Matteo moved before Hazel could speak.
“Upstairs,” he ordered.
Hazel didn’t move.
“No.”
“Hazel.”
“This is my home. Do not order me around in it.”
“The Morettis know about Leo.”
“And whose fault is that?”
His expression sharpened.
“Argue with me later.”
“No. Your answer to everything is armed men and locked doors.”
“My answer is keeping him alive.”
Leo looked between them.
Hazel immediately lowered her voice.
Matteo noticed.
So did Tobias.
“Mom?”
Hazel crouched beside Leo.
“Remember Marlene’s house?”
“The one with the orange cat?”
“Yes. You’re going there for a little while.”
Leo frowned.
“Why?”
“Because grown-ups have to talk.”
“Is Dad coming?”
The word Dad nearly stopped everyone.
Matteo’s eyes lowered.
Hazel hesitated.
“No.”
Leo considered Matteo.
“Okay.”
Marlene took Leo out through the rear door ten minutes later.
She carried the cast-iron skillet in her tote bag.
Matteo watched through the window.
“She’s taking cookware.”
“She doesn’t trust you.”
“She’s not subtle.”
“She’s seventy-one.”
“She’s armed with a frying pan.”
“Still safer than your people.”
Tobias coughed to hide a laugh.
Matteo ignored him.
“How did Moretti find out?”
Tobias placed a phone on the table.
“One of our men at the hotel made a call. Mentioned Maine. Someone intercepted it.”
“Which man?”
“Already handling it.”
Hazel rubbed her forehead.
“What do they want with Leo?”
Matteo looked at her.
“You know the answer.”
Leverage.
Hazel hated him for saying it without saying it.
“They won’t touch him,” Matteo added.
“You can’t promise that.”
“I can.”
“Matteo, people tried to kill you when we were together.”
“They failed.”
“People died around you.”
He said nothing.
Hazel took a breath.
“This is exactly why I never told you.”
Something moved in Matteo’s face.
“So you decided I was too dangerous to know my child?”
“I decided he deserved a childhood.”
“I could have given him one.”
“No. You could have given him security guards.”
Matteo stepped closer.
“Do you think I wanted that life?”
Hazel stared.
“You chose it every morning.”
“You think choice is always clean?”
“You had money. Power. Houses. Cars. A private plane.”
“And enemies inherited before I could shave.”
Hazel laughed bitterly.
“You always did know how to make control sound like tragedy.”
His eyes narrowed.
“You don’t know what happened after you left.”
“Then tell me.”
Matteo looked at Tobias.
The lieutenant walked toward the window.
That frightened Hazel more than if he had stayed.
“Caleb didn’t steal the money,” Matteo said.
Hazel stopped breathing.
“What?”
“He moved it.”
“What does that mean?”
“The account was used as bait.”
Hazel stared.
“By who?”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“My uncle Victor.”
Hazel remembered Victor Lombardi.
Matteo’s father’s older brother.
Polished.
Soft-spoken.
Always courteous to her.
He had given her a cookbook for Christmas.
“He was testing security around one of my accounts,” Matteo said. “Caleb got involved because Victor knew about his addiction.”
Hazel’s hands curled.
“So Caleb was manipulated.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew that?”
“Not that night.”
“When did you know?”
“Three weeks later.”
Hazel stepped back.
Three weeks.
She had been sleeping in a shelter in Boston three weeks after he threw her out.
She had been vomiting every morning.
She had eaten crackers for dinner because she was saving money for prenatal care.
“What happened to Caleb?”
Matteo didn’t answer.
Hazel’s heart slammed.
“What happened to my brother?”
“He’s alive.”
Her knees almost buckled.
Hazel grabbed the chair.
“What?”
“He’s alive.”
She stared at him.
For five years she had believed Caleb was dead.
She had held a memorial by herself on the Maine coast.
No body.
No funeral.
Just a photograph and a candle.
“Where?”
“Arizona.”
Hazel crossed the room and slapped Matteo.
The sound cracked through the bakery.
Tobias did not move.
Matteo’s head turned.
Slowly, he looked back.
Hazel’s palm burned.
“You let me think my brother was dead.”
“I didn’t know where you were.”
“Don’t you dare.”
“I searched.”
“You control half of Chicago and you’re telling me you couldn’t find a pregnant waitress in Maine?”
His eyes flicked.
“You said you were pregnant.”
Hazel realized her mistake.
“Eight months.”
Matteo’s face tightened.
Hazel didn’t care.
“You knew Caleb was alive.”
“Yes.”
“You never made it public.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor wanted him dead.”
Hazel laughed in disbelief.
“So your solution was to make everyone think you killed him?”
Matteo said nothing.
The truth appeared in the silence.
Hazel’s expression changed.
“You did that on purpose.”
“Yes.”
“You sent Tobias to the docks where everyone could see.”
“Yes.”
“You made Victor believe Caleb was dead.”
“Yes.”
“And Caleb?”
“I gave him a new identity. Rehab. Money. A place to start over.”
Hazel stared at him.
“Why?”
Matteo’s voice dropped.
“Because you begged me not to kill him.”
The anger inside her faltered.
Only for a second.
“Then why did you throw me out?”
Matteo looked away.
There it was.
The second secret.
Hazel knew immediately.
“That wasn’t about Caleb.”
His silence answered.
Hazel stepped closer.
“What did you lie about?”
Tobias turned from the window.
“Matteo.”
“Stay out of it,” Hazel snapped.
Tobias did.
Hazel looked back at Matteo.
“What did you lie about five years ago?”
Matteo’s shoulders rose with a slow breath.
“I knew Victor was watching you.”
Hazel went still.
“He thought you were a vulnerability.”
“What does that mean?”
“He had people following you.”
“When?”
“Before Caleb.”
“How long?”
“Two months.”
Hazel felt sick.
Matteo continued.
“I thought if I made you hate me publicly, Victor would believe you were no longer useful against me.”
Hazel stared.
The room tilted.
“You humiliated me to protect me?”
“I needed it to look real.”
“So you called me convenient.”
“Yes.”
“You took the ring.”
“Yes.”
“You made me leave in freezing rain.”
His eyes darkened.
“That part wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Hazel’s voice became quiet.
“What does that mean?”
“I had a car waiting beyond the north gate.”
She laughed.
“No, you didn’t.”
“I did.”
“Nobody came.”
Matteo looked at Tobias.
Tobias turned pale.
Hazel noticed.
“What?”
Tobias looked at Matteo.
“The north-gate car never moved.”
Matteo’s expression hardened.
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because the driver disappeared the next day.”
Hazel’s arms went cold.
Matteo stepped toward her.
“I believed you had been picked up. By the time I found out you hadn’t, you were gone.”
“So all of it was theater?”
“Not all.”
“What part was real?”
“My anger about Caleb. My fear that you betrayed me.”
Hazel’s eyes burned.
“And telling me I meant nothing?”
Matteo swallowed.
“That was a lie.”
She turned away.
He did not touch her.
Good.
If he had, she might have hit him again.
“You could have told me.”
“If Victor believed you knew the plan, it wouldn’t have worked.”
“So you decided for me.”
“Yes.”
“You destroyed me for my own good.”
Matteo’s voice turned rough.
“Yes.”
Hazel faced him.
“That isn’t love.”
He froze.
“Whatever you told yourself, Matteo, that isn’t love. Love doesn’t strip someone of choice and call it protection.”
He looked like he wanted to argue.
He didn’t.
Hazel continued.
“You could have trusted me.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
“And I was carrying your son.”
His face tightened.
“You didn’t know.”
“No. I didn’t.”
For a moment neither spoke.
Then Hazel asked, “Does Caleb know I’m alive?”
Matteo looked at Tobias.
Tobias answered.
“He believes you wanted nothing to do with him.”
Hazel’s head snapped around.
“What?”
“He tried to contact you once. Someone intercepted it.”
“Victor?”
“We think so.”
Hazel pressed both palms to the table.
Five years of grief.
Five years believing her brother died because of her association with Matteo.
Five years Caleb believed she abandoned him.
The story she thought she understood had been built on lies.
Some told to protect her.
Others told to destroy them.
Tobias’s phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
“Unknown number.”
Matteo motioned.
“Answer.”
Tobias put it on speaker.
A distorted voice came through.
“Lombardi.”
Matteo’s expression went cold.
“Who is this?”
“You found something in Maine that belongs to you.”
Hazel stopped breathing.
Matteo’s eyes met hers.
The voice continued.
“Victor should have finished the job five years ago.”
Matteo’s face changed.
Hazel whispered, “Victor’s dead.”
Matteo had told her years ago that Victor died in a car accident.
The caller laughed.
“No.”
Then the line disconnected.
Tobias stared at Matteo.
Hazel slowly looked between them.
“What?”
Matteo’s voice was barely audible.
“Victor died four years ago.”
Tobias shook his head.
“No body.”
Hazel remembered hearing about the crash through an old Chicago article.
Car burned.
Body presumed.
Suddenly another possibility opened.
A much worse one.
Matteo reached for his phone.
“Get Leo.”
Hazel’s heart stopped.
“What?”
Matteo looked at her.
“Now.”
Tobias was already moving.
Hazel grabbed her coat.
Five minutes later, they reached Marlene’s cottage.
The front door stood open.
Hazel ran.
“Marlene?”
Inside, a chair was overturned.
The orange cat hid under the table.
“Marlene!”
A groan came from the hallway.
They found her sitting against the wall.
Blood at her temple.
Hazel dropped beside her.
“Where’s Leo?”
Marlene opened her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Hazel’s entire body went numb.
“Where is my son?”
“Two men.”
Matteo’s face became something Hazel had never seen before.
Not anger.
Terror.
Marlene grabbed Hazel’s wrist.
“They took him.”
On the floor beside her lay Leo’s stuffed bear.
Matteo picked it up.
His hands shook.
Then Hazel heard him whisper:
“Victor.”
And for the first time in five years, she was more frightened by the man Matteo feared than by Matteo himself.
---