Chapter 5 - The Child Who Shouldn't Exist
Lorenzo Vitali had spent eleven years believing the woman he loved had betrayed him.
Now he was beginning to suspect someone had arranged for him to believe it.
I stood across from him in the apartment's private study.
"How did you know the baby wasn't yours?"
He looked exhausted.
"Isabella told me."
"Did she tell you who the father was?"
"No."
"Did you ask?"
"Of course."
His jaw tightened.
"She wouldn't answer."
I stared at him.
"And you never spoke again?"
"We argued. She left. Three hours later, her car went off the bridge."
His voice broke slightly.
"I never got to apologize."
I felt a sharp ache in my chest.
Lorenzo looked toward the window.
"For eleven years, I thought my last words to her were the reason she died."
"What did you say?"
He swallowed.
"That I never wanted to see her again."
Silence settled between us.
Then Marco entered.
"Boss, we have something."
Lorenzo turned.
"What?"
"Elena Bellini is alive. She checked into a private medical facility in Connecticut six weeks ago."
"Where is she now?"
"We don't know."
Marco placed a photograph on the desk.
It showed Elena entering the facility.
She was older than in the picture left outside my building.
Her hair was shorter.
Her expression frightened.
And beside her walked a young girl.
Perhaps ten years old.
The girl had dark curls and gray eyes.
Lorenzo stared at her.
"Who's the child?"
Marco shook his head.
"The hospital listed her as Elena's niece."
My heart tightened.
"Isabella's daughter?"
Lorenzo didn't answer.
He was staring at the girl's face.
I looked closer.
She had Lorenzo's gray eyes.
The same sharp chin.
The same small dimple near her mouth.
"Lorenzo..."
He raised one hand.
"Don't."
But the possibility was already there.
The child could be his.
Then Marco placed another document on the desk.
A laboratory report from eleven years earlier.
It showed that the pregnancy test Lorenzo had been given was falsified.
The original results identified him as the biological father.
Lorenzo's face went white.
"Who changed the report?"
Marco looked grim.
"The authorization came from Adrian Bellini."
I stared at Lorenzo.
For the first time, the most powerful man I'd ever met looked completely lost.
Then he whispered:
May you like
"I had a daughter."
And nobody had told him.
