He Ransomed His Secret Son and Left Our Daughter novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Thief's Son

Lily fell asleep at nine with one hand on the rabbit and one hand on Dario's sleeve.

He didn't move for forty minutes.

He sat on the edge of a plastic chair with his arm out, as still as a man holding a bomb.

When her fingers finally loosened, he eased his sleeve out of her grip by half an inch at a time.

"You're good at that," I said.

"Practice," he said.

I waited until we were outside the door, in the dim hall by the vending machines.

Then I held up my phone and showed him the text.

He read it.

The lines around his mouth went flat, and for a moment I didn't think he'd answer.

"Valentina Sartori has been waiting a long time to say that to somebody," he said.

"Is it true?"

"Yes."

"Then tell me. I've lost a day of sleep and a husband and a house, and I'm done being surprised by people who won't tell me things."

He nodded slowly.

He pulled the second plastic chair around so that we sat across from each other, knees almost touching.

"Twenty-eight years ago," he said, "Mr. Orsini's youngest child had a nanny."

"The one in the news."

"Yes." His voice was flat and steady. "She lived in the staff flat over the garage. She had a six-year-old son."

I understood before he said the rest.

My stomach turned over.

"Me," Dario said.

I didn't say anything.

"She put the baby in a bag and drove out of the gate at four in the morning. Two days later they found her car at the bottom of a pier in Elizabeth. She was in the front seat."

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