Chapter 3 - THE FIANCÉE'S LAST WARNING
Vincent Romano arrived at the estate at noon.
He entered the great room with four men behind him, his silver hair neatly combed and his expression carefully arranged into something resembling courtesy.
Isabella followed.
She had changed out of her silk robe and into a cream-colored dress. Her engagement ring glittered beneath the chandelier.
She looked at Alessandro as if the morning's humiliation had never happened.
“Darling,” she said. “We need to talk.”
Alessandro stood beside the fireplace.
“No. You need to explain.”
Vincent Romano glanced around the room.
“Perhaps we should discuss this privately.”
“Everything involving my daughter is now a family matter.”
Isabella's composure cracked.
“Your daughter?”
Alessandro did not blink.
“Lily is my daughter. Rosa is her mother. Neither of them will be insulted, threatened, or removed from this estate.”
Vincent's eyes narrowed.
“You're making a serious accusation against my daughter.”
“I'm making a statement about what I will tolerate in my own house.”
Isabella laughed bitterly.
“You expect me to marry a man who has been hiding a child with a servant?”
“No,” Alessandro said. “I expect you to understand that there will be no wedding.”
The silence was absolute.
Vincent stepped forward.
“You cannot end this engagement because of a domestic disagreement.”
“This isn't a disagreement. It's a decision.”
“Our families have spent ten years negotiating peace.”
“And I have spent six months pretending this arrangement was a marriage.”
Vincent's expression darkened.
“Think carefully, Alessandro. Your family needs the Romanos.”
Alessandro leaned forward.
“My family needed you to honor the truce. It did not need you to choose my wife.”
Isabella's face went white.
“Your wife?” she whispered.
Alessandro looked toward the conservatory.
“Rosa was the woman I loved before either of our fathers decided my life belonged to them.”
Rosa, standing in the doorway with Lily in her arms, felt the words strike somewhere deep.
She had never expected him to say them aloud.
Vincent noticed her.
His gaze traveled from Rosa to the child.
Then something resembling recognition passed across his face.
“Where did you get that girl?”
Rosa tightened her hold on Lily.
Alessandro stepped between them.
“Choose your next words carefully.”
Vincent ignored him.
“Four years ago, a woman working at a private hospital disappeared after becoming involved with a Moretti associate. I was told she had left the city.”
Rosa's face drained of color.
“You knew?”
“I knew there had been a woman.”
“Who told you?”
Vincent looked at Isabella.
His daughter looked away.
That was enough.
Alessandro turned toward his fiancée.
“What have you done?”
Isabella lifted her chin.
“I did what I had to do.”
“To whom?”
“To protect our future.”
She gestured toward Rosa.
“She's a servant, Alessandro. She has no place in this family. You cannot throw away a political alliance because a woman who cleans your floors claims to have borne your child.”
“Claims?” Alessandro repeated.
He looked at Dominic.
“Bring me the file from the medical clinic.”
Dominic nodded and left.
Alessandro had already ordered a discreet DNA test through a private physician that morning. The results were not yet available, but the doctor's preliminary review of the records had revealed enough to make him certain.
Rosa had never lied about Lily's birth.
The child had been registered under her mother's surname.
The hospital records were genuine.
And the dates matched the three months Alessandro and Rosa had spent together.
Vincent studied him.
“You have no idea what you're doing. If you break this engagement, the Romanos will withdraw from the shipping agreement. Your competitors will move against you. The men who currently respect you will begin to wonder whether you've lost your judgment.”
Alessandro's expression remained cold.
“Then they can wonder.”
“You would risk your entire empire for a maid?”
“No,” Alessandro said. “I would risk an empire for my daughter.”
Isabella stared at him.
For the first time, she seemed to understand that she had lost something she could not buy back.
“You loved me,” she whispered.
Alessandro shook his head.
“I respected the agreement our fathers made. I never promised you my heart.”
Her eyes filled with fury.
“Then I hope she was worth it.”
She turned and walked out.
Vincent remained behind.
He studied Alessandro for a long moment before speaking.
“You should ask your security chief about the photograph.”
Alessandro's gaze sharpened.
“What photograph?”
“The one that arrived at my office this morning. A picture of the child, with instructions to remove her from the estate.”
Rosa gasped.
Alessandro's face went frighteningly still.
“Who sent it?”
Vincent hesitated.
“I don't know. But the envelope carried the Moretti family seal.”
Dominic returned carrying the medical file.
Alessandro barely glanced at it.
“Find out who accessed the estate's seal. Check every camera, every delivery log, every employee.”
Dominic nodded.
Vincent moved toward the door.
“One more thing. Isabella did not arrange this alone.”
Alessandro stopped him.
“Who helped her?”
Vincent looked toward the staircase.
“Someone who has been inside this family much longer than she has.”
Then he left.
Alessandro turned to Rosa.
“Take Lily upstairs. Stay with her.”
Rosa hesitated.
“What are you going to do?”
“Find out who wants my daughter dead.”
He walked toward his study.
The moment the door closed, his phone rang.
An unknown number.
Alessandro answered.
A distorted voice spoke.
“You should have married Isabella.”
“Who is this?”
“Someone who remembers what happened to your mother.”
Alessandro's blood went cold.
The voice continued.
“Keep the maid. Keep the child. But if you want them both alive, stop looking into the past.”
The call ended.
Alessandro stared at the screen.
For four years, he had believed the past was buried.
May you like
Now he understood that someone had been watching Rosa and Lily from the moment they entered his estate.
And that person knew exactly which secret would make him obey.
