Chapter 11 - THE MAN WHO STOLE MY BODYGUARD'S FACE
The video made my blood run cold.
Marco Vitali was tied to a chair in an unknown room.
Yet someone who looked almost exactly like him had just entered my daughter's hospital room.
I turned toward the hallway.
"Security!"
Two officers stationed outside responded immediately.
"Nobody leaves this floor without identification checks," I said.
Then I corrected myself.
"Coordinate with hospital security and the police. There may be an impersonator."
My pulse pounded.
Elena watched me.
"Dad?"
I turned.
Her face was pale.
"What's happening?"
I knelt beside her.
"Someone is trying to frighten us."
"Are we safe?"
I wanted to promise her nothing bad would happen.
But I'd learned that promises needed to mean something.
So I answered honestly.
"We have trained people here. We're taking precautions. And I'm not going to make any reckless decisions."
She nodded slowly.
Sofia held her hand.
Then my phone rang.
Vittorio.
I stared at the screen.
I answered while the call was recorded according to the instructions I'd received from investigators.
"Luca."
His voice was calm.
"You always were too emotional."
"Where's Marco?"
Vittorio laughed.
"Your loyal dog?"
I closed my eyes.
"Let him go."
"That depends on you."
"What do you want?"
"Access to the family accounts."
I stared.
"The accounts are frozen."
"Not all of them."
A pause.
"You know the private reserves Antonio left behind."
My father.
Even now, Vittorio wanted money.
"Those assets are under investigation."
"Then perhaps your friend will suffer for your cooperation."
I gripped the phone.
For one brief moment, the old Luca surfaced.
The man who threatened.
The man who commanded.
The man who believed violence could solve anything.
Then I looked at Elena.
She was watching me.
Her eyes were frightened.
But hopeful.
And I understood what mattered.
I lowered my voice.
"Vittorio, I'm not playing your game."
Silence.
"Marco deserves to come home. The authorities are handling this."
Vittorio laughed bitterly.
"You sound weak."
I looked at my daughter.
"No."
For the first time, I knew the answer.
"I sound like a father."
I ended the call.
Within hours, investigators traced several communications associated with Vittorio's network.
The impersonator was identified as a former security contractor who resembled Marco and had used stolen credentials.
Hospital security footage helped track his movements.
He was arrested.
And his testimony provided information about Marco's location.
The next morning, police rescued Marco from an abandoned commercial property.
He was injured.
But alive.
When I visited him, he smiled weakly.
"Boss."
I sat beside him.
"Don't call me that."
He frowned.
"What?"
"Not anymore."
Marco stared.
I looked down.
"I'm ending my involvement in the organization."
Silence.
Then he smiled.
"About time."
I laughed.
Then my phone vibrated.
A message from my attorney.
The investigation had uncovered something unexpected.
A sealed trust document created by my father before his death.
The trust listed a protected beneficiary.
Someone whose identity had been concealed for twenty years.
I opened the file.
My eyes widened.
Because the beneficiary wasn't me.
It was a child.
A little girl born seventeen years earlier.
And the name on the document was Elena Sofia Mancini.
My father had known about her.
Before she was even born.
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But the next page contained an even greater shock.
Antonio Mancini had created the trust because he knew Vittorio would eventually try to destroy his own bloodline.
