Chapter 4 - THE CHILD WHO SHOULD HAVE DIED
The child was spared.
Dante read the sentence until the words blurred.
"What child?" Marco asked.
Dante turned another page.
A birth certificate.
The baby had been born twenty-nine years earlier at a private hospital in Boston.
Mother: Gabriella Costa.
Father: Victor Costa.
Child: female.
Name: Isabella Gabriella Costa.
Dante's jaw tightened.
His fiancée.
The woman he was supposed to marry tomorrow had been present when her mother was murdered.
But the documents suggested something even darker.
Gabriella Costa had discovered that Victor was laundering money through charitable foundations and secretly financing a rival criminal organization.
She had threatened to expose him.
Three days later, she disappeared.
Victor claimed she abandoned the family.
A month afterward, a body was found in an abandoned warehouse.
The death was never publicly connected to Gabriella.
Dante's father had helped conceal it.
"Why would my father protect him?" Dante asked.
Marco studied the financial records.
"Maybe Victor had something on him."
Dante turned to the final page.
There was a photograph.
His father stood outside a hospital holding a little boy.
Luca.
Except Luca was not a baby in the photograph.
He looked nearly four.
And the date printed on the back was two years before Luca's supposed birth.
Dante felt the floor shift beneath him.
"That isn't possible."
Marco leaned closer.
"Boss?"
Dante held up the photograph.
"My brother's birth records say he was born in 1999."
The photograph was dated 1997.
"Maybe the date is wrong."
Dante shook his head.
His father had written a note beneath it.
Luca's fourth birthday. May God forgive me.
A silence settled over the room.
Dante's mind raced through fifteen years of memories.
Luca's missing childhood photographs.
His father's refusal to discuss the circumstances of Luca's birth.
The way Victor Costa had always treated Luca with strange familiarity.
And the twelve million dollars.
"Find Luca's original birth certificate," Dante ordered.
Marco made three calls.
The answer came forty minutes later.
There was no original certificate.
The document in the family archive had been issued when Luca was seven.
His birth mother was listed as deceased.
His father was Antonio Moretti.
But no hospital record supported either claim.
Dante sat down slowly.
His brother's entire identity had been constructed.
Someone had hidden who Luca really was.
And Victor Costa knew.
A knock sounded at the door.
Elena entered, holding Sophia's stuffed cat.
"Mr. Moretti, Sophia said something strange."
Dante looked up.
"What?"
"She said the pretty lady told the angry man that the wedding wasn't the important part."
Dante stood.
"What was?"
Elena swallowed.
"She said, 'Once the brother signs, Dante loses everything.'"
Marco cursed under his breath.
Dante turned toward the window.
The family seal.
The rushed wedding.
The twelve million dollars.
The forged identity.
They were connected.
But the missing piece was still hidden.
"Find out what Luca is supposed to sign," Dante said.
Marco's phone rang almost immediately.
He answered, listened, and went pale.
"Boss, we found the document Isabella stamped."
"Where?"
"A scanned copy was sent to a corporate attorney in Manhattan."
"What does it say?"
Marco looked at him.
"It's a transfer agreement."
"For what?"
"Everything."
Dante's eyes hardened.
"Explain."
"Your shipping companies. Your real estate holdings. The private trusts. Even this house."
"To whom?"
Marco hesitated.
"To Luca."
Dante almost laughed.
Then Marco continued.
"But there's a second clause."
"What clause?"
"If Luca dies before the agreement is finalized, every asset passes to his legal next of kin."
Dante stared at him.
"And who is that?"
Marco's voice dropped.
"According to the attached documents, Luca's biological father."
He turned the page toward Dante.
May you like
The name was printed in bold black letters.
VICTOR COSTA.
