Chapter 5 - Belladonna House
Belladonna House stood above the tree line, surrounded by pine forest and fog.
The road leading to it had been blocked by a fallen truck.
Aleandro left the main vehicles two miles below the property and continued on foot with Matteo, Luca, and four trusted men.
No family soldiers.
No council guards.
Aleandro no longer knew which loyalties Vittorio had purchased.
They reached the lodge shortly before noon.
One window glowed behind the mist.
No guards were visible.
That meant nothing.
Luca studied the property through binoculars.
“Two men near the rear entrance. One on the roof.”
“Three inside?” Aleandro asked.
“At least.”
Matteo checked his weapon.
Aleandro looked at him.
“You stay behind me.”
Matteo almost smiled.
“You spent thirty years trying to tell me that.”
“And you spent thirty years refusing.”
They separated.
Luca’s men moved toward the rear while Aleandro and Matteo approached the front.
The door opened before they reached it.
Vittorio stood inside.
He wore a dark suit as though he had arrived for a business meeting rather than a kidnapping.
“Leave the weapons outside.”
Aleandro looked beyond him.
Sophia sat in the center of the main room with her wrists tied.
Emma was beside her, frightened but unharmed.
Isabella sat near the fireplace.
A bruise darkened one side of her face.
“Let the child go,” Aleandro said.
Vittorio shook his head.
“She is the only honest witness in the family.”
Emma held her drawing notebook against her knees.
Aleandro lowered his weapon and placed it on the porch.
Matteo did the same.
They entered.
The door closed behind them.
Vittorio’s men searched them.
Aleandro looked at Sophia.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Is the baby safe?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I think so.”
Vittorio laughed.
“How touching. The powerful Aleandro Moretti accepting a child that may belong to his enemy.”
Aleandro faced him.
“You altered the records.”
“I corrected a future problem.”
“You created one.”
“I created opportunity.”
Vittorio stepped toward Matteo.
“For years, the council believed two sons protected the Moretti succession. One true heir and one loyal spare.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“I am not your spare.”
“No. You are an orphan Isabella purchased because she could not bear the humiliation of returning home without a living child.”
Isabella stood.
“Do not speak to him.”
Vittorio struck her.
Aleandro moved forward.
Two guns aimed at Sophia and Emma.
He stopped.
Vittorio smiled.
“Always the protector.”
“What do you want?”
“The original archive.”
“You kidnapped the woman who took it.”
Vittorio looked toward Isabella.
“She claims she no longer has it.”
“I burned it,” Isabella said.
“No,” Vittorio replied. “You hid it with the child’s mother.”
Matteo stared at her.
“My mother?”
Isabella began crying.
“Elena Russo did not die.”
The room went still.
Vittorio’s expression sharpened.
“Tell him.”
Isabella looked at Matteo.
“Your biological mother discovered the adoption. She came to the estate when you were six months old.”
“What did you do?”
“I begged her to leave you with us.”
“Why?”
“Because Lorenzo would have killed her.”
“Did he?”
“No.”
“Then where is she?”
Isabella looked toward Vittorio.
“He arranged for her to disappear.”
Vittorio smiled.
“She was paid.”
“You threatened her,” Isabella said.
“She accepted the money.”
“She accepted survival.”
Matteo’s voice became quiet.
“Is she alive?”
Vittorio shrugged.
“That depends on how well she followed instructions.”
Aleandro understood the final key.
Matteo was not merely adopted.
His biological mother may have possessed evidence linking Vittorio to decades of blackmail and murder.
“What does this have to do with Sophia?” Aleandro asked.
Sophia answered.
“I found Elena.”
Everyone turned toward her.
She explained that two months earlier, while researching her own family history for the wedding, she discovered that her late mother had once worked at Saint Catherine’s Hospital with Elena Russo.
Among her mother’s papers was a photograph of Elena holding a newborn.
The infant had Matteo’s birthmark.
Sophia began investigating.
She found Elena living under another name in Vermont.
Before Sophia could tell Aleandro, Vittorio contacted her.
“He said if I revealed the adoption, he would kill Elena,” Sophia said. “Then he sent me false medical records claiming your family carried a genetic illness.”
“You went to the clinic.”
“Yes.”
“And Gabriel?”
“He had learned Vittorio altered the paternity result. He wanted to trade the truth for protection.”
Aleandro’s voice hardened.
“You met him three times.”
“I was trying to obtain the original test.”
“You could have come to me.”
Sophia looked at Emma.
“Vittorio showed me photographs of Aleandro’s enemies following Elena. He said one mistake would kill her.”
“You still should have trusted me.”
“I know.”
The words were not an excuse.
That made them hurt more.
Vittorio lifted a folder.
“The original paternity report says the child is Aleandro’s.”
Sophia closed her eyes.
Relief broke across her face.
Aleandro felt something inside him loosen, but he did not let Vittorio see it.
“Give it to me.”
“After Matteo signs away all claim to the Moretti name.”
Matteo laughed.
“You built all this for succession?”
“I built it for order.”
“You kidnapped a child.”
“I removed distractions.”
Emma’s small voice entered the room.
“You are the man from the greenhouse.”
Vittorio looked at her.
Emma opened her notebook.
On one page, she had drawn Vittorio handing a knife to a waiter.
On another, she had drawn him placing something beneath Sophia’s chair.
A small black device.
Aleandro looked beneath the chair.
A timed explosive blinked against the wooden frame.
Ten minutes remained.
Vittorio’s expression changed.
He had not expected the child to find it.
Aleandro looked at him.
“You planned to kill everyone.”
Vittorio stepped backward.
“The future requires clean endings.”
Outside, gunfire erupted.
Luca’s men had engaged the guards.
Vittorio seized Emma and pressed his weapon against her head.
“Open the rear door.”
Aleandro did not move.
Vittorio dragged the child toward the hallway.
Sophia lunged.
One of Vittorio’s men struck her down.
Aleandro crossed the room before the man could raise his weapon.
The fight exploded.
Matteo threw a chair through the nearest guard.
Isabella pulled Sophia away from the bomb.
Vittorio disappeared through the rear door with Emma.
The timer showed seven minutes.
Aleandro faced Matteo.
“Get them out.”
May you like
“What about you?”
“I am bringing back the child.”
