Chapter 6 - THE FAMILY DISEASE
Matteo’s mother had not died in a boating accident.
That was the story everyone told.
The truth was hidden inside a medical file Elena retrieved from an old Rossi safe.
Isabella Rossi died at thirty-four from a rare inherited cardiac condition.
Matteo was nine.
His father buried the diagnosis because rivals could exploit weakness.
Matteo had been tested secretly at sixteen.
Negative.
His younger sister Sofia had tested positive.
She died at twenty-one.
I had never known Matteo had a sister.
He had erased her from his stories the same way he erased every wound he couldn’t control.
“Why would Luca care if our baby inherited something you don’t carry?” I asked.
Matteo looked at the file.
“That’s the problem.”
“What?”
“My test may have been falsified.”
I stared.
“By who?”
“My father.”
Elena stood near the doorway.
“He believed if anyone learned Matteo might have the condition, the family would lose power.”
“So he lied?”
“We don’t know.”
I pressed both hands against my stomach.
Suddenly the unauthorized DNA collection felt even darker.
Not merely succession.
Medical leverage.
Matteo called his personal physician.
By sunrise, new tests were drawn from him legally and sent to an independent laboratory.
The preliminary answer came back the next afternoon.
Matteo carried the mutation.
He had lived forty years believing he didn’t.
My baby had a fifty-percent chance of inheriting it.
I sat in silence after the specialist explained what that meant.
Monitoring.
Early screening.
Possible treatment.
Not a death sentence.
But knowledge mattered.
Matteo stood near the window, fists clenched.
I looked at him.
“This is why secrets destroy families.”
He turned.
“Don’t.”
“No. Your father hid this. You hid your sister. Luca found out. Now our child is involved.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You knew enough to keep your family history from me.”
His voice broke.
“I didn’t want you afraid.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You married me into the Rossi family and thought ignorance would make me safe?”
He had no answer.
Then Elena entered.
“Someone is at the gate.”
Matteo’s hand moved toward his gun.
“Who?”
She looked at me.
“Adrian.”
My entire body went cold.
Matteo’s expression became lethal.
“No.”
I stood.
“Yes.”
He turned toward me.
“Norah.”
“I want to see him.”
“He abused you.”
“And I left him.”
“He is Luca’s brother.”
“And I still get to choose whether I face him.”
Matteo hated every word.
But for once, he stepped aside.
Adrian entered the study ten minutes later.
Older.
Thinner.
A scar running from his temple to his jaw.
But unmistakably him.
He looked at me.
Not Matteo.
Not the guards.
Me.
“I’m sorry.”
I felt nothing.
That surprised me.
“What do you want?”
“To stop Luca.”
Matteo laughed coldly.
“Convenient.”
Adrian ignored him.
“He isn’t trying to take your empire.”
Matteo narrowed his eyes.
“Then what?”
May you like
Adrian looked at me.
“He’s trying to destroy every Rossi bloodline before the baby is born.”
