Chapter 2 - The Sins of Carlo Bellini
The room stopped breathing.
The heavy grandfather clock in the corner ticked like a detonator.
Luca did not blink.
He stood entirely motionless above the woman he had promised to marry.
“Say that again,” Luca whispered.
The softness of his tone was far more terrifying than a shout.
Vanessa wept openly, her forehead pressed against the toe of his leather shoe.
“My father... Carlo... told me I was adopted from a private clinic.”
She looked up, her face streaked with black streaks.
“He told me my birth name was Elena.”
Isabella rose from her chair, her body trembling with rage.
“You lying snake!”
Isabella pointed an accusing finger at Vanessa.
“You’ve lived in this house for six months!”
“You let my brother put a four-carat diamond on your finger!”
“You knew he was your brother?!”
A horrified murmur swept across the forty syndicate guests.
Guns were quietly unholstered beneath silk suit jackets.
Vanessa shook her head hysterically.
“No! No, you don't understand!”
She scrambled backward across the marble.
“Carlo gave me papers! He gave me forged certificates!”
Luca turned his head toward Daniel.
“Lock every door.”
The heavy steel deadbolts on the mansion’s exits slammed shut.
Click.
Clack.
The syndicate capos sat rigidly in their chairs, none daring to move.
Luca crouched down until his eyes were level with Vanessa’s.
“If you believed you were Elena Moretti...”
He grabbed her chin in a vice-like grip.
“Why did you agree to marry me?”
Vanessa choked on a sob.
Her eyes darted frantically around the grand room.
“Because my father said... he said if I refused, he would kill me.”
“You're lying,” Luca said calmly.
He did not raise his hand.
He did not shout.
He simply stared into her eyes until her gaze broke.
“Emma,” Luca called out suddenly.
My whole body jerked.
“Yes, Mr. Moretti?”
“Come here.”
I stepped past the frozen bodyguards, my sneakers squeaking softly on the stone.
Luca pointed to the torn coat on the long dining table.
“Search the other side.”
My hands were sweating.
I approached the navy-blue wool.
Vanessa shrieked, “Don't touch it!”
Daniel immediately stepped behind Vanessa, pressing the barrel of a Glock into her spine.
“Quiet,” Daniel warned.
I reached for the right pocket of the coat.
The fabric felt flat.
Nothing stood out.
Then I slid my palm upward, toward the padded shoulder.
There was a thick seam along the lining of the armpit.
The stitching was rougher here.
Done by a frantic hand.
“There’s something inside the shoulder pad,” I announced.
Luca never took his eyes off Vanessa.
“Cut it.”
I pulled my snips from my apron.
The black thread snapped under the sharp blades.
Inside the cotton padding was a folded sheet of yellowed parchment.
It was wrapped tightly in clear wax paper.
I carefully extracted the packet and handed it to Luca.
He peeled back the wax paper.
The paper was old and brittle.
The handwriting was hurried, sloping, and unmistakably feminine.
Luca began reading silently.
The muscles in his jaw ticked once.
Twice.
A solitary vein bulged against his forehead.
“Read it aloud, boss,” Daniel said softly.
Luca didn't speak for ten agonizing seconds.
Then his deep, broken voice cut through the dining hall:
“October 18. If anyone finds this, know that Carlo Bellini is a monster.
He did not come to help me deliver my child.
He took my daughter before she took her first breath against my chest.
He told me Luca would die if I screamed.
He told me my son would burn in his bed.
The girl he took carries a birthmark beneath her left collarbone—a dark crescent moon.
Whoever wears this coat, find my baby.
Do not let the Bellinis destroy what remains of my blood.”
Luca lowered the paper.
The entire room was dead silent.
Luca turned his gaze back to Vanessa.
“A dark crescent moon.”
His eyes dropped to the exposed skin of her emerald gown.
Her collarbones were completely bare.
Smooth, pale skin.
Flawless.
Not a single mark.
Not a single scar.
Luca’s lips parted in a cruel, icy smile.
“You don't have the mark, Vanessa.”
Vanessa stopped crying.
The panic in her eyes instantly transformed into something cold and ugly.
She wiped her mascara with the back of her hand.
She didn't look like a terrified victim anymore.
She looked like a cornered viper.
“You were never Elena,” Luca stated plainly.
Vanessa slowly pulled herself up from the floor.
She straightened her silk dress.
Her posture became arrogant.
“Carlo is smarter than you, Luca.”
She spat the words at him.
“He always was.”
“Where is my sister?”
“Dead,” Vanessa hissed.
“Liar,” Aunt Teresa shouted from the table.
Teresa stood up, knocking her chair backward.
“Carlo didn't kill her! He needed her!”
Luca whipped around to his aunt.
“Needed her for what?!”
Teresa began sobbing uncontrollably.
“The trust fund, Luca! Your grandfather left the offshore accounts to the female bloodline!”
“If Lucia died without a living daughter, the money went to Carlo’s syndicate branch!”
“He kept the baby alive in an institution to keep the signatures valid!”
Luca’s chest heaved.
The magnitude of the betrayal washed over the entire room.
Twenty-two years of grief.
Twenty-two years of believing his mother died alone on a wet highway.
Luca turned slowly back to Vanessa.
“Where is she?”
Vanessa laughed in his face.
“Kill me, Luca. You’ll never find the clinic.”
Luca didn't flinch.
He looked at Daniel.
“Take her to the cellar. Do not let her sleep.”
Two armed guards grabbed Vanessa by the elbows and dragged her out.
She didn't scream.
She just stared at Luca with pure malice until the heavy iron door slammed shut.
Luca stood in the middle of the ruined banquet.
His guests watched him, waiting for an order of execution or war.
Instead, Luca turned slowly toward me.
I clutched my apron, terrified of what he might say.
He walked toward me, stopping just inches away.
The scent of cedarwood, gun oil, and rain radiated from his jacket.
“You saved this coat,” Luca said softly.
“She told me to burn it,” I whispered.
“Why didn't you?”
My voice wavered.
“Because... mothers don't leave things behind unless they matter.”
His dark eyes softened for a fraction of a second.
Then Daniel stepped up beside him.
“Boss, we ran the hospital code from the second bracelet.”
Luca turned his head.
“Speak.”
“St. Catherine’s closed fifteen years ago,” Daniel reported.
“The property was bought by a dummy corporation out of Delaware.”
“Who owns the corporation, Daniel?”
Daniel looked down at his tablet screen.
“Carlo Bellini.”
Luca pulled a silver lighter from his pocket and flipped the lid with a sharp metallic clink.
“Get the cars ready.”
“Boss, the roads are iced over,” Daniel warned.
“I don't care if the sky falls,” Luca said, his voice flat and terrifying.
“We are tearing that asylum down to the bedrock tonight.”
He looked back at me.
“Emma.”
My heart jumped into my throat.
May you like
“Yes, Mr. Moretti?”
“Get your coat. You're coming with us.”
