Chapter 1 - THE BRUISED MAID, THE MISSING FORTY-SEVEN MINUTES, AND THE DEAD MAN'S VOICE
“Keep your head down, Sarah. Nobody wants to look at that face while they're eating.”
Olivia Hartwell smiled as she whispered those cruel words.
Sarah Mitchell stood beside the dining table, holding a wine bottle with trembling hands. Her cheek was bruised, her lip was split, and every breath hurt.
Twelve wealthy guests were dining at the New Jersey mansion of Gabriel Santoro, one of the state's most feared Mafia bosses.
When Gabriel noticed Sarah's injuries, his expression darkened.
“Who hurt you?”
Olivia quickly claimed Sarah had fallen in the kitchen.
But Gabriel knew the kitchen had been closed for renovations.
And Sarah's frightened silence told him something worse had happened.
Olivia had threatened to cancel the medical benefits Sarah desperately needed for her seven-year-old son, Ethan, who had a serious hearing impairment.
Gabriel sent Sarah to receive medical attention.
Later, he discovered forty-seven minutes of security footage had been deleted using Olivia's administrator credentials.
The authorization carried Gabriel's signature.
A signature he had never written.
Under questioning, Sarah revealed that she had seen Olivia meeting a mysterious man in Gabriel's late father's private study.
They had been carrying a black metal box.
Gabriel recovered the box from the old conservatory.
Inside were a photograph from 1997, a $3.8 million settlement involving a woman named Margaret Ellis, and documents concerning the permanent relocation of a child.
The agreement had been signed by Richard Pembroke, Gabriel's father's former attorney.
Sarah then revealed something disturbing.
The missing child's photograph showed a distinctive birthmark behind his left ear.
The same birthmark Ethan had.
Minutes later, the hospital called.
A man had arrived claiming to be Ethan's grandfather.
His name was Anthony Santoro.
Gabriel's father.
The man who had supposedly died nine years earlier.
Then an elderly voice came through the telephone.
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“Gabriel, son. Ethan isn't the child you think he is.”
And Gabriel realized the secrets buried by his family were not buried nearly deep enough.
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