Chapter 6 - The Man Who Came Back From the Grave
The photograph was impossible.
Antonio Duca had been buried four years earlier in a family mausoleum outside Boston.
Roman had personally attended the funeral.
He had watched the casket lowered into the ground.
Yet the man in the photograph stood beside Isabella, looking older but unmistakably alive.
Matteo shook his head.
"Maybe it's someone who looks like him."
Roman enlarged the image.
"Look at the scar."
A thin white line crossed the man's left cheek.
Antonio had received that scar during a failed assassination attempt in Naples thirty years earlier.
There was no mistaking it.
Roman called the head of security.
"Lock down the estate. Nobody enters. Nobody leaves."
Then he turned toward Sophia.
"We're going home."
She folded the marriage contract and slipped it into her handbag.
"I'm not going anywhere with you."
"Sophia, someone has your father, my nephew, and possibly my mother. We need answers."
"Then stop deciding what I can handle."
Roman stared at her.
For a moment, the old authority returned to his expression.
Then it disappeared.
"You're right."
He opened the car door for her.
On the drive back, Sophia watched the city lights pass through the window.
"Did you ever love anyone before me?"
Roman looked straight ahead.
"My mother."
She almost smiled.
"I meant romantically."
"No."
"Not even Elena?"
"Elena was my brother's wife."
"Before that."
Roman was quiet.
Finally, he said, "There was someone."
Sophia turned.
"Who?"
"My first love."
"Is she dead?"
He looked at her.
"I don't know."
They arrived at the mansion just after midnight.
The main entrance was open.
The security team was missing.
Matteo immediately drew his weapon.
Roman entered first.
The house was silent.
Then a voice came from the grand staircase.
"Welcome home, son."
Antonio stood at the top.
He wore a dark suit and held a silver walking stick.
Roman raised his gun.
"You're dead."
Antonio smiled.
"Apparently, death has become very inconvenient for this family."
Matteo stepped forward.
"Where is Adrian?"
"Safe."
"Where?"
"Somewhere your mother can't reach him."
Roman kept his weapon trained on Antonio.
"Why did you fake your death?"
Antonio descended slowly.
"Because your mother was preparing to kill me."
Isabella appeared behind him.
"Don't listen to him."
Antonio laughed.
"Still pretending, Isabella?"
Roman looked between them.
"Which one of you is lying?"
"Both," Isabella answered.
Then she looked at Sophia.
"And you should be the most frightened person in this room."
Sophia stood her ground.
"Why?"
Isabella walked toward a small table and placed a photograph on it.
It showed two women standing outside a hospital.
One was Isabella.
The other was Sophia's mother.
Sophia stared.
Her mother had died when she was six.
Or so she had been told.
"Where did you get that?"
"Your mother and I were friends once."
Sophia's hands began to shake.
"Her name was Catherine."
Isabella nodded.
"She was a very dangerous woman."
Antonio interrupted.
"She was a brilliant woman. And she discovered what Isabella was doing long before Daniel did."
Roman looked at his mother.
"What did you do?"
Isabella's expression hardened.
"I protected this family."
"From what?"
"From the truth."
She turned toward Sophia.
"Your father wasn't the first man Daniel Bellini tried to save. Your mother was."
Sophia felt tears gathering.
"You're saying my mother was alive?"
"Until the night she disappeared."
Antonio moved closer.
"Your mother wasn't simply connected to the Duca family, Sophia. She was the original owner of the company your father spent his life trying to protect."
Roman lowered his gun slightly.
"What company?"
Antonio looked at him.
"The one your mother has been running from the shadows for thirty years."
Sophia turned toward Isabella.
"Who is my mother?"
Isabella's eyes filled with something resembling regret.
Then she spoke.
"Her name is Catherine Duca."
Roman went completely still.
Matteo stared.
"That's impossible."
Catherine Duca had been Antonio's first wife.
The woman whose death had supposedly brought Isabella into the family.
Sophia stepped backward.
"You're saying my mother was married to Antonio?"
Isabella nodded.
"And that makes you something far more important than Roman's wife."
May you like
Antonio smiled.
"She's my daughter."
