Though Dylan showed no signs of waking up, he recovered well, and his condition turned stable.
The Milan police continued to track down the whereabouts of the boy, while Garwood left several people to follow the progress at any time.
A week later, Savannah flew home with Dylan on a private plane.
A team of nursing staff sent by the Sterling family was waiting for them at the private airport with a prepared medical vehicle.
As Dylan was carried onto the hospital bed in the vehicle, Savannah leaned over him in the glow of the morning sun with a discouraging smile:
"Dylan, we're home."
Some old servants of the Sterling family turned their faces away, secretly wiping away tears.
Savannah didn't tell Old Sterling about the identity of the boy after returning home.
For one thing, it was not certain.
For another, she didn't want to worry about the old man again.
If he knew that he had a grandson outside, and the boy grew up in the Italian Mafia with bitter hatred and misunderstanding to the Sterlings and almost killed Dylan, how would he feel?
So Savannah decided to be silent for the time being, and she hired a private detective to investigate Geoffrey's girlfriend.
Two weeks later, the private detective told Savannah the result of the investigation.
Geoffrey's girlfriend, Jennifer Mitra, was the same age as Geoffrey. They met at an off-campus networking event in high school.
Geoffrey studied in an exclusive school, and Jennifer was in an ordinary one.
The two of such different ranks were deeply attached to each other and fell in love.
Jennifer came from an ordinary family. Her father was a gambler who had been in prison many times, and her two brothers were both notorious gangsters in the city.
At that time, Old Sterling was not so open-minded as he was now. His criteria for choosing a daughter-in-law were as strict as those of other elders from big families. He couldn't accept his eldest son to be with a girl from such a family. He broke up the affectionate couple and forced Jennifer to leave his eldest son.
In order not to affect the future of her love, Jennifer left quietly and did not let Geoffrey find her.
Geoffrey lost his love and got irritated. Then, after a big fight with his father, he was attacked by a terrible family disease and died in a car accident.
According to the private investigator, after Geoffrey's death, Jennifer went to the mourning hall with red eyes to take one last look at her love but was kicked out by Old Sterling.
She then left LA and went to teach in a primary school in a remote village.
She did give birth to a child at a clinic in that village.
The clinic had been changed hands several times, leaving no detailed records, and the private investigator couldn't find out the s.e.x, name, or date of birth of the child.
At least, it could be confirmed that Jennifer had given birth to the posthumous son of her boyfriend Geoffrey.
Unfortunately, she seemed to have caught puerperal fever after that.
The medical condition was very poor in the remote village. Jennifer never recovered from her illness, and her condition went from bad to worse. Finally, she passed away when the baby was one month old.
The baby disappeared shortly after Jennifer's death.
So far, its whereabouts were unknown.
The private detective had asked the villagers about Jennifer's child, but Jennifer had always lived a secluded life and never had any contact with other people.
Most of the villagers didn't even know Jennifer had had a baby. By the time they knew it, the child had disappeared.
Savannah breathed a long sigh after hearing the whole story.
Although it was not completely certain that the boy who kidnapped her in Italy was the grandson of old Sterling, it was now certain that Jennifer gave birth to a child for the Sterling family.
And the possibility that the boy was Geoffrey's son was simply too great.
She and Garwood were right...
What had the boy gone through these years?
Anyway, they'd better keep it from Old Sterling now.
And she was not in the mood for anything else.
All she cared about was when Dylan would wake up.
* * *
It had been a month since they returned home.
The Sterling family recovered slowly from their master's accident. Beneath that calm surface was the pain beyond recovery.
Old Sterling had grown much older since his only son came back in a vegetative state.
Luckily, accompanied by his dear grandson and Savannah, Old Sterling held it out.
Dylan's bedroom was converted into a hospital room, and a nurse and a family doctor were arranged to take care of him. Old Sterling firmly believed that his son would surely wake up one day.
Savannah also moved into Sterling's house, next door to Dylan's.
Every morning, she would send Kaiden to kindergarten first and then went to K&G. She called back from time to time to ask about Dylan. In the evening, she would stay in Dylan's room for a long time after dinner, talking to him about her work of the day or the new design she had. Sometimes she cleaned his body in person.
Kaiden knew his daddy was critically sick this time, and he became more reasonable overnight. After coming home from kindergarten, he would stay at his father's bed together with Savannah, talking to his father about the interesting things he had in kindergarten.
A year flashed by.
Savannah's grandpa and Joanne had tried several times to ask her to Chicago or move back to Green Bay.
At first, they didn't tell Savannah to leave Dylan because they also hoped against hope that Dylan would recover.
But it had been so long...
Time chilled their hope.
They couldn't bear to see Savannah being with a man in a vegetative state all her life.
Then it was Kaiden's fifth birthday.
Because of Dylan, the Sterling family didn't dare make a big deal out of it.
But Savannah didn't want them to think that Dylan was a dead man. She proposed to have a birthday party at home as before.