Chapter 3 - THE BRACELET
Sophia stared at the tiny silver bracelet.
“Where did you get this?”
Emma looked confused.
“Uncle Lorenzo gave it to me.”
Sophia turned the charm over.
The engraved number was still there.
She compared it with the number she had written down from the clinic photograph.
Identical.
Her heart began beating faster.
She didn't know what the number meant.
But she knew it couldn't be coincidence.
“Mommy?”
Sophia immediately smiled.
“It's okay, sweetheart.”
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No.”
Sophia hugged her.
“You did nothing wrong.”
That afternoon, Sophia quietly returned to the clinic.
She didn't enter.
She simply stood across the street and watched.
After forty minutes, the same nurse appeared.
Sophia approached her carefully.
“Excuse me.”
The woman looked at her.
“Can I help you?”
“I think I may have written down the wrong patient number.”
The nurse glanced at the paper.
Her expression changed.
“I can't discuss patients.”
“I understand.”
Sophia stepped back.
Then the nurse quietly said something unexpected.
“That number isn't a patient number.”
Sophia stopped.
“What is it?”
The nurse looked around.
“It belongs to a storage file.”
“What kind of file?”
“I shouldn't say.”
Sophia nodded.
Then the nurse added:
“It's connected to genetic material.”
Sophia's blood went cold.
Before she could ask anything else, the nurse walked away.
Genetic material.
Sophia returned to the mansion with a terrible feeling.
That evening, Lorenzo hosted a private dinner.
Only Lorenzo, Vivien, Marco, Brenda, and Sophia were present.
Emma sat at a smaller table nearby, eating pasta.
Lorenzo raised his glass.
“To family.”
Vivien smiled.
Marco looked down.
Sophia nearly dropped her fork.
Lorenzo noticed.
“Everything all right?”
“Yes.”
He studied her.
“You're a terrible liar.”
Vivien's eyes flicked toward Sophia.
For one brief second, their eyes met.
Vivien knew.
Sophia realized she knew.
Then Emma suddenly spoke.
“Aunt Vivien doesn't like Uncle Marco.”
The room went silent.
Vivien smiled too quickly.
“Children say strange things.”
Emma shook her head.
“No.”
Lorenzo looked amused.
“What did she say?”
Emma pointed toward Marco.
“He makes Aunt Vivien cry.”
Marco's face hardened.
Sophia immediately intervened.
“Emma, finish your dinner.”
But Lorenzo was no longer smiling.
“Where did you hear that?”
Emma shrugged.
“Upstairs.”
Vivien laughed nervously.
“She's three.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“So?”
Vivien's smile disappeared.
Then Emma said something else.
“And Aunt Vivien said Daddy can't know.”
The silence became absolute.
Marco stood.
“I think we should stop this.”
Lorenzo slowly turned toward him.
“Sit down.”
Marco sat.
Sophia could see the old friendship between them cracking in real time.
Lorenzo looked at Emma.
“What did Aunt Vivien say?”
Emma looked frightened.
Sophia knelt beside her.
“You don't have to answer if you don't want to.”
Emma whispered:
“She said Uncle Marco is the baby's daddy.”
Vivien closed her eyes.
Lorenzo didn't move.
Marco looked at him.
“Lorenzo—”
“Not now.”
His voice was quiet.
Too quiet.
He looked at Sophia.
“Take Emma upstairs.”
Sophia obeyed.
She carried Emma out.
Once they reached the hallway, Emma whispered:
“Did I make Uncle Lorenzo sad?”
Sophia hugged her.
“No, baby.”
“Is he mad?”
“He's thinking.”
Emma rested her head against Sophia's shoulder.
“Thinking is when grown-ups get quiet.”
Sophia almost smiled.
“Yes.”
She put Emma to bed.
Then she returned downstairs.
The mansion had changed.
Guards stood in the hallway.
Lorenzo was alone in the study.
Sophia knocked.
“Come in.”
She entered.
Lorenzo stood beside the desk.
On the table lay the photograph she had hidden.
He had found it.
Sophia's stomach dropped.
“You took this?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She looked at him.
“Because I heard them.”
Lorenzo's face was unreadable.
“What did you hear?”
Sophia told him.
Not everything.
Not yet.
She told him about the study.
The conversation.
The child.
The clinic.
The photograph.
Lorenzo listened without interrupting.
When she finished, he asked one question.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
He picked up the photograph.
His thumb moved across Marco's face.
“Did you know about the baby?”
“No.”
“Do you believe Marco is the father?”
“I believe he and Vivien think he is.”
Lorenzo looked up.
“That's not the same thing.”
“No.”
He walked to the window.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he turned.
“Don't tell anyone what you told me.”
Sophia frowned.
“What?”
“Not Vivien. Not Marco. Not anyone.”
“You believe me?”
“I believe you heard something.”
He looked toward the hallway.
“And I believe someone wants me to react before I understand why.”
That was the first reversal Sophia hadn't expected.
Lorenzo wasn't simply angry.
He was suspicious.
He understood that betrayal could be more complicated than an affair.
Then he noticed the bracelet on Sophia's wrist.
“Where did Emma get that?”
“You gave it to her.”
“I know.”
He took it gently.
Turned the rabbit charm over.
Saw the number.
His expression changed.
“Where did this come from?”
“I don't know.”
Sophia told him about the clinic.
Lorenzo became very still.
Then he opened a drawer.
Inside was a photograph.
A much older photograph.
It showed Antonio Duca holding a newborn baby.
Beside him stood a woman Sophia didn't recognize.
Lorenzo stared at the photograph.
“My father kept this hidden.”
Sophia looked closer.
The baby wore a tiny silver bracelet.
A rabbit charm.
Sophia's breath caught.
“That bracelet…”
Lorenzo nodded.
“It belonged to my father's first child.”
Sophia stared at him.
“But you said—”
“My father told me I was his only son.”
He turned the photograph over.
There was a date.
Twenty years before Lorenzo was born.
Then another name.
Elena Bellini.
Lorenzo's expression hardened.
“My father had another family.”
Sophia whispered:
“What does that have to do with Vivien?”
Lorenzo didn't answer.
Instead, he looked at the bracelet again.
Then at the clinic number.
May you like
And finally at the photograph of Marco and Vivien.
“I think,” he said slowly, “someone has been lying about more than the baby's father.”
