the building.
I'd called it protection.
Now I saw what it had looked like from her side.
Abandonment.
Humiliation.
A powerful husband using the law to push his wife out of her own life.
Ava wiped her face.
“She wanted to tell you eventually.”
“When?”
“She hadn't decided.”
I looked away.
For years, I'd believed decisions were easier when I made them quickly.
Now the uncertainty was unbearable.
Then Ava said something else.
“Nico, Elena received threats.”
My head snapped up.
“What threats?”
“Messages. Calls. Someone followed her from the prenatal clinic.”
My hands tightened.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because she asked me not to involve your organization.”
I stared.
“She went to the police,” Ava continued. “She documented the messages. She was doing what she could.”
“Who was following her?”
“She didn't know.”
I looked toward the hallway.
Daniel Cross.
The photograph.
The anonymous message.
Someone had been watching Elena long before tonight.
I took a breath.
“Ava, did she know about Daniel?”
My sister hesitated.
“What about him?”
“He contacted the hospital.”
She went pale.
I noticed.
“Ava.”
She closed her eyes.
“Three months ago, before the divorce, Elena came to me.”
My pulse accelerated.
“She said she'd found something in your office.”
“What?”
“Financial records.”
I went still.
Ava continued.
“She believed someone was stealing from the family companies.”
My stomach tightened.
“Did she tell you who?”
Ava nodded.
“Daniel Cross.”
I stared.
Elena had discovered Daniel's fraud before I divorced her.
And I hadn't known.
Ava began crying.
“She wanted to help you, Nico.”
I looked toward the door.
I remembered Elena standing in my office four months earlier.
Asking why certain company accounts were changing.
Holding a folder I'd refused to examine.
I'd told her she didn't understand the business.
I'd told her to stay out of it.
Then I'd learned someone was using our accounts for illegal transfers.
And I'd believed the only way to protect her was to make her leave me.
I sat down.
For the first time, I understood something terrible.
Elena hadn't simply been caught in my enemies' plans.
She had been trying to expose them.
May you like
And I'd punished her for it.
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