Chapter 4 - THE ROSSI ADOPTION PAPERS
The name Rossi echoed in the silence of the bank vault like a gunshot.
Vanessa stared at the yellowed adoption papers, her breath catching in her throat. She looked like she had just been slapped.
“Rossi?” Luca whispered, the terrifying fury in his eyes shifting into absolute, bewildered shock. He looked at the documents, then back at Vanessa. “Your last name isn't Bellini.”
I stood frozen, clutching my cheap wool coat tightly around myself. Even I, a maid who had only worked in the Moretti household for two years, knew the name Rossi.
The Rossi syndicate was the rival family that had ruled the city two decades ago. They were the men who had orchestrated the assassination of Luca’s father.
“I don't understand,” Vanessa stammered, reaching out with a trembling hand to touch the papers. “My father’s name was Richard Bellini. He died when I was seven. Mary raised me alone.”
“Read the signature, Vanessa,” Luca commanded, his voice cold and hard.
He pointed to the bottom of the second page.
The signature of the biological father was scrawled in thick, aggressive ink: Lorenzo Rossi.
The boss of the Rossi family. The man who had ordered the hit on Luca’s father.
“No,” Vanessa breathed, shaking her head frantically, tears spilling down her cheeks. “No, that’s impossible. My mother was a cafeteria worker. She couldn't have been married to a mafia boss!”
“She wasn't,” Luca said, his eyes scanning the documents with ruthless precision. He pointed to the biological mother’s name. It wasn't Mary Bellini. It was a woman named Elena Rossi.
Luca looked up, the horrifying truth finally settling over the room.
“Mary isn't your biological mother, Vanessa,” Luca said softly. “She adopted you. When you were seven years old.”
Vanessa collapsed into the chair beside the viewing table, burying her face in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. Her entire identity, the carefully crafted history she had built her life upon, was a lie.
I looked down at the brass key resting on the table. The tag that said Dowry.
“Why would she hide this?” I asked quietly, unable to stop myself. “Why let Vanessa believe her father was Richard Bellini?”
Luca turned to me, the anger completely gone from his eyes, replaced by a deep, unsettling realization.
“Because twenty years ago, when my father was murdered, my family retaliated,” Luca explained, his voice heavy with the ghosts of the past. “We wiped the Rossi syndicate off the map. Lorenzo Rossi was killed. His wife, Elena, died in the crossfire. We thought we had eliminated the entire bloodline.”
He looked back down at the sobbing woman in the red dress.
“We didn't know they had a seven-year-old daughter.”
The puzzle pieces were clicking into place with terrifying speed.
Mary Bellini hadn't just adopted an orphaned girl. She had hidden the sole surviving heir of the Rossi mafia family from the wrath of the Morettis. She had changed Vanessa’s name, moved to a quiet suburb, and worked in a hospital cafeteria for twenty-nine years to keep the girl invisible.
And tonight, that same girl had stood in the Moretti dining room, desperate to marry the son of the man her biological father had murdered, and humiliated the woman who had sacrificed everything to keep her alive.
“The watch,” Luca whispered, picking up the gold pocket watch again. His hands were shaking. “If Lorenzo Rossi ordered the hit on my father, his men would have brought this watch back to him as proof of the kill. When Lorenzo was killed, Mary must have found it when she took Vanessa.”
“She kept it,” I breathed, staring at the intricate gold casing. “For twenty years. Why?”
“Insurance,” Luca said grimly. He looked at the bank deposit receipts still clutched in his other hand. The forty-two thousand dollars. “Or a payoff.”
He turned to the bank manager, who was standing nervously near the door.
“Arthur,” Luca demanded. “When Mary Bellini withdrew the forty-two thousand dollars three days ago, did she request it in cash or a cashier’s check?”
“A wire transfer, Mr. Moretti,” Arthur stammered, pulling a small tablet from his jacket pocket. “She wired the entire amount to an offshore account in the Cayman Islands.”
Luca’s jaw tightened into iron. “Who owns the account?”
Arthur tapped the screen furiously. He frowned. “It’s a shell corporation, sir. But the listed beneficiary is... someone named Dominic Rossi.”
The air in the vault turned to ice.
“Dominic Rossi is dead,” Luca said, his voice dropping an octave. “He was Lorenzo’s brother. My uncle killed him twenty years ago.”
“Well, someone using his name opened this account three weeks ago, sir,” Arthur confirmed, showing Luca the screen.
Vanessa looked up from her hands, her mascara smeared, her face a mask of absolute terror.
“My mother wired forty thousand dollars to my uncle?” Vanessa whispered. “But why?”
“Because he’s not dead,” Luca realized, the terrifying scope of the conspiracy finally coming into focus. “And he knows who you are, Vanessa. He knows you’re marrying me.”
He slammed the adoption papers back into the safety deposit box.
“Mary didn't come to the house tonight to drop off a pie,” Luca said, turning to me with dark, urgent eyes. “She came to warn me. And Vanessa wouldn't let her speak.”
Before anyone could say another word, Luca’s cell phone rang, the shrill tone echoing violently in the steel vault.
Luca pulled it from his pocket. The caller ID was Marco.
Luca answered it, putting it on speaker. “Marco. Tell me you found Mary.”
“Boss,” Marco’s voice cracked, thick with panic and adrenaline. “I went to her apartment. The door was kicked in. The place is completely trashed.”
I gasped, pressing my hand to my mouth.
“Where is she, Marco?” Luca demanded, gripping the phone tightly.
“She’s gone, sir,” Marco said, his breath hitching. “But that’s not the worst part. They left something nailed to her front door.”
“What?”
“It’s the pie, boss,” Marco whispered. “The peach pie she brought to the house tonight. It’s smashed against the wood. And written on the wall above it in blood is a message.”
May you like
Luca closed his eyes. “Read it.”
“It says, The Dowry is paid. The Rossi bloodline returns tonight.”
