Chapter 9 - THE LAST LIE OF THE MORETTI FAMILY
Anthony Moretti denied everything.
He denied knowing about a second grandson. He denied recognizing the photograph of Isabella holding the newborn. He denied that the signature on the clinic letter was his, even though the investigators had already verified it.
Vincent stopped believing him before the first denial was finished.
For decades, Anthony had controlled the family through selective truths. He had taught Vincent that every secret was a weapon and every relationship a possible weakness. Vincent had accepted that philosophy because it made him powerful.
Now it was clear that his father had used the same philosophy to destroy the lives of people who had never chosen to be part of the family war.
The investigators traced the second birth record to a small town in northern Italy. The child had been registered under a different surname and transferred between guardians after Isabella's death. No current address appeared in the file.
Emily refused to let Vincent turn the investigation into a private operation.
“If you send armed men into another country, you'll frighten whoever has been protecting this child,” she told him over the phone. “And if the child has been hidden for this long, there's probably a reason.”
“What do you suggest I do? Wait?”
“I suggest you let the investigators do their work. And I suggest you stop assuming that every person who knows something about your family is your enemy.”
He fell silent.
Then he said, “You're right.”
The words surprised her.
Vincent had begun attending therapy sessions arranged by his attorney, partly to satisfy a court recommendation and partly because he was finally confronting the damage he had done. He didn't tell Emily about every session, and she didn't ask. Their conversations remained practical: Noah's care, legal updates, and the boundaries around the pregnancy.
He sent no flowers.
He didn't ask her to return.
For the first time, he understood that restraint was not the same as surrender.
Meanwhile, Sophia's world began to collapse.
Investigators discovered that she had used the private foundation to pay for Noah's care, but she had also transferred money to Marcus Vale, the man who had appeared outside Patricia's house. Those transfers began shortly after Emily accepted the Paris appointment.
Sophia claimed she had been blackmailed.
She said Marcus threatened to expose her role in Noah's disappearance unless she helped him locate the child. She had paid him to keep the secret buried, then panicked when Emily began asking questions.
It was a believable story.
It was also incomplete.
A recording recovered from Sophia's phone showed her speaking to someone whose face was never visible.
“If Vincent finds out the truth about Isabella,” Sophia said, “he'll destroy everything.”
The other person replied, “Then make sure he finds Emily first.”
The recording ended there.
Vincent listened to it twice.
“Who was she talking to?” he asked.
The investigator shook his head.
“We're working on identifying the voice.”
“Could it be my father?”
“Possibly.”
“Could it be Marcus?”
“Possibly.”
Vincent slammed a hand against the desk.
“I'm tired of possibilities.”
Emily, standing near the window, turned toward him.
“Then stop treating this like a war you can win by frightening everyone into talking.”
He looked at her, anger giving way to shame.
She continued more softly.
“There's a child somewhere who may have spent his entire life believing his family didn't want him. Don't make him another casualty of the Moretti name.”
Vincent lowered his head.
“I won't.”
Two days later, Sophia agreed to give a formal statement.
She claimed Anthony had told her that Isabella's death was connected to an internal family dispute. She had learned about Noah through a nurse and offered to pay for his care because she believed Vincent would eventually need to know his son had survived.
“Why didn't you tell him?” the investigator asked.
“Because Anthony said Vincent would take the boy and raise him inside the family business.”
“And you thought you were protecting Noah?”
“I thought I was protecting Vincent.”
“By keeping his child from him?”
Sophia began crying.
The investigator continued.
“Why did you send Emily's medical report to Vincent?”
Sophia's face changed.
“I wanted him to come back to me.”
There it was.
Not protection. Not loyalty.
Possession.
“I thought if Emily left him, he would finally understand who had always been there for him,” she admitted. “I didn't know she would actually go.”
Vincent watched the recorded statement in silence.
When it ended, he walked out without a word.
That evening, he called Emily.
“I need to tell you something before you hear it from anyone else.”
“What is it?”
“Sophia says she sent the report because she wanted me to choose her. She admits she knew about the pregnancy before I did.”
Emily closed her eyes.
“I'm not surprised.”
“I know. But I wanted you to hear it from me.”
“Thank you.”
He paused.
“I miss you.”
The honesty in his voice hurt more than a demand would have.
“I miss who I thought we were,” Emily said. “But I can't go back to being the woman who waits for you to come home.”
“I understand.”
They said goodbye.
An hour later, Daniel called with an urgent update.
The investigators had identified the second child's mother. She was not a stranger to the Moretti family.
She was Isabella's younger sister, who had disappeared shortly before Isabella died.
And the child she had delivered was still alive.
The record listed a name.
Adrian Moretti.
Vincent stared at the document.
His father had another son.
A son who might be older than Vincent's own child, a son hidden by the very family that had taught him to fear secrets.
Then the investigator delivered the final detail.
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Adrian had recently applied for access to the Moretti family trust.
And his application included a letter from Isabella stating that Vincent—not Anthony—was the rightful guardian of the family fortune.
