Chapter 7 - THE SECRET MATTEO KEPT FOR SIX YEARS
Adrian did not remember sitting down.
One moment he stood in the foyer.
The next he was in his father's old chair.
Lily was upstairs changing into dry clothes.
Sofia sat opposite him.
Matteo stood near the fireplace.
Nobody spoke.
Adrian finally looked at Sofia.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“From when?”
“Before the fire.”
He turned toward Matteo.
“You knew.”
Matteo nodded.
That hurt differently.
“You knew Lily was mine and you let me bury you both.”
Matteo's jaw tightened.
“Don't make this about betrayal.”
“What would you call it?”
“Survival.”
Adrian stood.
Sofia flinched slightly.
He saw it.
Immediately, he stopped.
Sat again.
Lower voice.
“Explain.”
Sofia did.
She and Matteo had broken up briefly seven years earlier.
Not dramatically.
Painfully.
Matteo was disappearing deeper into family business.
Sofia was tired of waiting for him.
During that separation, she and Adrian shared one drunken night.
One.
They agreed it should never happen again.
Weeks later, Sofia and Matteo reconciled.
Then she discovered she was pregnant.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I was going to.”
“When?”
“The day after the fire.”
Adrian laughed without humor.
Convenient fate.
Matteo looked at him.
“She told me first.”
“And?”
“I was angry.”
“Understandably.”
“I almost left.”
Sofia looked down.
“But then he came back.”
Matteo continued.
“I loved her.”
Adrian said nothing.
“And the baby had done nothing wrong.”
Something in Adrian's chest broke.
Matteo had known Lily wasn't his.
Still protected her.
Still became “Uncle Matt” because calling himself father would have required lying in ways Sofia refused to normalize.
“Why uncle?”
Sofia answered.
“We told Lily her father wasn't in her life yet.”
“Yet?”
“I always intended to tell you.”
“When?”
“When Victor was gone.”
Adrian rubbed both hands over his face.
Six years.
Six birthdays.
First steps.
First words.
School.
Illnesses.
Everything.
Gone.
Matteo's voice softened.
“If you want to hit me, do it.”
Adrian looked at him.
“I don't.”
That surprised both brothers.
“I want six years back.”
Matteo looked away.
“So do I.”
The anger thinned.
Not vanished.
Changed.
Adrian asked, “Does Lily know?”
Sofia shook her head.
“No.”
“Then we don't tell her tonight.”
Matteo nodded immediately.
“Agreed.”
Sofia looked relieved.
Adrian hated that part of him felt grateful Matteo wasn't fighting for ownership of the child.
Then he hated himself for thinking in those terms.
Lily wasn't territory.
She was six.
A person.
“Why did Victor find you now?” Adrian asked.
Matteo sat.
“Because we found the ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“The original freight ledger your father hid before he died.”
Adrian stared.
“The one Victor has been searching for?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Matteo looked toward the ceiling.
“With Lily.”
Adrian almost laughed.
“What?”
Sofia explained.
The purple backpack.
The stuffed rabbit.
She had sewn a memory card inside the rabbit's ear.
Adrian closed his eyes.
“You sent a six-year-old through my gate carrying evidence that can destroy Victor?”
Sofia's face hardened.
“I sent my daughter to the only person Victor was afraid to attack directly.”
“Me.”
“Yes.”
Matteo shook his head.
“We argued about that.”
“You should have won.”
“I know.”
Sofia looked at both men.
“I had six minutes.”
That ended the judgment.
Six minutes.
Fear makes terrible plans look reasonable.
Adrian stood.
“We get the drive.”
Lily came downstairs wearing one of Teresa's granddaughter's sweaters.
She carried the rabbit.
Adrian looked at it differently now.
His daughter's rabbit.
He nearly stumbled over the thought.
Lily hugged it.
“His name is Bernard.”
“Of course it is.”
She frowned.
“What's that supposed to mean?”
Adrian almost laughed.
Definitely his child.
Then the front windows exploded.
Glass sprayed across the foyer.
Adrian threw himself over Lily.
Security alarms screamed.
Matteo drew his weapon.
Cruz shouted from the hall.
Outside, two vehicles accelerated away from the south wall.
No bullets followed.
It wasn't an attack meant to kill.
Something had been thrown through the window.
A brick wrapped in paper.
Marco picked it up.
Adrian unwrapped the message.
GIVE US THE LEDGER.
MIDNIGHT.
OR THE GIRL LEARNS WHO HER REAL FATHER IS FROM US.
Adrian looked toward Lily.
Victor knew.
May you like
And now the secret wasn't only a family wound.
It had become leverage.
