Chapter 2 - Victor Moretti Claimed My Mother Had Been His Wife, but the Birth Records Revealed That My Entire Identity Had Been Built Around a LieThe shooting lasted seventeen minutes.
Seventeen minutes that felt like seventeen years.
Victor had security move us into an underground shelter beneath the mansion.
I carried Lily.
Victor walked beside me.
His men surrounded us.
One of them locked the steel door.
The explosion outside made Lily cry.
I whispered:
“It's okay.”
She grabbed my finger.
Victor watched.
He looked at her differently now.
Like he had discovered a ghost.
I turned toward him.
“Tell me the truth.”
He didn't answer.
“Who was my mother?”
“Elena.”
“I know her name.”
“Then what do you want?”
“Everything.”
He looked at me.
I continued.
“You said she was your wife.”
“Yes.”
“You said she died.”
“Yes.”
“She didn't tell me about you.”
“She didn't want you to know.”
“Why?”
“Because she believed I was dangerous.”
I almost laughed.
“You are dangerous.”
“Yes.”
“Then she was right.”
Victor looked down.
“She was.”
For the first time, the feared man in the city admitted weakness.
He walked to an old table.
Opened a drawer.
Pulled out a file.
“Read this.”
It was a marriage certificate.
Victor Moretti and Elena Rossi.
Twenty-eight years earlier.
Another document.
Birth records.
A child:
Emma Elena Bell.
My birth date.
My mother listed as Elena Rossi.
Father listed as unknown.
I stared.
“That's me.”
“Yes.”
“Why does it say unknown?”
“Because Elena didn't put my name on your birth certificate.”
“Why?”
“She was afraid.”
“Of you?”
“No.”
“Of who?”
“My father.”
I looked up.
Victor's father had been the founder of the Moretti criminal empire.
A man whose name had appeared in newspaper stories decades ago.
A man who had controlled ports, unions, construction contracts, and political campaigns.
Victor continued.
“Elena discovered that my father wasn't simply running an organization.”
“What was he doing?”
“Building a private network.”
“What kind?”
“Control.”
He opened another file.
Inside were photographs.
Children.
Families.
Officials.
Businessmen.
Every person had a symbol beside their name.
The same crescent-and-star symbol on Lily's locket.
“What is that?”
“The Rossi trust.”
“The what?”
“Your mother inherited a financial network from her grandfather.”
I stared.
“Money?”
“Not ordinary money.”
He placed one document in front of me.
A trust worth hundreds of millions.
I shook my head.
“I don't understand.”
“Neither did Elena.”
“What happened?”
“She discovered that the trust wasn't designed simply to transfer wealth.”
“It was designed to control something.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Information.”
He showed me another document.
A list of names.
Politicians.
Judges.
Police commanders.
Corporate leaders.
People my mother had apparently collected evidence against.
“This is blackmail.”
Victor shook his head.
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Protection.”
I laughed.
“That looks like blackmail.”
“Because the family used it that way after Elena disappeared.”
I stared.
“Why did she disappear?”
Victor looked away.
“She found evidence that my father was using the trust to control people.”
“And she tried to stop him.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She escaped.”
“Where?”
“With you.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“You were six months old.”
Victor's voice cracked.
“She ran.”
“But why didn't she take me away completely?”
“She did.”
“Then how did you find her?”
“I didn't.”
He looked at me.
“I spent years believing you were both dead.”
I couldn't speak.
Then I remembered my mother's stories.
She had told me she grew up moving from apartment to apartment.
She never discussed my father.
She never showed photographs.
She never explained the locket.
Everything had been a lie.
Not because she didn't love me.
Because she was afraid.
“What killed her?”
Victor's expression hardened.
“Cancer.”
I remembered.
My mother had died at forty-eight.
But something in his face told me there was more.
“You don't believe that.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because her medical records were altered.”
I stared.
“By whom?”
“My brother.”
I felt cold.
“Your brother?”
“Anthony Moretti.”
I knew the name.
The younger brother of Victor.
The man who had disappeared from public life twenty years ago.
Victor's enemy.
His rival.
And apparently someone who knew about me.
Before I could ask anything else, a security alarm sounded.
One of Victor's men entered.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found someone inside the east tunnel.”
Victor reached for his gun.
“Who?”
“A woman.”
“Name?”
The guard hesitated.
“She says she's Hannah's sister.”
I froze.
“I don't have a sister.”
Victor looked at me.
“That's impossible.”
The woman was brought downstairs.
She was older.
Maybe thirty.
Brown hair.
Gray eyes.
She looked at me and immediately began crying.
“You're Emma.”
I stared.
“Who are you?”
She whispered:
“My name is Claire Rossi.”
Victor went completely still.
“Your mother had another daughter.”
I couldn't breathe.
Claire looked toward Lily.
Then at the locket.
May you like
And whispered:
“She knew they'd eventually find her.”
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