Chapter 5 - The Child Nobody Was Supposed to Find
Luca had faced armed enemies without hesitation.
But the thought of a child being used as a weapon against his family made him feel something he had never experienced before.
Fear.
He and Gabriel drove through the night to Indiana.
The foster care facility was a modest brick building surrounded by a chain-link fence. A woman named Margaret Wells met them in the reception area.
“Are you Noah's family?” she asked.
Luca placed the photograph on the desk.
“Where is he?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Someone collected him yesterday.”
“Who?”
“A woman claiming to be his aunt.”
Luca showed her Vanessa's photograph.
Margaret shook her head.
“Not her. A red-haired woman. She had legal paperwork.”
“Did you verify it?”
“We called the agency. Everything appeared legitimate.”
Gabriel asked for the security footage.
The recording showed a woman wearing a gray coat entering the facility. She spoke to Noah for several minutes before taking his hand.
As she turned toward the camera, Luca recognized her.
It was his mother.
He called Elena.
“Where is Noah?”
Her answer came immediately.
“Safe.”
“You took him?”
“I protected him.”
“From whom?”
“From Adrian.”
Luca closed his eyes.
“Mother, where are you?”
“I can't tell you.”
“Then tell me why you took him.”
Elena's voice broke.
“Because Adrian doesn't want his son. He wants the bloodline. He wants an heir he can use to control you.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“Bring Noah home.”
“Not until you understand what happened six years ago.”
She ended the call.
Back in Chicago, Luca found a message waiting on his desk.
It was from Adrian.
You want your nephew? Bring the watch to the old Moretti warehouse. Midnight. No guards. No tricks.
Luca looked at Gabriel.
“It's a trap.”
“Obviously.”
“I'm going anyway.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Then you're going to need someone who knows how Adrian thinks.”
“Who?”
Gabriel removed a photograph from his wallet.
It showed a young woman with dark hair standing beside Antonio.
“Your father's private investigator. Sofia Reyes.”
Luca frowned.
“I thought she disappeared.”
“She didn't. She was the one who helped Adrian escape after the explosion.”
They found Sofia at a small apartment above a bakery.
She opened the door holding a pistol.
When she saw Gabriel, her expression changed.
“You're supposed to be dead.”
“Apparently, that's becoming a family tradition.”
Sofia let them inside.
She listened to Luca's story without interrupting.
Then she revealed that Adrian had not been involved in the original betrayal.
He had been manipulated.
Richard had convinced him that Antonio intended to sacrifice him to protect Luca. He had also shown Adrian a doctored recording of Luca ordering the explosion.
But Sofia had discovered something more disturbing.
“Adrian wasn't the only person who survived that night,” she said.
Luca looked at her.
“Who else?”
“Edward Hart.”
“Vanessa's father died.”
Sofia shook her head.
“The body was never positively identified. Richard paid someone to certify the death.”
Luca remembered the photograph from the engagement dinner.
Richard and Edward beside the black sedan.
“Where is he?”
Sofia opened a laptop.
“I found a property registered under a company connected to his old bank accounts.”
She displayed an address.
A private medical clinic outside the city.
Then she showed Luca a second document.
It was an adoption agreement dated six years earlier.
The signature belonged to Elena Moretti.
Luca stared.
“What did my mother sign?”
Sofia looked uncomfortable.
“Legal guardianship of a child born to Vanessa Hart.”
“Why?”
“Because Vanessa was too young and frightened to raise him alone. Antonio arranged for the baby to be hidden until the family situation was safe.”
Luca looked at the date.
It was the same day Adrian had supposedly died.
Sofia zoomed in on the final page.
There were two signatures.
Elena's.
And Antonio's.
But beneath them was a handwritten instruction.
If either twin discovers the child, tell him the other twin is not his enemy.
Luca stood.
“Then who is?”
Sofia closed the laptop.
“Someone who has been standing between you and the truth since the day you were born.”
His phone vibrated.
A live video appeared.
Noah sat in a chair, crying.
Beside him stood a red-haired woman.
She lifted her face toward the camera.
It was Margaret Wells.
May you like
The foster care director.
And she was holding a gun.
