Chapter 3 - LUCA’S DEAD BROTHER WAS ALIVE
Matteo Moretti was alive.
That sentence moved through the estate faster than fire.
Security doors closed.
Phones appeared.
Men who had barely reacted when I fell into Luca began speaking rapid Italian in hallways.
Luca did nothing.
That frightened me more.
He remained beside the long dining table staring at the photograph attached to Matteo’s filing.
“Is it him?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
The answer was almost soundless.
Elena sat down.
She looked like someone had punched her.
“I saw the body.”
Luca turned.
“What?”
“I saw a body at the morgue.”
“You told me you didn’t.”
“I lied.”
Brother and sister stared.
Apparently deception was the Moretti family language.
Elena whispered:
“Vittorio said you were too unstable after the accident. He made me identify Matteo.”
“Was it him?”
“I thought it was.”
“What do you mean?”
“His face was damaged.”
Boating explosion.
Burns.
Closed funeral.
Classic environment for a lie.
Luca’s hands closed around the back of a chair.
“Why would our father fake Matteo’s death?”
Alessandro answered:
“Because Matteo threatened to expose the Bennett transfer.”
Everyone looked at him.
He knew more.
Of course.
Matteo had collected documents proving Vittorio and Alessandro had moved my mother’s land illegally.
He also found irregularities across several Moretti businesses.
Not necessarily criminal operations.
Legitimate companies.
Shipping.
Hotels.
Security.
Cash moving into trusts.
Vittorio feared Matteo would fracture family control.
Then the boating accident.
Except maybe it wasn’t an accident.
“Did Vittorio try to kill him?” I asked.
Alessandro looked horrified.
“I don’t know.”
Good.
No convenient certainty.
Then Luca’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Silence.
Then his face changed.
“Matteo?”
A male voice through speaker:
“Hello, big brother.”
Elena started crying.
Luca did not.
His entire body seemed to lock.
“You’re alive.”
“I noticed.”
“You let us bury you.”
“I was unconscious for nine days.”
Luca closed his eyes.
Matteo continued.
“When I woke up, I was in Switzerland under another name.”
“Who took you there?”
“Ask Father.”
Luca’s face became stone.
Matteo said Vittorio arranged private medical treatment.
Then told him Luca believed he was dead.
Why?
To divide them.
Matteo claimed Vittorio said Luca had ordered the boating sabotage because he wanted sole control.
Luca whispered:
“He told me you died because you were meeting our enemies.”
Perfect.
Father told each brother the other betrayed him.
Then Matteo learned truth years later.
Why not return immediately?
Because he was physically damaged.
Leg surgery.
Burns.
Then fear.
He built evidence.
He wanted legal control before returning.
“Why file today?” Luca asked.
“Because Sophia arrived.”
My stomach tightened.
“How do you know me?”
“I know everything about the Bennett land.”
Then:
“And I know Father plans to use your marriage to lock me out permanently.”
How?
Moretti Family Property Trust succession clause.
Vittorio had created it.
If Luca married a designated beneficiary tied to contested property—me—before Matteo formally challenged, Luca would become sole managing heir of trust after Vittorio’s death.
Matteo’s dormant interests would extinguish under presumed death certification.
The wedding was a deadline.
That was why priest tonight.
Why rush.
Why five previous women?
I looked at Luca.
“What happened to brides one through five?”
His expression changed.
“They left.”
“Why?”
“They said I frightened them.”
“Every one?”
Silence.
Elena stood.
“No.”
Luca looked at her.
“What?”
“The third didn’t leave because of you.”
He went still.
“Bianca?”
Elena nodded.
Bianca Rossi.
Arrived eighteen months earlier.
Stayed three days.
Then suddenly packed.
She told Luca she could never marry a man “built like a prison wall.”
Cruel.
He remembered every word.
Elena said:
“I heard her arguing with Father before she left.”
About what?
She found trust documents.
Vittorio offered her money to disappear.
She took it.
Bride four?
Family pressured.
Bride five?
Same.
Maybe the women were encouraged to reject Luca so he would accept whichever bride Vittorio truly needed.
Me.
The first five made rejection normal.
By bride six, Luca would expect nothing, ask few questions, agree quickly if I stayed.
It was emotional conditioning.
My anger changed direction.
Luca had spent years believing women hated his body—
because his father wanted him insecure enough not to question an arranged marriage.
I looked at him.
His face had gone blank.
That was worse than anger.
Then Matteo said over phone:
“Luca, Sophia cannot marry you.”
I snapped:
“You don’t get a vote either.”
Silence.
Then Matteo laughed.
“Good.”
At least one Moretti appreciated boundaries.
Then:
“Sophia, your mother did not die believing the land belonged to you.”
I froze.
“What?”
“My mother?”
“Her will was changed three months before her death.”
I looked at Dad.
He went pale.
Matteo continued:
“The Lake Como property wasn’t left to Sophia alone.”
“Who else?”
“Me.”
No.
Why would my mother leave property to Matteo Moretti?
Matteo answered:
“Because I’m not only Luca’s brother.”
Pause.
“I’m your mother’s son too.”
The room stopped.
My mother had a child before me.
Matteo.
That would make him my half brother—
and Luca’s half brother through Vittorio?
Impossible unless my mother and Vittorio had him.
Matteo said:
“Vittorio Moretti was not my biological father.”
Luca stared at the phone.
May you like
Then Matteo finished:
“Thomas Bennett was.”
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