Chapter 2
Evelyn would not let go of my sleeve.
Even after I carried her into the sitting room and Anna brought water, she kept one hand twisted into the fabric as if I might disappear the moment she loosened her grip.
Ethan stood several feet away watching her.
He was usually fearless.
Now he looked confused.
Evelyn looked at him once and immediately began crying.
Not loudly.
The kind of crying that comes from recognizing something impossible.
I noticed.
“So did she.”
Ethan moved behind my leg.
Evelyn covered her mouth.
“How old is he?”
“Three.”
Her face changed.
Bianca said sharply, “Don’t.”
I looked at my sister.
“Don’t what?”
Evelyn stared at Ethan.
Then at me.
Her lips trembled.
“Raffaele, who told you where he came from?”
That question turned the room cold.
I had spent three years believing Ethan was the child Evelyn abandoned after leaving me.
Six months after she disappeared, a newborn was brought to the Castellano gates with a short note claiming he was mine. No signature. No explanation.
I believed Evelyn sent him because the timing matched.
I told myself she had carried my son and still refused to come home.
“Bianca handled everything,” I said slowly.
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Of course.
Bianca had been the one who found the note.
The one who arranged the doctor.
The one who told me there was no way to trace where the baby had come from.
I looked at her.
She straightened.
“You needed someone to handle it. You were barely functioning.”
Evelyn’s voice became stronger.
“I gave birth in this house.”
Nobody moved.
I heard Ethan breathe behind me.
She continued.
“Downstairs. In the old wine room.”
My entire body went still.
“You’re his mother?”
Evelyn looked at Ethan.
“Yes.”
Bianca turned toward the door.
My men blocked her again.
Ethan had spent three years believing his mother disappeared before he could know her.
Evelyn had spent three years somewhere inside my property knowing her son was alive above her.
And Bianca had lived beside both of us.
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That was when I realized finding Evelyn was not the mystery.
Finding out how much of my life Bianca had rewritten was.
