Chapter 1 - THE LANGUAGE ANGELO LEFT BEHIND
Tessa Reed believed she was only a waitress trying to keep up with her mother's medical bills until eighty-year-old Mafia boss Salvatore Rossi insulted her in an old Sicilian dialect—and she answered him fluently.
The language had been taught to her by Angelo Cosenza, the elderly neighbor who had lived across from her for four years before dying of cancer. Salvatore immediately recognized Angelo's speech as the dialect of his own brother.
That was only the beginning.
A red prayer book Angelo left behind contained records from the long-closed St. Agnes Maternity Home, including Tessa's mother's name, Tessa's birth date, and a warning that she was not to be transferred.
Restaurant manager Richard Mercer became strangely frightened by the book, despite pretending he knew nothing about its contents.
When Tessa, Gabriel Rossi, and Salvatore entered the supposedly abandoned St. Agnes building, they discovered thousands of meticulously preserved records and a cassette recorded by Angelo.
The recording revealed that Tessa's mother had given birth under the name of a woman married to a Rossi.
Two babies left St. Agnes that night.
One went home with Maria Reed.
The other went home with Salvatore Rossi.
Before Angelo could explain why Tessa and Gabriel had been deliberately kept apart, the power was cut.
An elderly woman emerged from the darkness carrying the original medical file.
She showed them two newborn photographs.
Both were marked ROSSI.
Then she delivered the truth Salvatore had spent twenty-eight years trying to bury.
May you like
Tessa was the baby they were supposed to hide.
Gabriel was the baby they were supposed to replace.
