Chapter 8 - MATTEO HAD BEEN WORKING WITH ISABELLA
Sebastian’s younger brother was supposed to be in London.
He wasn’t.
Matteo Romano had landed in Chicago twenty hours earlier under a secondary passport.
No security.
No family notification.
And apparently he had just taken Isabella from the warehouse.
Carlo refused to explain.
Sebastian almost lost control.
Norah saw it.
The shift in breathing.
The shoulders.
The silence before violence.
She stepped between them.
Luca looked horrified.
“Norah.”
She ignored him.
“Carlo wants you angry.”
Sebastian’s eyes stayed on his uncle.
“Move.”
“No.”
His gaze moved to her.
“Norah.”
“Ten seconds ago you wanted answers.”
“I still do.”
“Then don’t turn the only man who has them into a dental reconstruction.”
Carlo laughed.
Wrong choice.
Sebastian nearly moved.
Norah said sharply:
“Sebastian.”
He stopped.
Carlo’s expression changed.
Interesting.
He had expected Sebastian to ignore her.
That mattered.
Finally Carlo spoke.
“I helped Isabella disappear.”
“Why?”
“Because your father was going to kill her.”
“After he killed my mother.”
“Yes.”
Sebastian flinched.
Carlo continued.
“Elena and Isabella knew too much.”
“Did you know Elena was being poisoned?”
“Not until after.”
“Did you help cover it?”
“Yes.”
Honest.
Ugly.
Carlo helped fake Isabella’s disappearance.
Then secretly supported her.
Over years, Isabella reconstructed Elena’s evidence.
But she never had the full ledger.
The hollow center ruby was missing.
“Who had it?”
Carlo looked at Norah.
“Elias Varga.”
The jeweler removed the center stone before creating the replica.
He hid it separately.
Died before telling Isabella where.
That explained the bracelet.
The nine visible rubies were not the center.
The most important stone remained lost.
Matteo became involved five years earlier after discovering Carlo’s secret trips.
Instead of exposing them, he helped.
“Why didn’t he tell me?” Sebastian asked.
Carlo looked almost compassionate.
“Because Isabella didn’t trust you.”
That landed harder than violence.
“Why?”
“Because you became too much like Salvatore.”
Silence.
Norah looked at Sebastian.
He did not defend himself.
Carlo continued.
“Power. Control. Fear. Locked rooms.”
The accusation at Laurent & Vale flashed back.
Norah trapped behind brass bolts.
Sebastian’s face changed.
He heard it too.
“She thought if you learned the truth before you were ready, you’d protect the Romano name instead of Elena.”
Sebastian whispered:
“She was wrong.”
Carlo shrugged.
“Maybe.”
Then he told them why Matteo had taken Isabella.
Not kidnapping.
Protection.
Someone else had found them.
Adrian Moretti.
Vivian’s father.
He wanted to confess.
But he was not alone.
An armed man had followed him.
Carlo tried to stop the encounter.
Gunfire.
Isabella wounded.
Matteo got her out.
Blood on Carlo’s shirt.
“Where?”
Carlo gave the location.
A private surgical clinic owned by an old Romano ally.
Sebastian and Norah arrived within minutes.
Isabella was alive.
Older.
Pale.
But conscious.
Sebastian entered alone.
She looked at him.
For seventeen years, he had imagined a thief.
A coward.
A woman who abandoned them.
Instead she reached for him.
“Elena’s boy.”
Sebastian froze.
Not Salvatore’s boy.
Elena’s.
He knelt beside her.
“Aunt Isabella.”
She touched his face.
“You look like him.”
Sebastian’s breath stopped.
“Like who?”
Isabella smiled weakly.
Then revealed the secret.
May you like
“Your real father.”
“He’s alive.”
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