Chapter 10 - THE SON VITTORIO HID
Matteo said nothing for a long time.
Then he laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because his entire identity had been hit from another direction.
“Someone else?”
Elena lowered her eyes.
Matteo turned toward her.
“You know.”
She began crying.
That frightened me more than Luca.
“Elena.”
“I promised Isabella.”
“Promised her what?”
She looked at Matteo.
“That I would never tell you unless your life depended on it.”
His face hardened.
“My life depended on a lot of things over the last thirty years.”
Elena nodded.
“I know.”
Then she told us.
Isabella had given birth to twins.
Two boys.
Matteo.
And Marco.
Vittorio told everyone only one survived.
That was a lie.
Marco was born weak.
Doctors believed he carried Isabella’s cardiac mutation.
Vittorio feared a sick heir would be considered weakness.
So he gave the baby away.
Matteo sat down.
“No.”
Elena continued.
“Isabella never forgave him.”
“Where did Marco go?”
“To a family connected to the Bellinis.”
Every person in the chapel went still.
Adrian whispered:
“Jesus.”
I already knew.
“Luca.”
Elena shook her head.
“Not Luca.”
Matteo looked at Adrian.
Adrian’s face had gone pale.
“No.”
Elena stared at him.
“Your mother raised Marco alongside you.”
Adrian stepped backward.
“You’re lying.”
“His name was changed.”
“To what?”
Elena started crying harder.
“Adrian.”
Silence.
Adrian looked at Matteo.
Same height.
Similar eyes.
Different coloring.
But now that I knew, I could see something I had never noticed.
The jaw.
The way they tilted their heads when angry.
The same crease between the eyebrows.
Matteo stared at the man who had once married me.
His twin brother.
My former husband.
The room became almost unreal.
Adrian whispered:
“Luca knew?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Years.”
That explained everything.
Luca’s obsession with succession.
The blood test.
The Rossi mutation.
Adrian’s survival.
Luca had not merely wanted revenge.
He had a second Rossi heir.
One he could control.
Matteo stood.
“You married my brother’s wife.”
Adrian gave a broken laugh.
“I married Norah before she ever knew you existed.”
Matteo looked at me.
I saw jealousy flash.
Then shame.
Even now.
Even after everything.
I said quietly:
“Do not make this about ownership.”
His expression changed.
“You’re right.”
The admission surprised me.
Then Adrian asked the only question that mattered.
“Why does Luca need me?”
Elena answered.
“Because if Matteo falls and his child is disqualified as heir, you become Vittorio Rossi’s surviving son.”
Adrian shook his head.
“I don’t want anything.”
“Luca doesn’t need you to want it.”
Then one of Matteo’s guards rushed into the chapel.
“Boss.”
He held out a phone.
Security footage.
From our Boston house.
A woman was entering through the front gate.
Harper.
She carried no luggage.
No weapon.
May you like
Only a baby monitor.
And she was walking directly toward the nursery.
