Chapter 10 - The Wedding That Never Happened
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Luca looked at his father.
“Tell me the truth.”
Antonio sat down.
“I believed Catherine was dead.”
“Apparently, you believe a lot of things that turn out to be wrong.”
“I saw her car explode. I saw the fire. I saw the medical report.”
“Was there a body?”
Antonio said nothing.
Luca laughed bitterly.
“Of course there wasn't.”
Vanessa approached.
“Maybe the woman on the phone was trying to manipulate you.”
“Maybe.”
Luca looked toward Sophie.
The little girl was asleep in a chair, wrapped in a blanket.
Whatever happened next, he refused to let another child become a bargaining chip in the Moretti family's endless war.
He handed Vanessa his phone.
“Take Sophie somewhere safe.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere Vincent doesn't know.”
She hesitated.
“Are you coming with us?”
Luca looked at the unfinished wedding ring still lying inside his jacket.
“No.”
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
“Then I suppose this is goodbye.”
Luca didn't answer immediately.
He remembered the woman who had stood beside him at the altar. The woman whose smile had once made him believe he could build a life outside the darkness.
He still cared about her.
But love could not erase betrayal.
“I don't know what happens between us,” he said. “But Sophie deserves a chance to have a normal life.”
Vanessa nodded.
“I understand.”
She kissed Sophie's forehead and left with two trusted guards.
Luca turned toward Antonio.
“Take me to Catherine's grave.”
They drove to a small cemetery outside the city.
Antonio led him to a modest stone bearing Catherine Bell's name.
But the date of death was missing.
Instead, someone had carved a single sentence:
SHE WAS NEVER HERE.
Behind the stone was a narrow metal compartment.
Inside lay a key, a photograph, and a handwritten note.
Luca opened the photograph.
A young woman stood beside a hospital window, holding a newborn baby.
The baby was Luca.
The woman was Catherine.
But standing beside her was another woman.
Elena.
On the back, Catherine had written:
The two women who saved my son.
Luca read the note.
Antonio, if you're reading this, you failed to keep your promise. I told you never to let Vincent know the truth about the second child. I told you to protect both children equally. But you chose one.
Luca looked at Antonio.
“What second child?”
Antonio's face crumpled.
Before he could answer, Luca's phone rang.
An unknown number.
He answered.
“Luca?”
It was Isabella.
Her voice sounded exhausted.
“I'm safe.”
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you yet.”
“Who took you?”
A pause.
“Someone who says she is our mother.”
Luca closed his eyes.
“Catherine?”
“Yes.”
He looked at Antonio.
His father was staring at the photograph.
“Put her on the phone.”
“I can't.”
“Why?”
“Because she's afraid of him.”
“Afraid of whom?”
Isabella whispered:
“Your twin.”
Luca went completely still.
“My what?”
“Vincent wasn't the only person who knew about our birth. Catherine had two children. You and another boy. Elena helped hide you both.”
Luca looked at the photograph again.
Only one baby was visible.
“Where is he?”
“I don't know. Catherine says he was taken before she escaped.”
Luca's voice dropped.
“Who took him?”
Isabella hesitated.
Then she said something that made the entire world seem to stop.
“Antonio.”
Luca slowly turned toward his father.
Antonio didn't deny it.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“Where is my brother?”
Antonio's eyes filled with tears.
“He was supposed to be raised somewhere safe.”
“Where?”
Before Antonio could answer, another message arrived.
A photograph.
It showed a man standing outside the Moretti mansion.
He was wearing a black suit.
His face was almost identical to Luca's.
Underneath it was a single sentence:
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR WEDDING, BROTHER. I SAVED YOU A PLACE AT THE TABLE.
Luca stared at the screen.
Then the phone rang again.
This time, the caller ID displayed a name.
VINCENT MORETTI.
Luca answered.
His uncle's voice sounded strangely cheerful.
“Did you enjoy the family reunion?”
“Where is my brother?”
Vincent laughed.
“Your father told you he was dead, didn't he?”
Luca said nothing.
“Antonio has always been good at burying secrets.”
“Tell me where he is.”
Vincent paused.
“Look at the photograph again.”
Luca did.
There was a small detail he hadn't noticed before.
A silver watch on the man's wrist.
The same watch Antonio had given Luca on his eighteenth birthday.
The watch that had disappeared from his bedroom three years earlier.
Vincent spoke again.
“Your brother has been closer than you think.”
Then the call ended.
Luca looked at Antonio.
His father slowly lowered himself onto the cemetery bench.
“I thought I had protected both of you.”
“You thought?”
Antonio covered his face.
“I was wrong.”
Luca looked toward the road.
Somewhere in the city, a man with his face was waiting.
His wedding had been stopped.
His father had returned from the dead.
His sister had been found.
And the woman he had believed was his mother might still be alive.
But the greatest shock was yet to come.
Because when Luca returned to the mansion, he found a final white envelope waiting on the altar.
Inside was a photograph of his wedding ceremony.
It had been taken before the envelopes appeared.
Before Antonio entered.
Before the truth was exposed.
And standing behind Luca and Vanessa, barely visible between two guests, was a man who looked exactly like Luca.
On the back, five words had been written:
ONE OF YOU IS NOT MORETTI.
Luca stared at the photograph.
Then he noticed the wedding ring.
The ring he had intended to place on Vanessa's finger was missing.
In its place was a small silver key.
And engraved on the key were two initials.
C.B.
Catherine Bell.
Luca closed his fist around it.
For the first time in his life, he understood that the Moretti family secret wasn't simply about who had betrayed whom.
It was about who had been born, who had been stolen, and who had been allowed to live under another person's name.
May you like
And somewhere, a second Luca Moretti was preparing to claim everything.
THE WEDDING WAS OVER. THE WAR FOR THE FAMILY HAD JUST BEGUN.
