Chapter 3 - The Mother Who Took the Bride
Isabella Moretti’s sedan was found twenty miles north of the estate.
The driver’s door stood open beside an abandoned road.
Blood marked the steering wheel.
No bodies were inside.
Sophia’s blue satin shawl lay in the back seat.
Emma’s pink ribbon was caught beneath the passenger door.
Aleandro stared at the car beneath the rain while his men searched the surrounding fields.
Luca Ferraro crouched near the tire tracks.
“Another vehicle stopped here.”
“What kind?”
“Large. Possibly an SUV.”
“Direction?”
“North.”
“Toward the mountains?”
“Yes.”
Aleandro’s phone rang.
The caller ID displayed Isabella’s number.
He answered immediately.
“Mother.”
A man’s voice replied.
“Bring the clinic archive.”
Aleandro went still.
“Who is this?”
“You have six hours.”
“I want to hear them.”
A pause.
Then Sophia’s voice came through.
“Aleandro, do not—”
The line muffled.
A child began crying.
Emma.
Then Isabella spoke.
“My son, listen to me. Do not give them—”
A blow landed.
The call ended.
Aleandro’s grip tightened around the phone.
Matteo stood beside him.
“What do they want?”
“The clinic archive.”
“What archive?”
“The records Gabriel mentioned.”
They returned to the estate before dawn.
The Moretti fertility clinic had been created after Aleandro’s father, Lorenzo, died. Officially, it served wealthy clients who valued privacy.
Unofficially, the clinic gave the family access to medical treatments away from public hospitals.
Aleandro had never examined its ownership structure closely.
That failure now seemed impossible to forgive.
The clinic director, Dr. Samuel Harker, was brought to the estate under guard.
He was a narrow-faced man in his sixties who sweated despite the cold room.
Aleandro placed both hands on the desk.
“Tell me what archive they want.”
“I do not know.”
Matteo closed the door.
Aleandro spoke quietly.
“Three women were taken tonight. One is four years old. This is the moment when you decide whether fear of Vittorio is greater than fear of me.”
Dr. Harker looked toward Luca.
“Can he leave?”
“No,” Aleandro said.
The doctor swallowed.
“The archive contains original genetic records.”
“Original compared with what?”
“The records stored in the clinic database were changed.”
“Whose?”
“Yours.”
The word settled heavily.
Aleandro did not blink.
“Explain.”
“Your father ordered long-term genetic testing of every direct Moretti heir.”
“Why?”
Dr. Harker looked at Matteo.
“Because Lorenzo suspected one of his sons was not biologically his.”
Matteo’s face emptied.
Aleandro straightened.
“Which son?”
“I was never told.”
“You had the tests.”
“They were coded.”
“Then decode them.”
“I cannot. The archive was removed from the clinic two years ago.”
“By whom?”
“Isabella.”
Their mother.
Aleandro thought of the call.
Bring the clinic archive.
The kidnappers believed Isabella had it.
“What did Sophia discover?”
Dr. Harker lowered his gaze.
“She came to the clinic twelve weeks ago after learning she was pregnant.”
“She conceived naturally?”
“Yes.”
“Then why was genetic testing performed?”
“She requested it.”
“Why?”
The doctor hesitated.
“Sophia said someone had sent her a medical file claiming Aleandro carried a hereditary disease.”
Aleandro’s anger sharpened.
“What disease?”
“The file was false.”
“But she believed it.”
“At first.”
Sophia had gone to the clinic without telling him.
She had tested their child.
Then the records were altered.
“Who changed them?” Matteo asked.
“Vittorio forced my staff to replace the paternity result.”
“With what?”
“A result stating the fetus was related to the De Luca family.”
Aleandro understood.
Gabriel.
The hidden hand.
The secret meetings.
Vittorio had built a betrayal around Sophia, using falsified records to make Aleandro believe she carried his enemy’s child.
“Did Gabriel know?”
“He discovered the alteration through a technician he had bribed.”
Matteo looked at Aleandro.
“That is why he warned Sophia.”
Aleandro remembered Gabriel’s words.
The child she is carrying is not yours.
Perhaps Gabriel had been repeating the false result to provoke a reaction.
Or perhaps he still knew more.
“Where is the original archive?” Aleandro asked.
Dr. Harker shook his head.
“Isabella took it.”
“Why?”
“To protect one of you.”
Matteo stepped back.
The room seemed to divide between the brothers.
Aleandro saw suspicion enter Matteo’s face.
Not directed outward.
Directed at himself.
Their entire lives had been shaped by Lorenzo Moretti’s certainty that blood determined loyalty.
If one son was not his, succession could become war.
“Who knew about this?” Aleandro asked.
“Lorenzo. Isabella. Vittorio. Me.”
“And Sophia?”
“Only that the current pregnancy record had been altered.”
“Why did she not tell me?”
“Because Vittorio threatened to expose other files.”
“What files?”
Dr. Harker looked toward the door.
“The maternity records from the night Matteo was born.”
Matteo’s jaw clenched.
“What happened that night?”
The doctor began to speak.
A gunshot shattered the study window.
The bullet struck him in the neck.
He fell before anyone reached him.
Luca pulled Aleandro behind the stone wall while guards rushed outside.
The shooter escaped through the eastern vineyard.
Dr. Harker died within seconds.
But before the life left his eyes, he gripped Matteo’s sleeve.
“Not brothers,” he whispered.
Then his hand fell.
Matteo stared down at him.
Aleandro heard the words.
So did everyone in the room.
Not brothers.
The kidnapping.
The altered records.
Sophia’s pregnancy.
The hidden archive.
All of it led back to the night Matteo was born.
Luca’s men searched the doctor’s coat and found a small brass key.
An address had been etched onto it.
Saint Agnes Children’s Home.
May you like
The orphanage had closed twenty-nine years earlier.
The same year Matteo was born.
