Chapter 48 An Afterthought
Dante's POV
The look in her eyes said it all, she must have had a bit of history with Serena, or better still, the person we came here to see.
Maria's gaze shifted, there was something deep and personal flickering there, like an old scar hiding under the skin.
I suppressed the anticipation surging through my chest, keeping my expression locked down tight. There's no way I'd let her see how much this could change things.
A direct connection to Serena's family could hand us the keys to breaking that cursed contract, would save us from the stress roaming through this dry land if she ended up not being where we thought.
But I knew all too well that excitement showed weakness. So I played it cool, leaning on the old table with a casual nod. "What about her? What about them? You know the family?"
She took her time to respond, drawing small circles on the smooth surface of the table. Then, a teasing smile crept across her face, like she was savoring the moment before dropping the bomb.
Then she finally kept her gaze on me. "Do I know them? I am a Zylenski," she announced with a broad smile. Then she let it sink, watching my reaction before speaking again. "Okay, I was, before the marriage, of course."
The revelation nearly threw me off guard, changing the way I had to think now. I tried to cover the shock but it slipped through as my eyes widened slightly. I wasn't expecting that.
A Zylenski? Bottled up in this forgotten cabin in the outskirts of town. It was just too pitch perfect, too coincidental. My mind swarmed with different sides to the story. "You're... part of the family? How?"
She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and flashed me that smile. "Vanessa's sister, Serena's mother I guess. And that makes me her aunt then."
Aunt? Bullshit, this now sounded so much like a setup, too neat. I couldn't resist the lash back that followed. "No offense, but I'd been spat in the face by so-called 'family ties'. Aunt right? Prove it."
The smile on her face didn't falter for a second, like she expected the challenge. She calmly pulled out her phone, flicked through it again, then handed it over to me.
I took one glance down at it without actually picking it up. It was a picture of two young girls smiling together. "What exactly am I looking at though?" I asked with as much calm as I could.
She smiled and picked it up, scrolling through the photos quickly on her own before holding it out to me. "Here's me and Vanessa back in 1985. The Chicago summers were brutal back then, but we made do," she explained.
I took the phone from her hand and zoomed in on the poorly taken image. It was her, but a younger version, maybe early-twenties with her arm slung around a woman with the same striking green eyes as Serena.
She had darker hair though that was tied back in a ponytail and both were laughing at the camera like they had no care in the world. The resemblance couldn't be mistaken. They had similar sharp jaws with freckles across their nose.
But I couldn't stop myself. "Any more of these?"
She took the phone from my hand and flipped to another, pointing it to me. It was a family picnic setting with her holding a toddler on her hip. "That, I believe is Serena," she explained.
I had seen enough, I simply nodded at her. But there was one striking question on my mind to ask. "And your father's full name was? Again, I'm not probing, just being sure."
"Antonio Luis Zylenski. He was born in Sicily and emigrated as a kid. He worked in the docks before climbing the ranks," she explained then smiled teasingly. "You need a birth certificate now?"
I smiled, shaking my head. The information matched the details I got about Serena's grandparents. "So when was your last contact with Vanessa?" I asked.
"It was actually on my wedding day. Serena was barely walking by then. After my marriage to Carlos, I was forced to cut ties with my family," she explained with a hint of pain behind her voice.
I stared at her thoughtfully, realizing that her story matched with Serena's story of being handed over to Marco, and even from the data concerning Vanessa, it matched. That left me wondering...
"Your story and Vanessa's own—" I started, but she cut me off.
"Matches right?" She asked with a smile.
I nearly lost my cool at that, nobody cuts me off like that. But in this case, I simply nodded.
"Well, there's something no one really talks about that I'm going to tell you," she started calmly and I nodded, giving her the room to continue. "We Zylenskis weren't born into any sort of authority, we had to earn it," she explained.
"And how did they do that?" I asked.
She took a deep breath and stared at me. "By handing off the daughters at young ages to powerful men. That way, the Zylenski family had something to be known for," she continued.
That was a lot to take in and before I knew it, I found myself sitting on the stool and staring at her like it was all I needed to do to pass the question.
"Really?" I finally asked.
"Yes, why do you think the sons from our family aren't heard of. The daughters are gold here and I'm pretty sure Serena was dished out to you as well. It's the game of power," she concluded with a shrug.
It was crazy to think of it but more crazy when I realized I didn't spot the match from Vanessa's info and Serena's story. But it wasn't the first time I've heard of it, Issabella was actually handed over to me in similar fashion.
"I finally nodded my head slowly towards her. "That's alot. And by the way, Serena wasn't handed over to me," I explained.
"You actually wedded her?" She asked with her eyes wide.
"No, no."
"Figures, didn't spot the ring on her finger all along," she added and I was impressed. "I've been doing the talking all along, your turn to share," she said with a smile.
My turn to share, great.
"Well," I started. "What I do know about Serena is that she was handed over to a drug lord named Marco a few years back, but she killed Marco on their wedding night while I saved her from the consequences that should have followed. Been protecting her since," I narrated.
Maria raised a brow, then clapped. "She killed a drug lord? On their wedding night! Gutsy I must say," she remarked with a broad smile. "So what's the price she's paying for your 'protection'?" She added.
"Excuse me?"
She smiled, like she'd seen this play out a hundred times. "I've been in this game long enough. These kinds of 'saves' always come with a special fee. Mostly some strings attached."
Again, I was impressed. She really knew her way in the game. "She's still paying it. My way," I simply replied.
She nodded with that smile still lingering. "I thought as much. She is a smart girl if she's handling it."
"She's coping," I replied curtly. "By the way, how come you didn't recognize Serena from the start?" I asked the other question in my mind.
She just laughed. "Dante, I wasn't there in Serena's growing days, I wouldn't know her even if she danced before my eyes," she joked.
Fair point, I thought. "What's your age by the way?" I asked her out of curiosity.
"55," she replied gently.
"Really? You look 40 tops," I remarked, finding myself warming into the conversation. "Elder sister to Vanessa?"
"Yeah, by five years. Good genes run in the family. The Zylenski women age like fine wine," she added with a smile and laughed that warm northerly laugh.
And it wasn't long before I started seeing her that way. In my world, we respect hierarchy, and from all indications, she represents one of the highest I've known.
So I told her our intent. "We actually came here to find Vanessa and break the old contract tying Serena to Marco."
She leaned back on nothing specifically. "I haven't seen her in ages. I didn't even know she was in Peru," she paused, thinking over it. "Or maybe I have."