Chapter 9 - THE LAST LIE OF THE BELLANDI FAMILY
The meeting place was an abandoned church on the outskirts of the city.
Ivy arrived just after midnight, accompanied by Daniel, who remained outside with instructions to call Carmine if anything seemed wrong.
She had refused to tell Carmine the location.
Not because she wanted to punish him, but because she needed one conversation in her life that wasn't controlled by the Bellandi family.
The church doors creaked when she pushed them open.
A single lamp burned near the altar.
A man stood beside the front pew.
He was older than she expected, his hair almost entirely gray. He wore an ordinary dark coat and carried no visible weapon. His face was thinner than Carmine's, but the resemblance was unmistakable.
Matteo Bellandi turned.
For a moment, he simply looked at her.
Then his eyes filled with tears.
“You have your mother's eyes.”
Ivy remained near the doorway.
“You don't get to say that as if you knew her better than I did.”
He lowered his head.
“No. I don't.”
“Why didn't you come for me?”
“Because I was a coward.”
The bluntness of the answer caught her off guard.
Matteo walked toward a pew but stopped when she stiffened.
He remained where he was.
“I wanted to take you away from all of this. I had money hidden, documents prepared, and a place for your mother and you to live. But Lorenzo discovered the plan.”
“And you ran.”
“Yes.”
“You left her to raise me alone.”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe you were dead.”
His eyes closed.
“Yes.”
Ivy's anger rose so quickly that she had to press her hands against her sides.
“Do you have any idea what she went through? She worked until her hands cracked. She skipped meals so I could eat. She died believing she had failed me because she couldn't pay her medical bills.”
Matteo's face crumpled.
“I know.”
“No, you don't. You weren't there.”
He accepted every word.
Then he reached into his coat and removed a folded document.
“This is the original birth record. Your mother asked me to sign it before I disappeared. I never did.”
Ivy stared at the paper.
Her name appeared beneath her mother's.
The father's name had been left blank.
“I couldn't bring myself to sign it,” Matteo said. “I thought if I acknowledged you, Lorenzo would find you. Later, when I learned your mother was sick, I sent money through Victor Hale. I believed he was paying her medical bills.”
“But the money stopped.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Matteo looked toward the altar.
“Because Hale discovered that your mother had kept Elena's original evidence. He thought he could force her to surrender it by cutting off the payments.”
Ivy's throat tightened.
“He let her die.”
“I believe he did.”
“You believe?”
“I have no proof that he deliberately withheld the final payments. I have records showing that he redirected them. I have messages showing he knew your mother was ill. But I can't tell you what was in his heart.”
For the first time, Ivy recognized something familiar in the man before her.
Not his face.
His helplessness.
It was the helplessness she had seen in her mother's expression whenever another hospital bill arrived.
“What happened to Elena?” she asked.
Matteo drew a shaky breath.
“She discovered that Hale was stealing from Carmine and selling information to rival organizations. She gathered evidence and planned to give it to the authorities. The night she died, she was on her way to meet Thomas.”
“Was Carmine involved?”
“No. But he was supposed to meet her later that night. Hale knew that. He arranged the accident to make it appear that Carmine's family had turned against her.”
Ivy looked at him sharply.
“Why would Hale do that?”
“To make Carmine more ruthless. More isolated. Easier to manipulate. After Elena died, Carmine stopped trusting everyone. Hale became indispensable.”
The truth settled over Ivy like a heavy blanket.
Carmine's cruelty, his suspicion, the empire he had built around himself—all of it had been shaped by someone else's deception.
That did not excuse his choices.
But it explained the wound beneath them.
Matteo offered her the document.
“I don't expect forgiveness. I only wanted you to know that your mother loved you more than anything. She never regretted having you.”
Ivy took the paper.
For the first time since her mother's death, she felt the ache of grief without the added burden of believing she had been unwanted.
Then a slow clap sounded from the rear of the church.
Victor Hale stepped from the shadows.
Two armed men stood behind him.
“Beautiful,” he said. “Really. Family reunions always make the best tragedies.”
Matteo moved in front of Ivy.
Hale smiled.
“Still pretending you can protect her?”
“What do you want?” Ivy demanded.
“The memory card.”
“You can have it.”
“No, I can't. Carmine already copied it. And once he gives those files to the authorities, my entire life disappears.”
He looked at Matteo.
“So I need the original document, the witness, and the girl. All three problems in one convenient location.”
Ivy's phone vibrated.
A message from Daniel appeared.
DON'T LEAVE THE CHURCH. CARMINE IS COMING.
Hale saw her glance downward.
“Your employer is a predictable man.”
He raised his weapon.
Matteo shoved Ivy behind the pew as a shot rang out.
The church erupted into chaos.
Ivy heard shouting, breaking wood, and the sharp crack of gunfire. She crawled toward the side aisle, clutching the birth record.
Then someone grabbed her wrist.
She turned, expecting Hale.
Instead, Carmine stood beside her, his face streaked with blood and dust.
“Come with me.”
“What about Matteo?”
“Thomas has him.”
They reached the side door as Daniel and the guards forced Hale's men away from the altar.
Outside, sirens wailed in the distance.
Carmine led Ivy behind an armored vehicle and checked her for injuries.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
He nodded, then leaned against the vehicle, suddenly exhausted.
Ivy saw the blood soaking through his shirt again.
“You're hurt.”
“I'm fine.”
She almost laughed.
“That's what you said at the docks.”
He looked at her.
Then, unexpectedly, he laughed too—a short, tired sound that seemed to surprise him.
For a moment, the danger receded.
Ivy held up the birth record.
“I know who my father is now.”
Carmine nodded.
“And I know what happened to Elena.”
He looked away.
“Not everything.”
Before she could ask what he meant, a police officer approached.
“Mr. Bellandi, we found Hale's vehicle. There was a second phone inside.”
Carmine took it.
A single message glowed on the screen.
THE GIRL IS NOT MATTEO'S DAUGHTER. SHE IS LORENZO'S.
Ivy stared at the words.
Carmine's face drained of color.
The officer continued, unaware of the devastation the message had caused.
“We also found a sealed envelope addressed to you.”
Carmine opened it.
Inside was a photograph of Lorenzo Bellandi holding a newborn baby.
May you like
On the back, in his father's handwriting, were five words.
The heir belongs to me.
