Chapter 7 - The Romano Vault
The Romano vault was beneath the old estate.
My father had built it himself.
Only the Romano bloodline could open it.
My ring was the key.
But Vincent had taken it.
We found the vault door.
Locked.
Adrian looked at me.
“Can you open it without the ring?”
I stared at the ancient mechanism.
Then remembered something.
My father used to tell me:
“Blood remembers what the mind forgets.”
I pressed my palm against the metal.
Nothing.
Then I noticed a small engraving.
A dagger.
I cut my finger.
Pressed the blood against it.
The door opened.
Inside were documents.
Bank accounts.
Names.
Photographs.
Judges.
Senators.
Police commissioners.
Businessmen.
Everything.
The entire criminal network.
But one file made Adrian stop.
His own name.
I opened it.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Adrian Moretti wasn't the biological son of Marco Moretti.
He was Gabriel Romano's son.
I stared at him.
“No.”
Adrian couldn't speak.
The truth was impossible.
My father wasn't simply the man who saved Adrian.
He was his father.
My half-brother?
No.
Adrian's mother was Marco's wife.
Gabriel and she had been in love before the war.
Adrian had been born from that secret.
Marco had raised him as his own.
That meant Adrian was Romano blood.
And my father's son.
My brother.
The realization destroyed the future I had imagined.
Adrian stared at the document.
“No.”
He backed away.
“That's not possible.”
I was crying.
“So am I.”
He looked at me.
Then another document fell from the folder.
A DNA report.
Adrian was not Gabriel's son.
The first document had been forged.
Vincent had created it.
A trap.
I almost laughed from relief.
But Adrian didn't.
He picked up another file.
This one was real.
DNA results.
He was Marco's biological son.
My father had been his godfather.
The mystery was finally clear.
Vincent had tried to destroy us by making us believe we were related.
But he had failed.
Then I found a final message from my father.
“Melissa, if you are reading this, trust Adrian.”
My hands trembled.
“Not because he is a Moretti.”
“But because he is the boy I chose to save.”
Adrian looked at me.
Tears ran down his face.
“I thought I lost everything.”
I stepped toward him.
“You didn't.”
He held me.
For the first time, neither of us cared about bloodlines.
We cared about family.
Then the vault doors slammed shut.
A voice echoed through the chamber.
“Beautiful reunion.”
Vincent.
He had followed us.
And he wasn't alone.
Behind him stood thirty armed men.
Vincent smiled.
“Now give me the baby.”
Adrian stepped in front of me.
“No.”
Vincent laughed.
“You still don't understand.”
He raised his gun.
“This was never about the money.”
May you like
His eyes moved to our son.
“It was about the heir.”
