Chapter 9 – THE CHILD AT THE GATE

The warmth in the dining room vanished instantly.

Luca stood up, his jaw set in a hard line. “Vanessa’s mother died five years ago.”

“That’s what I told her,” the guard replied. “But she has a birth certificate. And the kid… boss, the kid looks exactly like you.”

The silence that followed was deafening.

I looked at Isabella. Her hand tightened around her teacup. Antonio, sensing the shift in the room, tapped the table. I quickly signed what the guard had said.

Antonio’s eyes widened, and he immediately shook his head. Trick. It’s a Bellini trick.

“Keep them at the gate,” Luca ordered. “I’m going out there.”

“I’m coming with you,” I said, standing up.

Luca looked at me, about to protest, but saw the determination in my eyes. He nodded once.

We walked out the front doors and down the long, winding driveway. The wrought-iron gates were closed. Standing on the other side was a woman in her late sixties, wrapped in a cheap coat.

Clinging to her leg was a little boy. He couldn’t have been more than four years old. He had dark, swept-back hair and piercing blue eyes.

The Moretti eyes.

Luca stopped a few feet from the gate. He stared at the boy.

“Who are you?” Luca demanded.

The woman lifted her chin. “I’m Margaret Bellini. Robert’s ex-wife. Vanessa’s mother.”

“You’re supposed to be dead,” Luca said coldly.

“Robert told everyone I was dead so he wouldn’t have to split the union money in the divorce,” Margaret spat. “I’ve been living in hiding in Ohio. Until I saw the news that Robert was arrested.”

“What do you want?”

Margaret pushed the little boy forward.

“This is Leo,” she said. “Vanessa’s son.”

Luca flinched. “Vanessa and I never had a child.”

“You didn’t know about him,” Margaret corrected. “Vanessa got pregnant four years ago. Robert forced her to hide the pregnancy. He said a child would complicate the marriage contract. He sent her to Ohio to have the baby, and he made me raise him.”

I looked at the little boy. He was shivering in the cold, staring at Luca with wide, terrified eyes.

“Why bring him here now?” Luca asked, his voice tight.

“Because with Robert in jail and Vanessa broke, I have no money to raise him,” Margaret said callously. “He’s your blood, Moretti. He’s your problem now.”

She reached through the iron bars and shoved a folded piece of paper toward Luca.

“The DNA test is in there,” Margaret said. “He’s yours.”

Luca didn’t take the paper. He looked at the boy.

“Leo,” Luca said softly.

The boy sniffled, looking up. “Are you my dad?”

The innocence in his voice broke my heart.

But before Luca could answer, Antonio appeared beside us. The old man had followed us down the driveway despite his weak legs.

He looked at Margaret. Then he looked at the little boy.

Antonio’s hands moved with sudden, frantic energy.

I watched his signs, my blood running completely cold.

“Luca,” I whispered, grabbing his arm. “Don’t take the paper.”

“What is it, Emily?”

I looked at Margaret Bellini.

“Antonio says… that woman isn’t Vanessa’s mother,” I translated, my voice shaking. “He says that’s the nurse who took care of his wife forty years ago.”