Chapter 6 - The Father Who Never Died
Luca stood beneath the chapel's stained-glass window, listening to the voice he had believed was dead for years.
“Show yourself.”
A low laugh came through the speakers.
“Still giving orders. Some things never change.”
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
Marco searched the walls for the speaker system.
Luca noticed a small red light blinking beneath the altar.
He pressed it.
A hidden panel opened.
Behind it was an old monitor connected to a security camera.
The screen flickered.
Then a man appeared.
His hair was gray.
His face was thinner.
But Luca knew him.
Antonio Moretti.
Alive.
“Father?”
Antonio smiled.
“Hello, Luca.”
Luca felt something break inside him.
“You let me bury you.”
“I had no choice.”
“You let me mourn you!”
“I needed you to believe I was gone.”
Luca stepped closer to the screen.
“And Elena?”
Antonio's expression hardened.
“She was never supposed to survive.”
Marco immediately raised his weapon toward the monitor, as if the man could somehow emerge from it.
Luca's voice became dangerously quiet.
“You ordered my wife's death?”
“I ordered the removal of a threat.”
“She was pregnant.”
“I know.”
“You separated my children.”
“I protected them.”
Luca slammed his fist against the altar.
“Stop calling it protection!”
Antonio sighed.
“You don't understand what your family is.”
“I understand that you destroyed it.”
For the first time, Antonio looked angry.
“Your grandfather built an empire. Your father maintained it. You were supposed to inherit it. But Elena wanted to expose the financial network that funded our operations. She found records she shouldn't have seen.”
Luca looked at Elena.
She nodded slowly.
“I found accounts connected to missing children,” she said. “Babies were being transferred between private clinics under false identities.”
Antonio's expression changed.
“Be careful what you say.”
“You sold children,” Luca said.
“I arranged adoptions.”
“You stole them.”
“Some were unwanted. Some were abandoned. I gave them families.”
“And what about my son?”
Antonio looked directly into the camera.
“Your son was special.”
Luca's stomach tightened.
“Why?”
“Because he was born with access to a trust that could expose every person involved.”
Luca looked at the documents.
The inheritance was not simply money.
It contained the records of the entire operation.
The boy was the legal heir to a trust that held evidence against powerful people.
Antonio continued.
“Your mother knew. Vanessa knew. Elena knew enough to become dangerous.”
“Where is Daniel?”
Antonio smiled.
“Ask Vanessa.”
The screen went black.
Luca immediately called Marco.
“Find Vanessa. Every property, every account, every associate.”
Marco checked his phone.
“She's not at the estate.”
A second call came through.
It was from Isabella.
Luca answered.
“Mother?”
Her voice was shaking.
“Your father has contacted me.”
“Where are you?”
“At the old lake house.”
“Stay there. I'm coming.”
“No, Luca. Listen to me.”
A pause.
Then she whispered:
“Vanessa has Daniel.”
Luca froze.
“What?”
“She called me. She said she would trade the boy for the original will.”
“Where is she?”
“I don't know. But she told me something else.”
“What?”
Isabella began crying.
“She said the little girl in your house isn't Elena's daughter.”
Luca looked toward Elena.
Sofia was standing behind her, holding the stuffed rabbit.
Elena's face went white.
“That isn't true,” she whispered.
Luca ended the call.
He looked at Sofia.
“Sweetheart, who told you to wear that yellow coat?”
Sofia looked confused.
“Vanessa.”
“Why?”
“She said it would help Daddy find me.”
Luca knelt.
“Did she tell you anything else?”
The little girl nodded.
“She said Mommy wasn't really Mommy.”
Elena pulled her close.
Luca stood.
“Enough. We're getting DNA tests. We're finding Daniel. And we're ending this.”
Marco's phone buzzed.
A message appeared.
It contained a photograph of Isabella tied to a chair.
Beneath it were six words.
BRING ELENA. LEAVE LUCA BEHIND.
Luca looked at his wife.
Then at their daughter.
He finally understood.
Antonio wasn't trying to reclaim his empire.
He was trying to bring the family back together.
May you like
And Elena was the only person he wanted alive.
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