Chapter 10 - THE MAN WHO FINALLY ADMITTED HE WAS AFRAID
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Dominic found Raphael at the abandoned church where the Moretti family had buried Vittorio.
Snow drifted through a broken window. Candles flickered beside the altar, illuminating the old stone walls.
Raphael stood alone, holding a photograph.
Dominic entered with his weapon drawn.
“Put it down.”
Raphael looked at him.
For once, he didn't smile.
“I knew you'd come.”
“Where is Elena?”
“Safe.”
“Where is Sophia?”
“Gone.”
Dominic's expression darkened.
“You've lied to me for years.”
“Yes.”
The admission seemed to surprise them both.
Raphael lowered the photograph.
“I was twenty-two when your father discovered the hospital records. He believed someone was trying to destroy the family. He asked me to help move Elena to a safe location.”
“And you did.”
“I did.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Elena asked me not to.”
Dominic laughed once, without humor.
“You expect me to believe my mother was alive all these years and you thought keeping that from me was the right decision?”
“No. I thought it was the only decision that kept her alive.”
Raphael explained that Elena had discovered a network of powerful people using private medical facilities to falsify identities and erase records. The Morettis had financed part of the operation without understanding its full purpose. When Vittorio learned the truth, he tried to withdraw the money.
The people behind the scheme threatened his family.
Elena disappeared. Andrew Parker raised Lucy far from Chicago. Isabella Bellini uncovered the truth and helped Raphael protect Elena, but she was forced to vanish when someone inside the organization began hunting her.
“Who?” Dominic demanded.
Raphael looked down at the photograph.
“Your father wasn't the mastermind. Neither was Adrian. They were both trying to control something they didn't understand.”
“Then who was?”
Raphael hesitated.
Before he could answer, Lucy appeared in the doorway.
She had followed Dominic despite his orders to stay at the residence.
“Tell us,” she said.
Raphael looked at her.
“Your mother discovered that the person funding the entire operation was someone who had access to every family account, every hospital record, and every security system.”
Lucy swallowed.
“Who?”
Raphael turned the photograph toward her.
It showed Bianca Russo standing beside an older woman in a hospital corridor.
The older woman wore a nurse's uniform.
Lucy recognized her from the old family photographs.
It was Elena's mother.
Her grandmother.
Raphael spoke quietly.
“She built the network before Vittorio ever knew it existed. She believed she was protecting children from powerful families who would use them as weapons.”
Dominic lowered his gun slightly.
“And now?”
“Now someone is using her system to find the surviving children.”
Lucy looked at the photograph.
“Where is my grandmother?”
Raphael's phone vibrated.
He checked the screen and went pale.
A message contained a live photograph of Elena Moretti sitting in a small room.
She was alive.
Beside her stood a woman whose face was hidden by shadow.
Beneath the photograph was a message.
Bring Lucy to the old hospital at midnight. Come without Dominic.
Lucy looked up.
“She's asking for me.”
Dominic shook his head.
“It's a trap.”
“Maybe. But if my mother is there, I'm going.”
“You're not going alone.”
“Dominic, this is my family.”
“And you're mine.”
The words came out before he could stop them.
Lucy stared at him.
He looked almost embarrassed.
“I don't know how to do this,” he admitted. “I don't know how to care about someone without trying to control every danger around them. I don't know how to be afraid without turning it into anger.”
His voice broke slightly.
“But I'm afraid, Lucy. I'm afraid I'll lose you before I've even figured out what you mean to me.”
Lucy stepped closer.
“You don't have to pretend with me.”
For a moment, he looked as though he might reach for her.
Then she took his hand first.
His fingers trembled beneath hers.
She smiled sadly.
“Still nothing?”
He let out a breath that was almost a laugh.
“Everything.”
They stood together beneath the broken church windows, surrounded by the ruins of a family built on secrets.
For the first time, Dominic didn't pull away from the fear.
He held her hand and let it show.
At midnight, they reached the abandoned hospital.
The doors stood open.
Inside, a single light burned at the end of the corridor.
Elena waited in a wheelchair, older and thinner, but unmistakably alive.
Lucy ran to her.
Her mother reached up and touched her face.
“My beautiful girl.”
Lucy fell to her knees beside her.
“Why didn't you come home?”
Elena wept as she held her daughter.
“Because I was trying to make sure you would have a home to return to.”
Dominic stood back, giving them the moment.
Then Elena looked toward him.
“Dominic, there's something you need to know.”
He approached.
“What?”
She took his hand.
“Your father wasn't the one who changed the birth records.”
Dominic froze.
Elena's gaze moved toward the dark doorway behind them.
“The person who did it is still alive.”
A figure stepped into the light.
Bianca Russo.
She held a small envelope.
Inside was a photograph of a newborn baby, dated just three months earlier.
On the back, someone had written a name.
ADRIAN MORETTI.
Dominic stared at it.
“That isn't possible.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“No,” she whispered. “It isn't.”
Then the hospital lights went out.
May you like
A gunshot echoed through the corridor.
And in the darkness, someone whispered Lucy's name.
