Chapter 4 - The Bride Who Was Carrying His Secret
Luca couldn't speak.
He stared at his mother as though she had become a stranger.
“Say that again.”
Elena reached for his hand.
“Sofia is your daughter.”
“No.”
“She was born thirteen years ago.”
“I was twenty-one.”
“You were in the hospital that night.”
Luca stepped backward.
He remembered almost nothing about that period.
His father had sent him overseas after a violent confrontation with a rival family. When he returned, his father told him that a young woman he'd been seeing had died in childbirth.
He had never been allowed to see the baby.
He had been told the child was stillborn.
“Who was the mother?”
Elena looked toward the door.
“Vanessa.”
Luca closed his eyes.
For several seconds, the only sound was the rain against the windows.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because your father threatened her.”
Luca laughed without humor.
“Everyone seems to have been threatened by my father.”
Elena nodded.
“He told her that if she ever revealed the truth, Sofia would disappear.”
“Where did he take her?”
“I don't know.”
Luca turned toward Emily.
“Find Vanessa.”
Emily nodded and hurried away.
Then Luca looked back at his mother.
“Why did you say Gabriel was dead?”
Elena began crying.
“Because I watched your father carry a small coffin out of the hospital.”
“Was there a body?”
“No.”
“Then you knew.”
“I suspected. But I was afraid.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“Afraid of what?”
Elena slowly lifted her sleeve.
A faded scar crossed her wrist.
“Your father told me he would bury both my sons if I ever tried to expose him.”
Luca knelt beside her.
“I'm not him.”
She touched his cheek.
“I know. That's why I am telling you now.”
***
Two hours later, Luca received a location.
An abandoned warehouse near the harbor.
He arrived with six armed men.
Inside, he found Vanessa tied to a chair.
Her face was bruised.
“Luca!”
He rushed toward her.
“Are you hurt?”
“Don't come closer!”
He stopped.
A red laser dot appeared on his chest.
A man stepped out from behind a container.
Richard Moretti.
“Good evening, nephew.”
Luca raised his gun.
“You should be dead.”
Richard laughed.
“Your father used to say the same thing.”
“Where is my daughter?”
Richard tilted his head.
“Straight to business. I like that.”
“Where is Sofia?”
“Alive. For now.”
Luca's finger tightened around the trigger.
Richard held up one hand.
“Easy. I didn't bring you here to kill you.”
“Then why?”
“To offer you a choice.”
He placed two folders on a metal table.
“One contains the original hospital records. The other contains the names of everyone involved in your father's private operation.”
Luca stared at them.
“What operation?”
Richard smiled.
“The one that made your family rich.”
Vanessa suddenly spoke.
“Luca, don't listen to him.”
Richard struck her across the face.
Luca moved forward.
A gun clicked behind him.
“Another step, and she dies.”
Richard opened the first folder.
Inside were photographs of three newborn babies.
The same three children from the hospital.
Luca.
Gabriel.
And Sofia.
But there was another photograph.
It showed a fourth baby.
Luca frowned.
“Who is that?”
Richard's smile disappeared.
“That child was never supposed to survive.”
Vanessa began crying.
Richard continued.
“Your father ordered the hospital to switch identities. He wanted one child to inherit the family fortune, one child to disappear, and one child to become leverage.”
Luca stared at him.
“You're lying.”
“Am I?”
Richard pushed another document across the table.
It was a signed agreement between Luca's father and Dr. Reed.
The final line read:
THE ORIGINAL HEIR MUST NEVER LEARN HIS IDENTITY.
Luca looked at Vanessa.
“What does that mean?”
She finally broke.
“Luca, I need to tell you something.”
He turned toward her.
“Tell me.”
She looked into his eyes.
“The man who raised you wasn't your biological father.”
Silence.
Richard smiled.
“Now we're getting somewhere.”
Luca's entire world collapsed.
“Then who was?”
Richard leaned forward.
“Gabriel's father.”
Luca shook his head.
“Gabriel is my twin.”
Richard nodded.
“Exactly.”
Then he revealed the last photograph.
It showed Elena holding a newborn baby.
Behind her stood a young man who looked exactly like Luca.
But the man's name was written underneath.
MARCUS BELLINI.
Richard whispered:
“Your mother gave birth to one Moretti and one Bellini.”
Before Luca could ask another question, the warehouse doors exploded open.
May you like
Gunfire erupted.
And when the smoke cleared, Vanessa was gone.
