Chapter 10 - THE HIDDEN LETTERS
My hands shook violently, the heavy silver ring on my finger catching the bathroom light.
My secret, true love.
I flipped to the next photograph. It was a picture of my father, twenty years younger, standing in front of the very mansion I now lived in.
Beneath the photos were several folded letters, the paper yellowed with age.
I unfolded the first one.
Teresa,
I cannot stand watching Salvatore raise my son as his own. Luca has my eyes, my temper. He is a Romano, not a Moretti. When the time is right, I will come for both of you. Be patient.
I dropped the letter. The paper fluttered to the bathroom tiles.
I pressed my hands against my mouth to stifle a scream.
Luca wasn't a Moretti.
He was a Romano. The son of the rival crime boss. My father.
Luca and I… we were half-siblings.
Nausea rolled through me in violent waves. I collapsed against the bathroom wall, gasping for air. The man I had just agreed to marry, the man whose child I had birthed—it was biologically impossible. Matteo was healthy. Luca and I weren't related. We couldn't be.
Could we?
I thought about the night Luca saved me from Dante. He said he had made a deal with the Bratva ten years ago to save me because he saw me playing in my family’s courtyard. Did he know? Did he save me because he knew I was his sister?
The bathroom door creaked open.
“Hannah?” Luca’s deep voice echoed in the tile room. “Are you okay? You’ve been in here a while.”
He stepped into the bathroom, wearing gray sweatpants and a t-shirt, looking impossibly handsome and completely relaxed.
Then he saw the metal box on the floor.
His smile vanished instantly. His body went rigid.
“Hannah,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a cautious whisper.
I looked up at him, tears streaming down my face. “Tell me this is a lie, Luca. Please tell me this is a lie.”
Luca stared at the scattered letters. He didn't deny it. He didn't look confused.
He looked caught.
“How long have you known?” I choked out, pulling my knees to my chest.
Luca slowly knelt in front of me. He didn't try to touch me.
“I found those letters three years ago,” Luca confessed, his voice thick with shame. “After Catherine died. I was tearing the house apart looking for answers, and I found my mother’s hidden box.”
“You knew?” I sobbed, feeling my entire world fracture. “You knew we were related, and you still proposed to me tonight? We have a child together, Luca! How could you do this?”
“We are not related, Hannah!” Luca grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. His dark eyes were desperate, burning with absolute sincerity. “Look at me. I am not a Romano.”
I shook my head, pushing his hands away. “The letters—”
“The letters are real, but Vincenzo Romano’s belief was a lie!” Luca insisted, his voice rising in panic. “My mother had an affair with him. Yes. But when I found those letters, I confronted her. She swore to me that Salvatore was my biological father.”
“Why would she lie to Vincenzo?”
“To keep him from killing me!” Luca pleaded. “Salvatore was a monster, Hannah. He beat my mother. He terrorized us. Vincenzo was the only man powerful enough to challenge him. My mother lied and told Vincenzo I was his son so that Vincenzo would protect me from his own men during the syndicate wars.”
I stared at him, my breathing ragged. “Are you telling me the truth?”
“I took a DNA test, Hannah,” Luca said softly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, rapidly scrolling through his files. He shoved the screen in front of my face.
It was a secure medical document from a private lab.
Probability of Paternity (Salvatore Moretti): 99.9%.
I let out a shuddering breath, the crushing weight lifting off my chest just enough to let me breathe. We weren't siblings. My son was safe. My marriage was safe.
But the relief was short-lived.
“If Vincenzo thought you were his son,” I whispered, “and you destroyed his syndicate… where is he now?”
Luca’s face hardened. He pocketed his phone.
“He’s in prison, Hannah. We made sure of that.”
“Are you sure?”
Before Luca could answer, a loud crash echoed from downstairs. The sound of breaking glass.
The security alarms didn't go off. The house remained deadly silent.
Luca immediately stood up, drawing a hidden pistol from beneath the bathroom sink. He stepped in front of me.
“Stay here,” Luca commanded.
He crept out into the dark hallway.
I didn't stay. I grabbed a heavy pair of iron curling tongs from the vanity and followed him silently.
As we reached the top of the grand staircase, we looked down into the moonlit foyer.
Standing in the center of the room, surrounded by four men in dark suits, was Teresa Moretti.
She was tied to a wooden chair. Her mouth was gagged.
And standing behind her, holding a suppressed pistol to the back of her head, was my father.
Vincenzo Romano had broken out of prison.
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“Come down, Luca!” Vincenzo shouted up the stairs, his voice echoing in the empty mansion. “Come down and greet your real father!”
TITLE: The Midnight Knock
