Chapter 9 - THE LAST VARENNA SECRET
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Luca slowly lowered his phone.
"Get me the original adoption records."
Marco moved immediately.
I sat on the sofa, unable to stop shaking.
If Salvatore had known who I was before the marriage, then the arrangement that had saved my mother's life might have been part of something much darker.
Luca knelt in front of me.
"Evelyn, look at me."
I did.
"Nothing changes how I feel about you."
"But what if he arranged everything?"
"Then I'll find out why."
"What if our marriage was never real?"
His expression softened.
"It became real the moment we chose each other."
He pressed my hand against his chest.
"And I won't let anyone take that away."
An hour later, Marco returned with a folder.
The adoption records were incomplete.
But there was one document that had survived.
A private trust agreement signed by Luca's father.
It named two beneficiaries.
Luca Varenna.
And his firstborn child.
The second beneficiary was identified only by a birth date.
Mine.
The document also contained a clause.
If the firstborn child married into the Varenna family and produced an heir, the family trust would transfer control of several major assets to that child's descendants.
I read the clause twice.
"That's why he arranged the marriage."
Luca nodded.
"Salvatore wanted the trust activated."
"But why would he want me to marry you?"
"Because he thought he could control us."
Marco placed another paper on the desk.
It was a payment record from eleven weeks earlier.
A transfer had been made to the hospital treating my mother.
The money hadn't come from Luca.
It had come from a company owned by Salvatore.
I stared at the document.
"He paid my mother's medical bills?"
Luca's expression darkened.
"Before I made the offer."
The room went silent.
The marriage proposal.
The contract.
The medical expenses.
All of it had been arranged before Luca ever met me.
My phone began vibrating.
A message appeared from an unknown number.
Come alone if you want to know who your real father was.
Attached was an address.
An abandoned warehouse near the harbor.
Luca saw the message.
"Absolutely not."
"I need answers."
"You'll get them."
"I've spent my entire life believing one thing about myself. Now everyone is telling me something different."
He held my face.
"Then we'll find the truth together."
But before we could leave, Marco received a call.
His expression changed.
"Boss, there's been an incident."
"What?"
"Your mother."
Isabella had been taken from her home.
The security cameras showed three men entering through the rear entrance.
One of them was wearing a Varenna security uniform.
Luca's jaw tightened.
"Find them."
They located Isabella's car near the harbor.
The warehouse from my message.
Luca insisted I stay in the armored vehicle.
But when the warehouse doors opened, I saw my mother standing inside.
Beside her was Salvatore.
And behind him stood a man I had never seen before.
He was older.
Gray-haired.
Wearing an expensive black suit.
Salvatore looked toward me.
"Come closer, Evelyn."
Luca stepped in front of me.
"Let her go."
Salvatore smiled.
"You're still protecting the wrong person."
He gestured toward the older man.
"This is Thomas Bennett."
I stared.
My mother made a small sound.
Thomas stepped forward.
"I've been looking for you for twenty-seven years."
"Who are you?"
He looked at me with wet eyes.
"I'm your biological father."
I felt my knees weaken.
Salvatore laughed.
"Now you understand why your marriage was so important."
Thomas reached into his coat.
He removed a photograph.
It showed a young woman holding a newborn baby.
Beside her stood Thomas.
And in the background was Luca's father.
But the date printed on the photograph was impossible.
It had been taken thirteen years ago.
One year before Luca's accident.
Thomas looked directly at me.
"There's something else you need to know."
He turned toward Luca.
"Your father didn't steal my daughter."
May you like
He swallowed.
"He stole her twin brother, too."
