Chapter 3 - The Children Nobody Was Supposed to FindMara finally told him everything.
Sophia had given birth to twins.
A boy.
A girl.
Vittorio had only wanted the boy because he believed the Moretti succession belonged to a male heir.
The girl had been given away.
Mara didn't know where.
But someone had kept records.
Dominic spent the night going through every adoption database his people could access.
Nothing.
Then Luca said something that changed everything.
“She has my nose.”
Dominic looked at him.
Luca was drawing at the kitchen table.
A picture of three children.
Ethan.
Luca.
A girl.
“Who is she?”
“My sister.”
“What's her name?”
Luca shrugged.
“I don't know.”
“When did you see her?”
“In my dream.”
Dominic looked at him.
“Do you see Ethan too?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“They're always together.”
Dominic's skin prickled.
Elena entered.
“Dominic.”
He looked up.
“What?”
“There’s someone at the gate.”
“Who?”
“A social worker.”
Dominic stood.
The woman arrived with papers.
Her name was Clara Bennett.
She worked with an organization that helped abandoned children.
She had found Ethan six months earlier.
“He was living under a bridge.”
“Why?”
“Because his mother died and the person caring for him disappeared.”
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
“What about the girl?”
Clara's face changed.
“What girl?”
Dominic showed her the photograph.
Clara went pale.
“Where did you get that?”
“Mara.”
Clara sat.
“This girl was in our system.”
“Name?”
“Lily Hart.”
Dominic froze.
“Age?”
“Five.”
“Mother?”
Unknown.
“Father?”
Unknown.
“Where is she?”
“She was adopted three years ago.”
“By whom?”
Clara looked at the papers.
“Rachel Moretti.”
Dominic froze.
His father's sister.
His aunt.
“She adopted her?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“She died two years ago.”
Dominic stared.
“Then who has Lily?”
Clara hesitated.
“You.”
His blood turned cold.
“What?”
“Your wife Elena.”
Dominic looked toward the hallway.
Elena stood there.
Tears in her eyes.
“I couldn't let them find her.”
“You took my sister?”
“I protected her.”
“How?”
“I raised her.”
Dominic was stunned.
“Lily is your daughter.”
Elena shook her head.
“She is Sophia's.”
“And mine?”
“Yes.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Everything made sense.
Luca had sensed Lily because she was his sister.
Ethan was his brother.
The three children had been separated.
And Elena had secretly raised one of them.
But there was more.
Elena handed him another file.
Inside was a DNA test.
Ethan.
Dominic.
Ninety-nine percent probability of biological fatherhood.
Dominic stared.
“He's my son.”
“Yes.”
“Why did Sophia hide him?”
“Because your father wanted him dead.”
Dominic looked at the photograph of the two babies.
“Why didn't she come back?”
“She tried.”
“What happened?”
Elena whispered:
“She was killed.”
Dominic's face changed.
“By whom?”
“A man named Carlo Vescari.”
The name meant something.
A rival family.
One of the men who had disappeared after Vittorio's death.
Dominic immediately called his security chief.
“Find Vescari.”
“We have him.”
Dominic stopped.
“What?”
“He's been working for us.”
Silence.
Dominic's blood froze.
“Who hired him?”
“Your father.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
The past had been sitting inside his organization for years.
Waiting.
Hidden.
And now it had found his children.
That night, someone tried to kill Ethan.
The bullet shattered the window above his bed.
Dominic grabbed the boy.
“Stay down!”
Ethan trembled.
“Is this because of you?”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
“They told my mom the Moretti family would kill us.”
Dominic looked at the child.
“Who told her?”
“A man.”
“Name?”
Ethan shook his head.
“He had a snake tattoo.”
Dominic looked at Elena.
She knew.
“Dominic…”
“What?”
“The Vescari men use snakes.”
Dominic's expression turned cold.
He picked up his phone.
“Find every Vescari in New York.”
His security chief answered:
“Already doing it.”
Then Ethan touched the medallion.
“It opens something.”
Dominic looked at him.
“What?”
“The secret place.”
“What secret place?”
“My mom said when I found my father, I would know where to go.”
Dominic stared.
“Did she tell you?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
Ethan pointed at the medallion.
“It changes.”
Dominic took it.
The center rotated.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a tiny photograph.
Sophia.
Dominic.
And their unborn child.
On the back:
COME HOME.
Dominic whispered:
“She wanted me to find you.”
Ethan looked up.
“Are you my dad?”
Dominic could barely speak.
“Yes.”
Ethan stared.
Then slowly reached for his hand.
“Okay.”
One word.
One tiny gesture.
And something Dominic had spent ten years believing was dead returned to him.
Family.
But outside the house, a man watched from a parked car.
He made a phone call.
“He found the boy.”
A pause.
“What about the girl?”
The man looked toward the upstairs window.
“I don't know.”
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Then another voice answered:
“Find her.”
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