Chapter 7 - THE HEIR NO ONE KNEW EXISTED
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Lorenzo stared at Daniel.
“Say that again.”
Daniel swallowed.
“Your father had another son.”
“You just told me Elena's child was you.”
“I am Elena's child.”
“Then who is the father?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Antonio had another child before me.”
Lorenzo's face hardened.
“How many children did that man have?”
Daniel gave a bitter smile.
“More than anyone knew.”
Marco stood.
“Who is the other son?”
Daniel looked at him.
“Adrian.”
Lorenzo's eyes narrowed.
“Adrian Bellini.”
Daniel nodded.
“He died when I was eleven.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
“Was it really an accident?”
Daniel looked away.
“I don't know.”
The room became heavy.
Lorenzo walked to the window.
His entire understanding of his family had collapsed.
His father had hidden children.
His mother had hidden documents.
Marco had hidden the truth.
Vivien had hidden the pregnancy.
And Victor Romano had apparently built an entire strategy around secrets that were older than Lorenzo himself.
“What does Adrian have to do with the baby?” Lorenzo asked.
Daniel answered.
“His genetic material was preserved.”
“Why?”
“Because Elena was afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
“Antonio's enemies.”
Sophia looked at the report again.
“So Vivien used Adrian's genetic material.”
“Yes.”
“Then the baby is Duca.”
“Yes.”
“But not Lorenzo's.”
“No.”
Lorenzo closed his eyes.
The pain on his face was unmistakable.
He had spent months imagining becoming a father.
He had spoken to the unborn child.
He had placed his hand against Vivien's stomach.
He had planned a nursery.
And all that time, someone had been constructing a child around a bloodline.
Not a family.
A succession.
He turned.
“Where is the clinic file?”
Daniel looked at Marco.
Marco answered.
“Victor Romano has the original.”
“Why?”
“Because he paid for the procedure.”
Lorenzo's expression became cold.
“Then he knows everything.”
“Yes.”
“And Vivien?”
“She knows.”
“Marco?”
Marco lowered his head.
“I knew part of it.”
“Part.”
“I knew Vivien was pregnant with a child created from Duca genetic material.”
Lorenzo stared at him.
“You knew?”
“I didn't know whose.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Marco's voice broke.
“Because Vivien told me the child was mine.”
Lorenzo studied him.
“And you believed her?”
“Yes.”
Marco looked ashamed.
“She told me she loved me.”
Lorenzo didn't answer.
Marco continued.
“She said after the wedding, we'd leave. She said Lorenzo would eventually step away from the organization. She said we would have our own life.”
Lorenzo's expression softened for one second.
Then hardened again.
“You helped her lie to me.”
“Yes.”
“You helped her build a future using my name.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew she planned to marry me.”
“Yes.”
Marco's eyes filled.
“I was weak.”
Lorenzo looked away.
“That isn't enough.”
“No.”
Marco nodded.
“It isn't.”
Sophia stepped between them.
“There's still one question.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Why did Emma know?”
Lorenzo frowned.
Sophia continued.
“Why did a three-year-old child know the baby wasn't Lorenzo's?”
Daniel looked toward the hallway.
“Because Vivien talked in front of her.”
“About the baby?”
“About everything.”
Sophia's face tightened.
“She was using Emma?”
“No.”
Daniel shook his head.
“She was using the mansion.”
He explained.
Vivien had been holding private meetings in the nursery because she knew nobody would suspect the room.
Emma had overheard conversations.
She didn't understand contracts.
She didn't understand succession.
She only understood simple things.
Uncle Marco.
Baby.
Daddy.
Secret.
And one phrase she had heard repeatedly.
“Uncle Lorenzo can't know.”
Sophia remembered Emma's face at the party.
She had not been trying to expose anyone.
She had simply repeated something she heard.
A child had accidentally broken open a conspiracy adults had spent months constructing.
Lorenzo sat down.
“What happens now?”
Daniel looked at him.
“You decide.”
“What do you mean?”
“You can expose everything.”
“And if I do?”
“Victor loses control.”
“Vivien?”
“She loses the marriage.”
“Marco?”
Daniel looked at him.
“That depends on you.”
Lorenzo stared at his oldest friend.
For nineteen years, Marco had been beside him.
Through bullets.
Funerals.
Wars.
Deals.
Betrayals.
And now Marco was the one person Lorenzo had to decide whether he could ever trust again.
Then Sophia noticed something on Daniel's wrist.
A bracelet.
The same silver rabbit charm.
She stared.
Daniel saw her looking.
“My mother gave me this.”
Lorenzo stood.
“That bracelet was given to Emma.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
He touched the charm.
“This one belonged to my mother.”
Sophia's breath caught.
“Then why does Emma have the same one?”
Daniel looked at her.
“They were made as a pair.”
He removed his bracelet.
On the inside was another engraving.
D.B. — E.B.
Daniel Bennett.
Elena Bellini.
Sophia suddenly understood.
“Your mother made one for each of you.”
Daniel nodded.
“One for me.”
He looked toward the hallway.
“And one for the child she believed would one day find us.”
Lorenzo frowned.
“What child?”
Daniel looked at Sophia.
Then toward Emma's room.
“The child Michael was protecting after me.”
Sophia froze.
“Emma?”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
He whispered:
“Michael had another secret.”
Then he pulled a final photograph from his pocket.
It showed Michael holding a newborn baby.
May you like
On the back were four words.
The child is Lorenzo's.
