Chapter 10 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW SHE WAS HIS SISTER
Adrian left the hospital room and vomited in a trash can.
I found him there ten minutes later.
He leaned against the wall.
Pale.
Shaking.
“She knew.”
I didn’t know what to say.
He looked at me.
“She slept with me knowing.”
My stomach turned.
Sophia’s betrayal had become something darker.
But even now, I wouldn’t let Adrian rewrite his responsibility.
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
“But you did know you were married.”
His eyes closed.
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“You’re right.”
Again.
That sentence.
Painful.
Necessary.
Lorenzo explained the rest.
Decades earlier, he had an affair with Victor Lane’s wife.
Sophia was born.
Victor learned the truth.
But instead of exposing it, he raised Sophia and turned her into a weapon against the Morettis.
Sophia discovered her biological father’s identity as a teenager.
She also learned Adrian was her half brother.
Yet she continued encouraging the family fantasy that they would eventually marry.
Why?
Revenge.
Power.
And hatred.
She wanted Lorenzo’s family to destroy itself.
And Adrian had made it easy.
The affair stopped looking romantic.
It looked like psychological warfare.
But the emotional devastation didn’t erase the legal facts.
Sophia was still under investigation for fraud.
Victor for unlawful confinement.
Matteo for conspiracy.
And Adrian for financial misconduct connected to my trust, even if some signatures were forged by others.
Everyone would face their part.
Then Sophia requested to speak with me.
My attorney recommended against it.
I agreed.
I didn’t need closure from her.
A week later, she sent a letter through counsel.
I almost threw it away.
Then read one line.
He always chose me because I trained him to.
I stared at the sentence.
It was cruel.
But true in a way.
Sophia learned which guilt to trigger.
Which childhood memory.
Which fear.
And Adrian never built boundaries.
So she kept taking.
And I kept shrinking.
The real turning point wasn’t Thanksgiving.
It was every time before Thanksgiving when I stayed silent.
I tore the letter in half.
Then filed the divorce.
No delay.
No reconsideration.
Adrian signed.
When Evelyn handed me the completed papers, I cried.
Not because I wanted him back.
Because something enormous had ended.
Claire Bennett Moretti became Claire Bennett again.
That evening, Adrian sent one message.
I signed everything. I won’t contest the trust. I’m sorry.
I stared at it.
Then replied:
Thank you.
Nothing more.
Weeks passed.
Then Lorenzo died.
This time for real.
Hospital.
Doctors.
Official certificate.
No secrets.
At the funeral, Adrian stood alone.
Sophia was in custody.
Matteo was absent.
Teresa sat beside me.
I almost didn’t attend.
But Lorenzo had finally told the truth.
That mattered.
Afterward, Adrian approached.
“Claire.”
“Yes?”
“There’s something Dad left you.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“A house.”
I almost laughed.
“I don’t want another Moretti gift.”
“It isn’t from him.”
He handed me the deed.
Owner:
Thomas Bennett Family Trust.
Address:
Lake Geneva.
My grandfather’s house.
May you like
Then Adrian said:
“Dad said it was the place your mother was born—and the place the Morettis took from your family forty years ago.”
