Chapter 8 - Sofia’s Other Secret
His name was Adrian Moretti.
My cousin.
Vittorio's only child.
Adrian died in a motorcycle accident two years before I married Sofia.
At least that was what the family believed.
Now I was holding a letter claiming Sofia had given birth to Adrian's daughter years after his death.
The dates made no sense.
Until they did.
Marco found archived fertility records.
Before Adrian died, he had undergone cancer treatment.
He froze genetic material.
Vittorio kept it.
Years later, Sofia discovered it while investigating family accounts.
But she hadn't used it.
Someone else had.
The gestational carrier listed on Lily's documents wasn't connected to Sofia at all.
Sofia wasn't Lily's biological mother.
The birth registration was fraudulent.
The letter explaining otherwise had been forged.
“Then why manufacture a child who looks connected to Sofia?” I asked.
Marco stared at the trust documents.
“Because Vittorio needed an heir.”
My father's trust excluded Vittorio if I had children.
But if my children could be challenged as concealed, fraudulent, or illegally created without my consent, Vittorio could force years of litigation.
Meanwhile, a descendant of his son could inherit his own branch permanently.
Lily was a legal weapon.
Not a secret daughter.
A child used on paper by adults who had never considered what the lies might do to her life.
I refused to let Vittorio touch her.
Her adoptive parents agreed to DNA testing only after our attorneys guaranteed that nobody would attempt to take her away.
Results arrived twenty-four hours later.
Lily was Adrian's biological daughter.
Her biological mother was unknown.
Vittorio had used his dead son's stored genetic material to create a grandchild.
Without Adrian's consent.
Without the child's consent.
Without anyone's consent.
I felt sick.
This was what Sofia had discovered.
Not merely stolen money.
Vittorio had been manufacturing succession.
Human lives turned into inheritance documents.
Lily's mother was eventually identified through clinic records.
A young nursing student named Caroline Hayes.
She had been recruited as an egg donor.
She believed everything was anonymous.
She never knew a child had resulted.
The more we uncovered, the worse it became.
Vittorio hadn't tried to create Lily because he wanted a granddaughter.
He wanted legal standing.
And he had spent four years waiting for my branch of the family to disappear.
That evening, we finally opened another file from Sofia's chapel.
The recording began with her crying.
“Alejandro, if you've reached this video, then you know about Adrian's child.”
She knew.
She had found Lily's existence before she died.
“I wanted to tell you,” Sofia said. “But Vittorio proved he could reach our doctors. Our attorneys. Even the people assigned to protect us.”
Then she lifted a folder.
“I discovered something else.”
The screen displayed photographs of my father, Enzo Moretti.
He had died when I was twenty-seven.
A stroke.
Sudden.
Unquestioned.
Sofia's voice trembled.
“Your father did not die naturally.”
I stood.
Elena began crying.
“Vittorio arranged it.”
The room went silent.
My uncle had killed my father.
Sofia continued.
“And Alejandro, before you do what I know you will want to do, remember this: revenge is exactly how Vittorio controls Moretti men.”
I stared at the screen.
She knew me.
Even dead, she knew exactly where my mind had gone.
“Protect our children first.”
Then she said:
“Because your father left proof.”
A location appeared.
Not a bank.
Not another storage unit.
The Moretti family mausoleum.
My father's grave.
Marco and I went that night.
Behind the marble nameplate was a sealed compartment.
Inside rested a ledger.
My father's handwriting.
Payments.
Dates.
Names.
One entry repeated more than any other.
V.M.
Vittorio Moretti.
The final page contained a message addressed to me.
Alejandro, if you're reading this, I failed to remove your uncle before he removed me.
But beneath the message was another name.
Nico Valenti.
My security chief.
May you like
Next to it, my father had written:
NOT HIS REAL NAME.
