Chapter 7 - THE TRUTH ABOUT HANNAH HAYES
For several seconds, I couldn’t move.
I just stared at the photograph in my hand.
My father.
My mother.
And a woman I had never seen before.
Holding a baby.
A baby with the same last name as the housekeeper standing ten feet away from me.
Hannah Hayes.
My mind refused to accept it.
“No.”
Marcus looked at me carefully.
“Sir…”
“No.”
I threw the file onto the desk.
“There’s no way.”
The Rossi family had secrets.
Everyone knew that.
But this?
A hidden child?
A connection to Hannah?
Impossible.
I turned toward her.
She was standing near the nursery door, confused.
“Hannah.”
“Yes?”
“Have you ever met my father?”
Her face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
The hesitation.
The fear.
And that was enough.
“You know him.”
She looked down.
“I knew of him.”
My jaw tightened.
“What does that mean?”
She stayed silent.
“Hannah.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t know who he was.”
That answer made no sense.
“Explain.”
She took a deep breath.
“My mother told me my father disappeared before I was born.”
The room became quiet.
“She never talked about him. Never showed me pictures. Never gave me a name.”
“Then how did you find out?”
She looked at the photograph.
“My mother had one picture hidden in a box.”
I stepped closer.
“What picture?”
“The same one.”
My heart started beating faster.
“She told me the man in the picture was someone powerful. Someone who promised he would come back.”
“And he didn’t.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
The anger inside me was impossible to control.
My father had been dead for years.
I couldn’t confront him.
I couldn’t demand answers.
But suddenly, I was facing the consequences of his choices.
Again.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Hannah looked at me.
“Would you have believed me?”
I had no answer.
Because the truth was…
I probably wouldn’t have.
A billionaire’s housekeeper claiming she was connected to the Rossi family?
It sounded like a lie.
A plan.
A trap.
Then Leo started crying.
Both of us turned.
Hannah immediately moved toward him.
But this time…
I stopped her.
Not because I didn’t trust her.
Because I needed to understand.
“Wait.”
She looked hurt.
“I’m not trying to take him.”
The words hit me.
Because she thought that was what I feared.
Maybe it was.
Maybe I had been so afraid of losing my son that I saw threats everywhere.
I slowly stepped aside.
“Help him.”
She walked to Leo.
Within seconds, his crying softened.
I watched carefully.
Not as a billionaire.
Not as a man protecting an empire.
Just as a father.
And I saw something I hadn’t seen since Sophia died.
Peace.
My son felt safe with her.
Later that evening, Marcus returned with more information.
“Sir, we found records about Hannah’s mother.”
“What records?”
“She worked for your father twenty-five years ago.”
I stared at him.
“And?”
“She disappeared after leaving the Rossi estate.”
My hands tightened.
“Why?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Because she claimed Antonio Rossi abandoned her and her child.”
I looked toward the nursery.
Toward Hannah.
My father had created this.
A hidden daughter.
A broken family.
A secret that someone was willing to kill for.
Then Marcus handed me another document.
“Sir…”
“What now?”
“The person who paid the nurse wasn’t Matteo.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“It was someone else.”
“Who?”
Marcus looked at the paper.
Then at me.
May you like
“The payment came from your mother’s private account.”
My blood went cold.
