Chapter 7 - THE ISLAND
The revelation hit me like a physical blow.
Lily’s biological mother wasn’t Maria Rossi.
It was my mother. Clara.
I looked at the ten-year-old girl huddled in Adrian’s coat.
She had my mother’s eyes.
She was my half-sister.
“Elias lied,” I said, my voice shaking as the rain soaked my hair. “He didn’t take a Rossi baby. He took his own daughter. He faked the records to make Elena think she was protecting a mafia princess. But Elena was just protecting a little girl.”
Victoria stared at us, her makeup smeared, her red dress ruined.
“Elena never knew?” Victoria asked, her voice cracking. “She thought she was harboring the Rossi heir. She lived in terror for years, thinking Maria would kill her if she found out. And it was all a lie.”
Adrian’s face was unreadable.
He had built an empire on loyalty and truth, only to discover his entire marriage, his child, his life, was constructed on a foundation of lies orchestrated by a ghost.
“The island,” Adrian said suddenly, pointing to the child’s drawing. “Lily, what island?”
Lily sniffled, clutching the fabric of his coat.
“The man who took me... he said we were going to the island where the pianos sleep.”
My heart stopped.
“Shelter Island,” I breathed. “My grandfather had a workshop there. An old warehouse where he kept the pianos he couldn’t fix.”
“That’s where Elias is,” Adrian said. His voice was no longer frantic. It was lethal.
“I’m coming with you,” I said.
Adrian looked at me. For a moment, I thought he would tell me to stay behind. To protect me.
Instead, he nodded.
“He’s your father, Anna. But if he reaches for a gun, he won’t be anyone’s father anymore.”
We left Victoria and Lily with Marcus and a dozen heavily armed guards at a safe house.
Adrian and I took a private speedboat from the marina.
The storm was breaking, the heavy clouds parting to reveal a pale, bruised moon.
We sped across the black water, the engine roaring.
I stood at the bow, the wind whipping my hair.
Adrian came to stand beside me.
He didn’t touch me, but his presence was a shield.
“Are you okay?” he asked quietly over the roar of the engine.
“My father abandoned me to poverty,” I said, staring at the approaching silhouette of Shelter Island. “He let me believe my mother died in a car crash. He used my sister as a pawn in a mafia war. I’m not okay, Adrian. I’m angry.”
Adrian looked at me. Not as a maid. Not as an employee.
As an equal.
“Good,” he said. “Anger keeps you focused.”
We docked the boat silently at an abandoned pier.
The warehouse loomed in the darkness. It was massive, salt-stained, and silent.
Adrian checked his weapon. He handed me a small, heavy silver revolver.
“Safety is off. Point and pull. Only if you have to.”
I took the gun. The metal felt alien in my hand, but I held it tight.
We slipped through a side door.
The inside of the warehouse was a graveyard.
Dozens of grand pianos sat in the gloom, draped in dusty white sheets like ghosts waiting for a concert that would never happen.
In the center of the room, a single lantern burned on a wooden workbench.
Sitting at the bench, his back to us, was Elias.
He was repairing a music box.
Adrian raised his gun.
“Hands on the table, Elias.”
Elias didn’t jump. He slowly set down his screwdriver.
He turned around.
He looked older, weathered by years of hiding, but his eyes were the same cold gray I remembered.
He smiled at me.
“Hello, Anna. You grew up.”
“Where is the ledger?” Adrian demanded.
Elias chuckled. “There is no ledger, Adrian. Elena made that up. She knew Victoria was snooping. She carved ‘Ask about 214’ into the piano to send you on a wild goose chase if she ever died. She wanted you distracted so you wouldn’t look too closely at Lily.”
“Why did you kidnap her tonight?” I asked, my voice remarkably steady.
Elias looked at me, his smile fading.
“Because I needed money, Anna. The Rossi family thought I had their heir. They were paying me to keep her hidden. But Maria gets out next week. When she realizes Lily isn’t hers... she’ll kill me. I needed Adrian to pay me a ransom so I could disappear again.”
“You used your own daughter,” I spat. “You used my sister.”
Elias stood up slowly.
“In this world, Anna, family is just currency.”
He reached into his jacket.
Adrian’s finger tightened on the trigger.
But Elias didn’t pull a gun.
He pulled out a small, heavy brass cylinder.
A dead man’s switch.
May you like
And his thumb was pressing the button.
“I rigged the warehouse,” Elias said calmly. “C4 under the floorboards. You shoot me, my thumb slips, and we all burn with the pianos.”
