She felt Tristan’s thigh muscles bunch under her palm at that, and gave it a squeeze. Her skin crawled, knowing she’d been one of those children. “Maroni was supplying children?”
“He’s the reason my sister went missing?” Tristan asked over her question.
The older man looked at Tristan with his eyes full of regret. “No. Your sister was all Gabriel. I’m sorry.”
Tristan inhaled sharply. Morana felt shame and pain coil in her belly. God, what evil monsters preyed upon children? Her father was one of them.
The man continued. “I didn’t know how long it had been going on, but I didn’t want to be a part of that. Although Gabriel was involved in only a few operations, Lorenzo had his hands in many. He was the real danger. I called both of them and threatened to expose him if he didn’t stop. I was a fool, thinking they’d been my friends.”
Morana felt something heavy settle in her gut. “What happened then?”
The man studied her, staying silent for a long, long moment. “The Alliance was broken. I stepped down and Gabriel got scared and decided to go his own way. All businesses split. But Lorenzo never trusted anyone. He took Gabriel’s daughter as insurance for him to keep his mouth shut.”
Morana breathed through her nose and stayed quiet.
He continued, his voice bleak. “He then attacked my wife in our home and murdered her and our baby.”
Hand flying to her mouth, Morana gasped at the horror the man before her had suffered. “I’m so sorry,” she spoke, her heart aching for him.
The man chuckled, “Oh, I wish that was all he’d done.”
Morana was half-afraid of hearing more.
“He took my other daughter too,” the man spoke, her eyes sharp on her. “At first, he put her in with the other missing children, but then he got another idea to ensure Gabriel stayed quiet.”
Morana’s heart started to thunder in her chest, her breathing uneven. She felt Tristan’s hand come down on her shoulder.
“He gave her to Gabriel to raise,” the man told her quietly, “so he could look at her and remember the extent of Lorenzo’s wrath to those who go against him. In exchange for his silence, his own daughter would live. His wife never accepted it was her own child who came back and left him, poor thing.”
Her hands started to shake, tears gathering in her eyes as her entire life flashed before her eyes, everything suddenly falling in place. Her father’s disdain of her, her mother’s absence, every callous word she had heard in that house, how her father had enjoyed seeing her suffer – it started to make an eerie kind of sense.
Morana swallowed, “I... don’t... I” she stammered.
“You’re her father,” Tristan put into words what she wasn’t able to.
The man smiled softly at her. “You’re my daughter, Morana.”
She stared at him in disbelief, knowing in her heart that he wasn’t lying but unable to accept it. “Is that even my real name? Or was it her name? Gabriel’s daughter?” she asked, her voice climbing.
She felt the hand on her shoulder give her a squeeze, and the older man, her real father, shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. You’re Morana.”
Morana exhaled, tears streaming down her face. “Do you know if she’s alive?”
He shook his head and the pain inside Morana deepened. How?
Morana wiped her tears and asked the question she knew was on the forefront of Tristan’s mind. “Is Luna alive?”
They held their breath as her father said ruefully. “I truly don’t know.”
Gathering up her courage, Morana straightened her spine. “Why didn’t you take me back?”
“I was too injured when all of this was happening,” he told her, rubbing his knee. “I didn’t know what had happened to you until after a few months, and by then, it was too late. For all intents and purposes, you were a Vitalio.”
Morana felt her lips tremble. “Why didn’t you try to contact me before?”
He shook his head. “As long as they thought I was dead, it was safer for you. I kept my eyes on you though, giving you what little protection I could from afar.”
Her heart clenched.