Chapter 13 - THE BROTHER I NEVER KNEW EXISTED
I had a twin brother.
The words seemed impossible.
I sat at my parents' kitchen table while an investigator showed us a faded hospital record.
Two babies.
Born eleven minutes apart.
A girl named Penelope.
And a boy named Matteo.
My mother stared at the document.
Her hands began trembling.
"No."
Antonio leaned closer.
"Lucia?"
She covered her mouth.
"They told me he died."
The room went silent.
I looked at her.
"What?"
Lucia began crying.
"During childbirth, there were complications. They said the baby boy didn't survive."
The investigator spoke carefully.
"The records suggest the infant was transferred to another facility under a different name."
Antonio stood.
"Who authorized it?"
The investigator pointed toward a signature.
Vincenzo Moretti.
Dominic's grandfather.
My stomach twisted.
"Why would he steal a baby?"
The investigator shook his head.
"We're still establishing the circumstances."
But the answer began emerging from the documents.
Vincenzo had arranged illegal adoptions through a network of corrupt intermediaries.
Children from vulnerable families had been separated from their parents.
Some were transferred across international borders.
Others were given new identities.
Matteo had been one of them.
I stared at the hospital record.
All my life, I'd wondered why I felt as though something was missing.
Now I wondered whether another person somewhere in the world had felt the same emptiness.
"Is he alive?" I asked.
The investigator hesitated.
"We believe so."
My heart raced.
"Where?"
"New York."
I stared.
New York.
The city where I'd spent nearly my entire life.
My brother might have been living a few miles away.
And neither of us had known.
Dominic leaned forward.
"Do you have a current identity?"
The investigator nodded.
"His adoptive records identify him as Matthew Reed."
I looked at the photograph.
A man stood outside a hospital wearing blue surgical scrubs.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
A familiar smile.
I recognized him.
Not because he resembled me.
Because I'd met him before.
Six months earlier, I'd served him dinner at Bellafonte.
He'd left a generous tip and thanked me by name.
I remembered telling Chloe afterward that he seemed unusually kind.
And now I was looking at his photograph.
"My God."
Dominic turned toward me.
"What?"
I pointed.
"I know him."
The investigator looked surprised.
"You do?"
"He's a pediatric surgeon."
The room fell silent.
I swallowed.
"He works at the hospital where my mother Elizabeth spent her final months."
Lucia stared at me.
Then the investigator opened another file.
Inside was a letter written by Elizabeth Carter.
Dated shortly before her death.
If Penelope ever discovers the truth, tell her that I found Matteo.
My hands shook.
The letter continued.
I couldn't bring them together while Carlo was watching.
May you like
Then came the sentence that made my heart stop.
But Matteo already knows he has a sister.
