it while I stared in confusion. What he handed to me was an old photograph. Immediately, I recognized Henry. He hugged a boy who was in his early teenage years. As I paid closer attention to those facial features, that smile and those eyes, there was no doubt in my mind it was indeed Broderick. “How on earth...” I placed my hand over my mouth. “How can this be?”
Alessandro sighed. “A few months ago, Lorenzo tracked down Henry's estranged ex-wife to check if she knew anything about his shady business. In that conversation, she had unintentionally uncovered they had a son named Broderick. She was even kind enough to provide him with this photograph,” he explained, pointing to the picture in my hands. “That’s when everything fell into place. We have run an extensive search and, as it turns out, Broderick Wyatt disappeared into thin air as soon as Broderick Matthews hit the scene. To be honest, tesoro, I wasn't surprised. This guy seemed way too fucking perfect for his line of work and all the hardcore stuff he had written down in his resumé.”
“But Broderick is a complete opposite from Henry,” I argued, baffled because none of this made any sense.
“In that he’s better at covering up his tracks perhaps,” Alessandro remarked in a sarcastic tone. “That old scumbag and his crew have been stealing from me and scheming behind my back for years and he was so fucking bad at it that even a blind man could see through him.”
I remembered the conversation I’d overheard years ago, and I involuntarily shuddered. Alessandro knew. He knew all along. “I don't understand. Why would you let him steal from you if you knew about it?”
“Other than the fact I took immense enjoyment from watching him sweat in my presence, I couldn’t do anything until I found the rat among my own people, and that has proven to be quite a challenge. Now that we have accomplished that, there is nothing in our way to put a stop to it,” he clarified in a matter-of-fact tone. “Hence, the presence of the third man Marco, which you’ve seen next to your bodyguard and the butler.”
“So, what's going to happen next?” I asked with dread. “You’re going to kill them, aren't you?”
Alessandro's face settled into an apologetic expression, and it was all the answer I needed. “Cara, you have to understand I don't have much choice in the matter. I shouldn’t just kill them. I should make them regret their entire existence.”
“But you promised...” I repeated miserably. Despite everything, I didn't want to see Broderick dead.
“I promised I wouldn’t hurt him because of the accident, and I would have kept my word if there was nothing else apart from that, but there is more...much more.” His voice softened. “Olivia, you know what I do. You know who I am. I can't turn a blind eye to such offense.”
“But if me and the baby come first like you say we do, you’d be willing to do just that,” I insisted in a quiet, pleading voice.
“Cara, he doesn’t deserve...”
I reached for his hand and leaned it against my swollen belly. The gesture silenced him in an instant. “For us,” I stressed. “Do it for us...please. You keep saying it, but I need you to prove it. Now is your chance.”
Alessandro closed his eyes and stepped closer, never removing hand from my stomach. For a few moments, we merely breathed in silence. Then, his eyelids lifted and I was confronted with his dark gaze. “I thought you would be angry, but you’re defending him,” he uttered with clear confusion. “Why, Olivia? Why the hell would you pity him when he only wanted to use you for his benefit?”
“I don't pity him,” I muttered. “I just feel I owe him this much. Whether it was real or not, his interference helped me survive. It made me feel stronger. It gave me hope.”
Alessandro exhaled and looked at me like he understood how painful this was for me. “You know I can't let him go.”
“I know,” I confirmed in a small voice.
“Then what would you have me do?” he demanded quietly. “I do want to please you, tesoro, but he must be punished. There is no way around this.”
A part of me hated Broderick because he had lied to me, but another part couldn’t bear the thought of seeing him dead. Suddenly, this crazy idea formed in my mind, and I gasped when I realized I might have figured