Chapter 8 - The Secret Isabella Buried
Isabella confessed before Joseph finished reading the message.
"Mateo isn't dead."
Nobody spoke.
Joseph stared at his mother.
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
"How long have you known?"
"Twenty-three years."
Joseph laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"Of course."
Isabella's eyes filled.
"Your father ordered Mateo killed."
"But he survived."
"Luca helped him escape."
Everything connected.
Luca had not vanished because he feared Joseph's father.
He had disappeared because he was protecting Mateo.
Thomas Cooper had helped move Mateo's assets, then betrayed him and built his own hidden fortune from stolen accounts.
"Thomas wanted the empire," Isabella said.
Joseph looked disgusted.
"There is no empire worth this."
That night, Joseph found me on the terrace.
Miami glowed across the water.
"You should sleep."
"So should you."
He leaned against the railing.
For several minutes, neither of us spoke.
Then he said, "I don't want my daughter inheriting any of it."
"The legitimate companies?"
"The blood attached to the name."
I studied him.
"Then change what the name means."
He looked at me.
"People aren't obligated to become their fathers, Joseph."
He touched my cheek.
"Is that what you believe about Ryan?"
"I believe it about everyone."
"Even me?"
"Especially you."
He kissed me.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Nothing like our first night together.
That night had been two lonely people borrowing warmth.
This was different.
This had five months of lost time inside it.
Fear.
Anger.
Hope.
When we separated, his forehead rested against mine.
"I love you."
My heart stopped.
Joseph looked almost annoyed with himself.
"I wasn't planning to say that."
I laughed softly.
"Very smooth."
"I'm serious."
"I know."
"You don't have to say it back."
That was precisely why I could.
"I love you too."
His eyes closed.
Then the terrace lights went out.
Joseph instantly pulled me behind him.
The entire estate went dark.
Backup generators should have activated.
They didn't.
A vehicle exploded near the front gate.
Guards shouted.
Joseph grabbed my hand.
"Inside."
We made it to the hallway when gunfire erupted outside.
Thomas had finally come.
Not for money.
Not for revenge.
For control.
Joseph moved me toward the reinforced safe room.
Then Isabella screamed from the opposite corridor.
"Joseph!"
He stopped.
His mother stood near the staircase.
A masked man held her.
Joseph's grip tightened around my hand.
Thomas stepped from the shadows.
Older than his photographs.
Gray-haired.
Elegant.
And smiling.
"Finally."
Joseph moved in front of me.
Thomas pointed his gun.
"Move away from the girl."
"No."
"Then your mother dies."
Isabella looked at Joseph.
"No."
Thomas pressed the weapon against her neck.
I saw Joseph's impossible choice.
Then another voice came through the darkness.
"Thomas."
Everyone froze.
An elderly man stepped from a service corridor.
Luca supported him.
Thomas went white.
"Mateo."
Mateo Carmona was alive.
Thomas stared as though seeing a ghost.
Mateo held up a small recorder.
"You always talked too much."
Thomas's expression collapsed.
He fired.
Joseph shoved me down.
Gunfire exploded.
Security rushed from both corridors.
Thomas ran.
This time he didn't escape.
Police arrested him at the seawall.
By dawn, the estate was full of investigators.
Mateo's evidence documented decades of fraud, extortion, and financial crimes involving Thomas and Joseph's late father.
Joseph turned everything over.
All of it.
Even records that could damage the Raldi companies.
"You're giving investigators your own family?"
Marco asked.
Joseph looked toward me.
"No more secrets."
That afternoon, exhaustion finally overwhelmed me.
I woke in Joseph's bed with his hand around mine.
"How long?"
"Four hours."
"Thomas?"
"In custody."
"Daniel?"
"Talking."
"Mateo?"
"Safe."
I breathed.
It was over.
Or almost.
Joseph touched my stomach.
"I made a decision."
"That sounds ominous."
"I'm restructuring everything."
He would separate the legitimate companies completely from the criminal legacy his father had left behind, cooperate with authorities, and establish independent management.
"What about your daughter?"
"She inherits something better."
"What?"
"A father who comes home."
I started crying.
Joseph panicked.
"Was that wrong?"
"No."
"Then why are you crying?"
"Pregnancy."
"Should I get chocolate?"
I laughed through the tears.
"Definitely."
He stood.
Then froze.
My expression had changed.
"Amanda?"
Warm liquid spread beneath me.
I looked down.
Then at him.
"Joseph."
His face went white.
"What?"
"My water just broke."
His eyes widened.
"But you're only—"
"Twenty-four weeks."
For the first time since I'd known him, Joseph Raldi looked completely terrified.
May you like
And suddenly the danger we had spent weeks fighting outside the house became irrelevant.
Because our daughter had decided she might enter the world far too soon.
