Chapter 4: The Name She Never Said Out Loud
Serena got Lucia into bed.
She did it on instinct — changed her shoes, tucked the rabbit beside her, pulled the blanket up to her chin — while her mind was somewhere else entirely.
Lucia stirred once, murmured something about the rabbit needing water, and went back to sleep.
Serena sat on the edge of the cot for thirty seconds.
Then she stood up, stepped into the corridor, and pulled the door almost closed.
Marco was still there.
He hadn't moved.
He stood with his back against the wall, hands in his pockets, looking at the floor.
He looked up when she came out.
"How do you know about Elena?" she said.
"We need to go somewhere quieter."
"We're already quiet.
Tell me how you know about my sister."
Marco glanced down the corridor both ways.
"Not here."
"Then where?"
"The garden.
Side entrance.
Ten minutes."
He walked away before she could argue.
---
The garden at that hour was cold and mostly dark, lit only by the low lights along the stone path.
Serena wrapped her arms around herself and waited near the iron bench by the far wall.
Marco arrived exactly at ten minutes.
He sat down on the bench.
She didn't.
"Talk," she said.
"Elena came to me four years ago," he said.
"She was scared.
She needed to disappear and she needed help doing it fast."
"Why did she come to you?"
"Because she knew I was the one person in Damiano's life who might help her without telling him."
Serena stared at him.
"She was running from Damiano?"
"No." Marco leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
"She was running from what Damiano was about to find out.
There's a difference."
"What was he about to find out?"
Marco was quiet for a moment.
"That she was pregnant."
The garden felt very small suddenly.
"She didn't want him to know," Serena said.
"She was terrified of what it would mean.
Who he was.
What his world was.
She loved him — I think she genuinely loved him — but she didn't trust what would happen to a child inside that life." He paused.
"She made me promise.
I gave her money, a contact, a new name.
I told her to go far and stay gone."
"And Lucia."
"She didn't tell me she was pregnant when she left.
I found out later, through the contact.
By then she'd already—" He stopped.
Serena's voice came out flat.
"By then she'd already what?"
Marco looked up at her.
"She d!ed, Serena.
Eight months after she left.
Complications.
The contact told me she made it to a small town in Vermont.
She had the baby.
She didn't survive the week after."
The low garden lights blurred at the edges.
Serena pressed her hand against her mouth.
She had known.
She had known for three years and eight months.
She had been the one to drive up to Vermont, to identify her sister, to bring Lucia home wrapped in a hospital blanket.
She had known every detail of how Elena d!ed.
But hearing it said out loud, in this garden, in this man's voice — it was different.
It cracked something open that she had kept sealed for a very long time.
"You didn't know she had a sister," Serena said, when she could speak again.
"No.
Elena never mentioned you."
"She was protecting me.
Same reason she didn't tell you about the baby." Serena lowered her hand.
"She kept people separate.
Kept her worlds from touching."
"She was good at that."
"She was." Serena looked at him.
"So why are you telling me now?
Why not stay quiet?
I've been here eight months.
You've known who I am since the first day, haven't you."
Marco didn't deny it.
"I recognized the rabbit in the photograph.
I had the same photo in my box.
I ran your name the week you were hired."
"And you said nothing."
"I was deciding."
"Deciding what?"
He stood up from the bench.
"Whether telling Damiano the truth would protect Lucia or destroy her."
Serena went very still.
"And have you decided?"
Marco looked toward the house.
The lights in Damiano's office on the second floor were still on.
"Someone else sent me a message last night," he said.
"After I sent mine.
Someone who also knows who you are.
Someone who is not trying to protect anyone."
Serena's breath came out slowly.
"Who?"
Marco turned back to her.
"His name is Aldo Ferrante.
He was Damiano's father's lawyer.
He managed the estate before Damiano took over." He paused.
"He's the reason Elena ran in the first place.
Not from Damiano.
From him."
The garden light nearest them flickered once.
"What did he want from Elena?" Serena said.
"The same thing he'll want from Lucia," Marco said.
"If Lucia is Damiano's daughter — and she is, Serena, I'm certain of it — then she is an heir to the Conti estate.
And Aldo Ferrante has spent four years making sure that heir didn't exist."
Serena's arms dropped to her sides.
"He knew about the pregnancy."
"He found out.
I don't know how.
But his message last night told me he knows you're here.
He knows about Lucia." Marco's jaw was tight.
May you like
"And he said if I don't handle it quietly, he will."
The lights in Damiano's office went dark.
