Chapter 5 - The Secret Beneath the Chapel
The Moretti family chapel had been closed for eleven years.
Antonio had ordered it sealed after the death of his younger brother.
No priest was allowed inside.
No family member could enter without his permission.
Luca had never questioned the order.
Now, standing before its iron doors, he wondered what else his father had hidden behind locked rooms.
Marco checked the surrounding grounds.
“Two guards outside. Nobody inside.”
Luca held the silver key Elena had given him at the wedding.
It fit the old lock.
The door opened with a heavy groan.
Inside, dust covered the pews. A white marble altar stood beneath a stained-glass window depicting an angel holding a child.
Luca noticed something strange.
The angel's face had been scratched away.
“Look at the floor,” Marco said.
Several tiles near the altar were newer than the others.
They removed them one by one.
Beneath the floor was a narrow metal compartment.
Inside lay a leather journal, several bank documents, and a small cassette recorder.
Luca opened the journal.
The first page carried his father's handwriting.
The children must never meet until the truth is revealed.
He turned another page.
Vanessa knows the arrangement. She will receive the money when the boy is delivered.
Luca's jaw tightened.
He found a name.
Dr. Richard Hale.
And beneath it, a medical facility.
“Find this doctor,” he ordered.
Marco photographed the documents.
Then the cassette recorder clicked.
A man's voice filled the chapel.
Antonio Moretti.
“If Luca is hearing this, then I failed to protect my family.”
Luca stopped breathing.
His father's voice continued.
“The boy is my grandson. He carries the original inheritance papers in his medical record. His name was changed to Daniel Hale.”
Luca looked at Marco.
“Daniel.”
The recording continued.
“Vanessa Bellini was chosen because she was desperate for money. She was instructed to marry Luca, gain access to the family accounts, and locate the boy. But she became greedy.”
A second voice interrupted.
It was Vanessa.
“You promised me the entire estate.”
Antonio answered.
“You were promised a fortune. Not control.”
Then came a crash.
The recording ended.
Luca stood motionless.
Vanessa hadn't entered his life by chance.
Their engagement had been arranged around a child.
And his father had been behind it.
“Boss,” Marco said quietly.
A second document had fallen from the compartment.
It was a birth certificate.
The name of the mother had been altered.
But the original name was still visible beneath the correction.
Elena Moretti.
The child had never belonged to Vanessa.
A sound came from behind the altar.
Luca raised his weapon.
“Come out.”
A young man stepped into the light.
He was wearing a gray suit and holding a medical folder.
“Mr. Moretti?”
“Who are you?”
“Dr. Hale's assistant.”
Luca aimed at him.
“Where is my son?”
The man swallowed.
“Daniel is safe. But you need to understand something.”
“What?”
“Your father wasn't the only one who signed the transfer papers.”
Luca lowered his weapon slightly.
“Who else?”
The man placed another document on the altar.
Luca recognized Isabella's signature.
Then another.
His own.
He stared at it.
“I never signed this.”
The assistant nodded.
“That's what we discovered.”
He turned the page.
There was a third signature.
Elena's.
She had signed a document surrendering custody of both children.
Luca looked at the date.
It was two days after the twins were born.
Elena shook her head.
“I never signed that.”
The assistant reached into his folder.
“Then someone forged all three signatures.”
He placed a final photograph on the altar.
It showed the three people standing inside the chapel.
Antonio.
Vanessa.
And a third person whose face had been carefully scratched out.
Luca studied the photograph.
Then he recognized the watch on the stranger's wrist.
It was identical to the watch he had inherited from his father.
Except Luca was wearing that watch.
The person in the photograph had been wearing it eleven years earlier.
Marco leaned closer.
“Boss, look at the date.”
Luca turned the photograph over.
Written on the back were the words:
THE MAN YOU BURIED WAS NOT ANTONIO MORETTI.
Before Luca could respond, the chapel doors slammed shut.
The assistant disappeared into the darkness.
And a voice came through the old speakers.
“Welcome home, son.”
Luca slowly turned toward the altar.
The voice continued.
“You've finally found me.”
It was his father's voice.
May you like
And it was live.
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