Chapter 6 - THE SECOND SECRET
The red emergency lights strobed across the foyer, casting long, bloody shadows against the walls.
Luca stared at the birth certificate in Isabella’s trembling hands.
His mouth parted, but no sound came out.
“That’s impossible,” Luca finally whispered.
I looked at the document.
Isabella Bellini.
Mother: Vanessa Bellini.
Father: Unknown.
It had been altered. A shadow copy, forged and stamped by a corrupt city official.
“Vanessa is not my mother,” Isabella said, her voice shaking violently. “My mother died when I was four. Vanessa was just your girlfriend for the last five years.”
“She’s twenty years younger than me,” Luca said, his mind racing to put the pieces together. “She was a teenager when you were born. It makes no sense.”
Dominic groaned on the floor, shifting amidst the broken wood.
His eyes fluttered open. He clutched his broken wrist, wincing as the red lights washed over him.
Luca was on him in an instant.
He hauled Dominic up by his collar, slamming him against the wall.
He shoved the birth certificate in his brother’s face.
“Explain this!” Luca roared. “Right now. Or I swear to God, I will break your other arm.”
Dominic coughed, spitting a mixture of blood and saliva onto the marble.
He looked at the paper and let out a wet, rattling laugh.
“You never wondered why I pushed Vanessa toward you, brother?” Dominic wheezed. “Why I convinced you she was the perfect woman to help you move on?”
Luca’s grip tightened. “Speak.”
“Vanessa didn't just stumble into your life, Luca,” Dominic sneered. “She came to me three years ago. Terrified. Broke. Her mother was dying in a nursing home and she needed cash. But she had something to trade. A secret.”
I stood near Isabella, keeping Leo behind me.
My ribs ached with every breath, but I couldn't look away.
“Vanessa is Isabella’s half-sister,” Dominic revealed.
The foyer went dead silent again.
Isabella gasped, stepping backward.
“Your late wife,” Dominic continued, looking at Luca, “had a child before she met you. A teenage pregnancy. She gave the baby up for adoption to a family named Bellini. That baby grew up to be Vanessa.”
Luca looked like the floor had vanished beneath him.
“My wife never told me.”
“Of course she didn't,” Dominic spat. “She was terrified of you. But Vanessa found out. She found her biological mother’s grave, and then she found me. She wanted a cut of the Moretti wealth. I told her I’d do better than that. I told her I’d make her the queen of the family.”
It all clicked into place.
“That’s why Vanessa gave me the locket,” Isabella whispered. “That’s why she drove me away. She didn't want to protect me. She wanted to replace me as the sole heir.”
“Exactly,” Dominic smiled weakly. “And to ensure her claim, I had my contacts forge that birth certificate. Legally proving she was the rightful mother of the Moretti heir, and Isabella was illegitimate. If anything happened to you, Luca... Vanessa and I would take it all.”
“But Isabella had twins,” I realized aloud.
Dominic glared at me. “Yes. The maid catches on. Isabella had two boys. An unexpected complication. As long as those boys existed, the old captains in the family would never accept Vanessa. So, Marcus took Matteo. And he’s waiting for my call to finish it.”
“Give me the passcode to the phone,” Luca demanded, pressing his forearm against Dominic’s throat.
“Or what?” Dominic choked. “You kill me? Marcus knows that if I don't check in every hour, the boy dies. You have thirty minutes until the deadline, Luca. You can't hack the phone. You can't leave the house. Checkmate.”
Luca threw Dominic to the floor in disgust.
He turned to Isabella, his eyes frantic.
“We have to get out of this house,” Luca said. “We have to get to Marcus.”
“We can’t,” Isabella cried, holding up the override keycard. “It only works from the outside guardhouse. The steel shutters are rated for explosives.”
I looked at the heavy steel plates covering the windows and doors.
Then I looked down the long, dark hallway toward the kitchen.
I thought about my father. About the stories he used to tell me when he worked as a contractor for the city’s historic buildings, long before his stroke.
“There is another way out,” I said quietly.
Luca and Isabella turned to me.
“Mr. Moretti,” I said, swallowing my fear. “This mansion was built in 1925. During Prohibition.”
Luca’s eyes widened slightly.
“My father helped renovate the kitchen plumbing five years ago,” I continued. “He told me there was an old coal chute in the wine cellar. The family who built this house used it to smuggle rum from the river. It leads directly to the storm drains outside the property line.”
Dominic laughed from the floor. “The coal chute is sealed with a six-inch iron grate, you idiot. You can’t open it from the inside.”
I looked Dominic right in the eye.
“You can’t. But I carry towels for a living. I know where every tool in this house is kept.”
May you like
I turned to Luca.
“Sir. Follow me.”
