Page 54 of The Hitman's Secret Baby
Yarik disappears into the back with the old man.
I hear low voices, a transaction of plans and papers.
Eventually, he returns with a small envelope.
"Your new life," he says, handing it to me.
I open it slowly.
Passport. Identification. Documents, all real enough to pass.
A new name. New birthday. Birthplace: Messina.
"Where do I go?" I ask.
"There's a train at dawn. After that, a car will be waiting to take you to the port. You'll sail south, then disappear. From there, it's whatever you want."
I stare down at the name on the passport. Elena Rinaldi.
"Elena," I murmur. The sound feels foreign in my mouth. But not wrong.
That night, I cannot sleep.
I lie by the fire, staring at the shadows that dance along the low ceiling.
Somewhere far away, Luca Salvatore is tearing his estate apart.
The city is whispering my name with knives behind their teeth.
My father is feigning innocence.
My mother is already measuring which heiress can take my place at the next gala.
I have vanished.
But something inside me has stayed behind, buried deep in the ash of that broken car.
I close my eyes, and all I can see is Enzo.
I wonder what he thinks when he hears the news.
The world I have stepped into is wide and cruel and uncertain.
But I would take it again and again, if it meant that my child would be safe.
Yarik speaks only once more that night, as he stokes the fire and lays a worn blanket at my feet.
"Whatever you were before," he says, his voice low, "let it burn with the rest."
I nod once.
Because I already have.
And in the stillness of that hidden room, the last of Aria Lombardi dies.
8
ENZO
