The Wife Who Walked Away

PART 2 — THE WOMAN HE COULDN’T FIND

By Monday morning, Dante Moretti had turned Chicago upside down.

His men searched hotels, hospitals, airports, private residences, and every property Elena had ever visited.

Nothing.

Her phone was disconnected. Her old email account had been closed. Even the credit cards she had used for years showed no activity.

“She planned this carefully,” Caleb reported.

Dante stood behind his office desk, his jaw tightening.

“My wife gave birth two weeks ago. Where could she possibly go?”

Caleb hesitated before answering.

“Sir, there’s something else. Mrs. Moretti left a letter.”

Dante immediately held out his hand.

The envelope was inside a security folder. His name was written across it in Elena’s familiar handwriting.

He opened it.

Dante,

I spent two years believing that if I loved you enough, you would eventually love me back.

I waited for you at dinner tables. I waited through birthdays, anniversaries, and countless nights when you promised to come home.

Then Noah was born.

I thought holding your son might finally make you understand what family meant.

But you weren’t there.

You were with Vanessa, while I was in a hospital bed, recovering from surgery and trying to learn how to be a mother.

I don’t hate you. I simply refuse to raise my son believing that a woman should beg a man to care about her.

Don’t look for us.

Elena.

Dante read the letter three times.

Then he crushed it in his fist.

“Call Vanessa.”

Caleb looked uncomfortable.

“Sir, she’s currently at your penthouse.”

“Bring her here.”

Thirty minutes later, Vanessa Shaw entered his office wearing a designer dress and carrying a small handbag.

“Dante, darling, what’s wrong?”

He threw a photograph of Elena onto the desk.

“Have you heard from my wife?”

Vanessa glanced at the picture.

“No. Why would I?”

“Because she left with my son while I was away with you.”

Vanessa’s expression changed.

“She abandoned you?”

Dante’s eyes turned cold.

“Choose your next words carefully.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“Get out.”

Vanessa stared at him.

“Dante, you’re not seriously choosing Elena over me, are you?”

He walked around the desk.

“This has nothing to do with choosing you. My son is missing, and I don’t have time for your jealousy.”

For the first time, Vanessa realized that the man she thought she controlled was no longer interested in comforting her.

After she left, Dante ordered his men to investigate the people Elena had contacted before disappearing.

One name appeared repeatedly.

Dr. Margaret Ellis.

Elena’s obstetrician.

And according to the hospital records, the doctor had arranged a private discharge consultation before Elena left the mansion.

Dante immediately picked up his phone.

“Find Dr. Ellis. I want to know everything.”

But what he discovered next would make his blood run cold.

Elena hadn’t simply disappeared.

She had prepared to leave months before Noah was born.

And she had been quietly collecting evidence of his affair.