Chapter 12
For eight months, Salvatore had imagined what he would say if Elena ever came back.
He had imagined anger.
Questions.
Accusations.
None survived seeing her.
She was thinner. Her left ankle was supported by a brace. A pale scar crossed one temple, and her hair was shorter than he remembered.
But she was alive.
Elena looked at him and began crying before either of them moved.
Salvatore stood.
Then stopped.
The hesitation mattered.
Elena noticed.
He did not rush toward her. Did not claim her. Did not decide that being her husband entitled him to erase the last eight months with an embrace.
“Can I?”
His voice broke on two words.
Elena nodded.
Salvatore crossed the room.
She folded against him.
For several seconds neither spoke. Matteo looked away. Anthony left the room entirely.
Elena finally whispered against Salvatore’s chest, “I didn’t leave you.”
“I know.”
“I tried to get back.”
“I know.”
“They told me you believed it.”
Salvatore closed his eyes.
“I did.”
She stiffened slightly.
He felt it.
“I’m sorry.”
Not explanation.
Not defense.
Just truth.
Elena pulled back enough to see his face. “Where’s Ella?”
“With my mother.”
“Is she safe?”
“Yes.”
Elena nodded, but fear remained.
“The traitor?”
“We haven’t found him.”
“Then she isn’t safe.”
That was when Salvatore understood Elena had not been hiding from Hattie.
She had been hiding from someone still inside his house.
Elena sat and told him what she remembered before being taken. Three days before her disappearance, someone accessed Ella’s nursery after midnight. Nothing was stolen.
But the window latch had been marked.
A message.
Someone was proving they could reach the child.
Only a handful of people could move through the inner estate without challenge.
Anthony.
The security chief.
The family doctor.
Salvatore’s personal driver.
And one senior capo.
Elena looked at Salvatore.
“One of them gave Hattie Ella’s sleeping schedule.”
Salvatore’s reunion with his wife lasted less than ten minutes.
May you like
Then he stood.
Because whoever had helped steal Elena still had access to their daughter.
