Chapter 119: Chapter One hundred and Nineteen

Alessia

Kendrick didn’t answer immediately.

She looked toward the trees below, as if she needed to organize her thoughts before saying them.

“When I went to get Thomas, the men said they waited to take him to his father. I thought at first it was to lure him since he is a little kid, but…” She paused. “Seeing how they wanted Diana by all means… I noticed how they didn’t hurt Thomas. The reason why they pointed a gun at his head…”

“Was to scare Diana.” I completed it.

She nodded.

“Whoever it is has been watching. Attacking after Jemima shot you makes everything click now.” She straightened.

“I think we need to reopen the orphanage case and investigate it properly. Maybe we should ask Diana how she managed to escape. She might remember something that could lead us to them.”

“No…” The answer left my mouth before she could finish.

Kendrick frowned. “She’s the only one who knows who the father of her child is.”

“No. We can’t take her back to the memories that haunted her.”

“We can’t fight someone we know nothing about, Alessia. Whoever this is, they’re powerful. They found Diana in a hospital surrounded by your people. The person is closer than you think.”

I ran a hand through my hair. “Diana can’t handle recounting it.”

“Have you tried asking her?”

I looked away from her.

Kendrick’s eyes narrowed.

“Are you protecting her, or are you afraid she’ll discover your mother’s involvement?”

My throat tightened.

“My mother has nothing to do with this.”

Kendrick watched me carefully.

“Damn it, Alessia. You and I both saw—”

“I said she has nothing to do with this.” My voice came out sharper than I intended. Kendrick didn’t flinch. The wind moved through the trees below us, but I barely noticed it.

There were things I knew about my mother’s empire. Things I never questioned. Deals made behind closed doors, names erased from records. Organizations that disappeared when they became inconvenient. That orphanage would have been one of them.

Because if my mother had been involved, then Diana’s nightmares might have been connected to the very woman I had spent my entire life trying to avenge.

“I think you should tell her,” Kendrick started.

My head snapped toward Kendrick. “Don’t you dare, Kendrick.”

“Alessia, you don’t know what it’s like to be assaulted.” Her voice cracked.

Her expression flickered, veins stood out along her neck, and her eyes glossed over as memories she had buried clawed their way back to the surface.

“Not everyone comes out of something like that the same,” she continued quietly. “Diana is broken. She has a child who is male, the same gender she abhors. It’s only a matter of time before those memories start affecting how she sees him.”

My stomach twisted.

The image of Diana shoving Thomas away in that room flashed through my mind. The horror on her face. And the way she had immediately reached for him again, as if she hadn’t just reacted to him like he was the person who had hurt her. Thomas brushed it like it was normal. It shouldn’t be like that.

“Especially if he develops features that remind her of what happened.”

I looked down.

“She needs help,” Kendrick continued. “Helping her find some kind of peace should be your priority.”

Then the question I’d been avoiding finally escaped me.

“Do you think she’ll still love me if she finds out my mother is connected to everything that haunts her?”

Kendrick didn’t answer immediately. The silence between us felt heavier than before. Finally, she said,

“Let her be the judge of that.”

She made it sound so simple. It wasn’t.

I had spent years hating everyone I believed responsible for my mother’s death, even when I knew that Kendra was the one who killed her.

And now I was standing here wondering whether the woman I loved would hate me for something my mother might have done before I even knew the truth.

I couldn’t lose Diana. Not after finally having her.

“We’ll reopen the case,” I said. Kendrick looked at me.

“But we don’t have to go through Diana.”

She waited.

“Find the children who were in that orphanage. The officers who handled the original investigation. The doctors. The social workers. Anyone who might remember what happened.”

I turned toward her.

“We’ll use their accounts to trace whoever is behind this.”

“And Diana?”

“There are other ways to help her without forcing her to relive everything.” Kendrick studied me.

“Alessia—”

“Diana must never find out.”

The words came out firm and final.

I couldn’t lose her to the truth, my mother’s past, or anything.

“Find out what?” My entire body froze. I turned around slowly. Diana stood a few feet away, holding a tray in both hands. Her eyes moved from me to Kendrick. Then back to me. Her expression was confused.

“What exactly must I never find out?”

Neither Kendrick nor I spoke. The silence stretched long enough to become dangerous.

\~~~~~~~

Diana

The silence pressed against my chest.

I had finished serving the kids before a doctor came in to attend to Thomas. I was grateful for the help. More than anything, I was grateful to Alessia for accepting Thomas.

I had been afraid of what would happen when she learned everything. But watching her with him—hearing her let him call her Mommy—had warmed something inside me I didn’t know had been so cold.

Maybe, for once, I had been afraid of something that never happened.

But standing in front of Alessia and Kendrick now, I knew something was wrong. Their faces told me that much. I set the tray down slowly.

“Are you hurt?”

“No,” Alessia answered. “Come with me.” She took my hand and pulled me away from the balcony.

I glanced over my shoulder at Kendrick, but she remained where she was, her expression unreadable.

As we walked down the corridor, I looked at Alessia. “Does your chest hurt?”

“No.”

“Your head?”

“No.”

“Then…” I hesitated. “Did I do something wrong again?”

She stopped abruptly. I nearly walked into her. She turned to face me. For a while, she didn’t speak. She just stared at me.

Then she exhaled deeply. I watched her eyes. There were too many emotions there. Fear. Hurt. Anger. Something that looked almost like guilt. I couldn’t place my finger on one.

“What is it?” I asked quietly.

“You said you hated the idea of me being buried while I’m still alive,” she said.

I nodded slowly, wondering where she was going with this.

“Kendrick said you’ll have to appear at the funeral tomorrow. With everything that’s happened, I didn’t think it would be wise to make you do it.”

I stared at her for a moment longer than necessary.

She was lying. I knew she was. Whatever Kendrick and Alessia had been discussing, this wasn’t it. But I didn’t call her out. I had decided to trust her wholeheartedly.

If there was something she wasn’t ready to tell me, I didn’t want to force it out of her.

Not after everything we’d just been through or still going through. I smiled.

“I don’t mind going. You shouldn’t worry. Kendrick will be there, and so will Natasha.” I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her. “Your eyes are open and you’re standing here talking to me. I couldn’t ask for more.” I pulled back and chuckled.

“Although, acting like a widow is going to feel very strange.”

A small smile touched my lips. “But I’ll do it for us if it makes things easier. I’ll go make you another snack.”

I turned.

I barely took a step before her arm wrapped around my waist. She pulled me back against her. Her nose settled into the crook of my neck, and she breathed me in slowly. I felt her lips brush my skin. Her fingers tightened around my waist as though she needed to reassure herself that I was really there.

“It must have been hard,” she whispered.

My body stiffened. “Everything you had to go through.”

My throat tightened and my eyes burned.

For years, I’d learned how to swallow those feelings before they reached the surface. I blinked rapidly, refusing to let the tears fall. Then I turned in her arms and forced a smile.

“It was.”

My voice almost cracked.

“But thankfully, we have you now.”

Her expression changed. She leaned forward and kissed me. It wasn’t heated. It was soft and gentle. When she pulled back, she kept her forehead against mine.

“You need to see a psychologist.”

My smile disappeared. I pulled away.

“Why?”

She opened her mouth and closed it.

“You think I’m mad?”

“No. No, not at all.” She stammered, but Alessia never stammered.

“Then why should I see one?”

“Because…” She hesitated. “Because of Thomas, Diana. Earlier, in the room—”

“What you saw was nothing.” I cut her off immediately. “If this is about touching me…” I looked away. “I’m working on it.” She stared at me. “I just need… uh… a little bit of time.”

“Diana—”

“I’m going to check on Thomas.”

I left, my chest pounding, without looking back.

The hallway felt longer than usual. Every step carried the weight of her words and the fear that she was already seeing the cracks I tried so hard to hide.

Everything outside the window passed in a blur. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what Alessia said about seeing a psychologist. The thought kept circling, and I didn’t want to have the conversation again, so I spent the night with Thomas and Adam.

Alessia didn’t come looking for me either; she gave me the space I needed. And somehow, that made me love her even more.

The funeral was scheduled for ten in the morning. Since the warehouse attack, I hadn’t been outside. Today was different. Today, I had to walk into a cemetery and pretend to bury my wife. I tightened my fingers around the black fabric of my mourning dress.

The irony wasn’t lost on me. I was dressed in black to mourn a woman who was probably somewhere nearby, watching me pretend to grieve her. I still didn’t know the entire plan, but I trusted her. That had to be enough.

Adam had left separately with his aide. Part of his assignment during his visit was to represent his father as an acquaintance of the deceased. I glanced through the rearview mirror.

A black van followed behind us. Two motorcycles moved at a safe distance, one ahead and another behind. I looked away from the mirror.

The car continued toward the Vincenzo private cemetery. Then the gates appeared.

Rows of tombstones stretched across the grounds, surrounded by tall trees and neatly trimmed grass.

The vehicle finally slowed. Then stopped.

Something suddenly occurred to me.

My head snapped toward Kendrick.

“The body?”

She looked at me.

“If we’re pretending she’s dead, there has to be a body.” I explained. “What are we going to put in that coffin?”

Kendrick’s mouth twitched.

“You’ll see.”

She opened the door. I stepped out carefully, adjusting the black mourning veil over my head.

The moment my feet touched the ground, I felt dozens of eyes turn toward me. I lowered my sunglasses over my eyes.

My heart began beating faster. There were far more people here than I expected. The cemetery had been divided into two sections.

On one side, where Alessia’s portrait was laid, it was almost empty. It was just Natasha, a few foreigners. Of course, Adam; he kept a straight face. I shifted my eyes forward a little, and behind, in a glass coffin, lay Alessia—look-alike? I didn’t know, but whoever that was could pass off as Alessia. The same black hair. The same sharp jaw. Even the shape of her hands looked right. If she hadn’t kissed me goodbye minutes ago, I would have believed it was her. I kept my face sad.

On the other side, another group stood facing the opposite direction.

“Why are they divided like that?”

Kendrick stepped beside me.

“Because they’re not all here for the same reason.”

I looked at her.

“What does that mean?”

Before she could answer, a hush fell over the cemetery. A large portrait was pulled out, and on it was Cameron Vincenzo.

He is dead? How? When?

Just as I was about to step forward, someone bumped into Kendrick with a force that sent her a few steps back. The veil she had on flew off with the wind.

Then I saw her.

Jemima.

My gaze darkened. Before I could think, I stepped forward and threw a slap across her face.