Chapter 7 - THE MAN WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD
Lorenzo arrived at the apartment within an hour.
He studied the photograph of Daniel Moretti without speaking.
“That's my uncle,” he said at last. “My father's younger brother.”
“Your family said he died.”
“My father said he died.”
“Did you believe him?”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“I was twelve. My father told me Daniel had betrayed the family and been killed. There was a funeral. There was a coffin. I never saw the body.”
“Then you don't know whether he's alive.”
“No.”
He turned toward Sarah.
“Find him.”
Sarah shook her head.
“Not without a warrant or reliable grounds to question him. We need to establish what he knows and whether he's connected to the threats.”
Lorenzo looked displeased, but he nodded.
For once, he allowed someone else to set the boundaries.
That evening, Lily and Isabella met with an independent attorney to review the letters and photographs. The attorney confirmed that the documents were worth investigating but warned that family claims and old photographs were not enough to establish legal parentage.
They would need authenticated records, DNA evidence, and a careful examination of the chain of custody.
Lily agreed.
She wanted the truth, not another story invented by powerful people.
The next morning, an envelope arrived at the apartment.
Inside was a key and a note.
If you want to know which child was erased, come to the old Bellandi house at six. Come without Lorenzo.
Lily showed it to Sarah.
“No,” Sarah said immediately. “This could be a trap.”
“It probably is.”
“Then you're not going.”
Lily looked toward Isabella.
“What if Daniel is there?”
“Then we'll arrange a controlled meeting,” Sarah replied. “You don't have to risk your life to prove you're brave.”
Lily understood the warning.
But the note had been written in the same blue ink as her mother's letter.
Someone had access to the original documents.
Someone knew exactly which secrets would make her come running.
They arranged for Sarah and two officers to observe the Bellandi house from a nearby street. Lily would not enter alone, and Lorenzo would remain at a distance to avoid escalating the situation.
At six, the old house stood dark against the winter sky.
Lily inserted the key into the front door.
It turned.
Inside, dust covered the furniture, and a grandfather clock stood frozen at 11:17. The hallway smelled of damp wood and old paper.
A man stepped from the library.
He was in his sixties, with silver hair and a face that seemed strangely familiar.
“Lily Moretti,” he said.
She held her ground.
“Daniel?”
He nodded.
“You look like your mother.”
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
“Because it's true.”
She glanced toward the library.
“Why did you bring me here?”
Daniel gestured toward a desk.
“Because your mother and Sofia were both trying to protect you. They believed the truth would destroy the family. In the end, the lie nearly destroyed all of you anyway.”
He opened a drawer and removed a folder.
Inside were two original birth certificates, a hospital transfer form, and a photograph of two newborn babies.
Lily stared at the documents.
The first certificate listed her mother's name.
The second listed Sofia Bellandi's.
But both certificates carried the same hospital identification number.
4172.
“What does that mean?” Lily asked.
Daniel sat down heavily.
“It means the hospital records were altered. The two babies were switched in the system.”
Lily's heart pounded.
“Switched?”
“Not necessarily at birth. The transfer form suggests one child was moved from one ward to another under a false name. Someone wanted the family to believe that one baby belonged to one woman and the other to someone else.”
“Why?”
“Because your grandfather believed he could control the family's inheritance by controlling who inherited the name.”
Lily stared at the paperwork.
“Which child was mine?”
Daniel opened the final envelope.
Inside was a DNA report bearing the signature of a laboratory director.
The report named Matteo Moretti as the biological father of both girls.
Lily looked at him.
“Both?”
Daniel nodded.
“Your mother and Sofia were sisters in everything that mattered, but they weren't the only people who were lied to. The records suggest that one of you was raised under the wrong identity.”
A floorboard creaked upstairs.
Daniel's expression changed.
“Someone followed you.”
The library door burst open.
Vincent Costa stood in the doorway, a gun in his hand.
“Give me the folder,” he said.
Lily stepped back.
Daniel rose between them.
“You've caused enough damage.”
Vincent's smile was thin.
“You have no idea how much damage is still coming.”
Outside, Sarah shouted for the officers to move in.
Vincent turned toward the sound.
Daniel seized the opportunity, knocking the gun aside. A struggle erupted, sending the desk crashing against the wall.
Lily grabbed the folder and ran for the front door.
A gunshot rang out behind her.
She stumbled onto the porch, where Lorenzo caught her before she fell.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He looked past her toward the house.
“Where's Daniel?”
Lily turned.
Through the doorway, she saw Daniel lying on the floor.
May you like
Vincent was gone.
And the folder was missing its final page.
