Chapter 5 - The Dead Dialect
Despite the towering men and the heavy weapons pointed at her heart, Claire didn't scream. She didn't beg. Her composure was unnervingly absolute. She slowly sank to her knees in the wet, freezing slush, bringing herself down to Matteo's eye level.
She completely ignored Vincent. She ignored the bodyguards. She placed her warm hands on the boy’s tear-stained cheeks.
"Breathe with me, sweetheart," Claire whispered.
But she didn't speak in English. And she didn't speak in modern Italian. She spoke in a thick, rhythmic, incredibly obscure Sicilian dialect—a secret language spoken only by the elders of a specific, isolated mountain village.
Matteo’s panic instantly faded. His wet eyelashes lifted, and he stared at the strange American woman in sheer awe. The beautiful, comforting words sounded exactly like the lullabies his great-grandmother used to sing to him in secret.
Behind them, the imposing mafia boss stopped dead. Vincent's ruthless, cold demeanor shattered into profound, paralyzing shock. His jaw tightened, and his gray eyes widened. That dialect had died with his grandmother five years ago. No one outside of their bloodline knew it. Absolutely no one.
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Vincent raised a gloved hand. Instantly, every bodyguard lowered their weapon. The tension in the air shifted from murderous intent to overwhelming confusion.
👉 Why does Claire know the dead matriarch's secret dialect, and what does it mean for Vincent?
