Chapter 3 - THE DAUGHTER I NEVER KNEW I HAD
I had spent most of my adult life learning how to react under pressure.
Bullets.
Police raids.
Betrayals.
Funerals.
Nothing prepared me for a six-year-old girl asking whether I was her father.
Lily sat across from me with chocolate frosting still on the corner of her mouth.
Her eyes were wet.
“Is it true?”
I looked at Isabella.
She nodded.
“She deserves the truth.”
I hated her for saying that.
Because she was right.
I crouched in front of Lily.
“I just found out.”
“So you didn’t know?”
“No.”
“Did you leave me?”
The question went straight through me.
“No.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
She studied my face like a detective.
Then she asked, “Do you want me?”
Isabella covered her mouth.
I swallowed.
A pink nursery waited inside my mansion for a baby who wasn’t mine.
Hours ago, I thought losing that child had destroyed whatever future I still believed in.
Now another child sat inches away asking whether I wanted her.
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
“I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Lily smiled faintly.
“Mom says most dads don’t.”
Despite everything, I laughed.
Isabella wiped her eyes.
My phone buzzed again.
Reality returned.
Luca.
Sofia.
Vittorio.
I stood.
“Isabella, you and Lily are coming with me.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“You just told me my uncle once tried to have me killed. My cousin may be involved with the woman who lied to me for months. You think I’m leaving you unprotected?”
“We survived before you.”
“You shouldn’t have had to.”
That silenced her.
We returned to the Moretti estate under heavy security.
Lily stared through the SUV window as the iron gates opened.
“You live here?”
“Yes.”
“It’s huge.”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a pool?”
“Yes.”
“Can I swim?”
“Eventually.”
“Do you have a trampoline?”
“No.”
“You should.”
I glanced at Isabella.
She almost smiled.
Inside, the mansion felt different.
The nursery door stood open.
Pink walls.
White crib.
Tiny clothes.
I stopped in the hall.
Lily came beside me.
“Was that for the baby?”
“Yes.”
She looked inside.
“It’s pretty.”
“It doesn’t matter now.”
She frowned.
“Why?”
“Because the baby isn’t mine.”
Lily considered that.
“Babies still need rooms.”
Children had an irritating way of simplifying things adults had spent years complicating.
Isabella touched Lily’s shoulder.
“Come on, sweetheart.”
My security chief, Marco Bellini, waited in the study.
Not related to Dr. Bellini from anywhere else—this was my longtime chief, a broad-shouldered former Marine who had been loyal since I was twenty-three.
He gave Isabella a sharp look.
“Who’s this?”
“A problem from eight years ago.”
Lily whispered loudly, “That’s rude.”
Marco blinked.
I sighed.
“This is Isabella Rossi. And Lily.”
Marco’s eyes narrowed at the surname.
Then I said the rest.
“Lily is my daughter.”
The silence was extraordinary.
Marco, a man who once continued driving after taking a bullet through the shoulder, actually looked stunned.
“Your daughter.”
“Yes.”
Lily waved.
“Hi.”
Marco cleared his throat.
“Hello.”
I pointed toward Sofia’s letter.
“What do we know?”
He handed it to me.
Alessandro,
I’m sorry.
I never meant for this to go this far.
The baby is Luca’s.
He told me you could never know.
He said your family had secrets that would destroy all of us.
Please don’t look for me.
I read it twice.
“What family secrets?”
Marco shook his head.
“We don’t know.”
“Where’s Luca?”
“He claims he hasn’t spoken to her.”
“Bring him.”
“He’s on his way.”
Isabella had gone very still.
“What?”
She looked at the letter.
“Luca.”
“Yes.”
“Luca Moretti?”
“Yes.”
Her face drained of color.
“What?”
“My father mentioned him once.”
I stepped closer.
“When?”
“The night after you were shot.”
“What did he say?”
“That Vittorio wasn’t protecting his own son.”
I frowned.
“Explain.”
“Antonio said Vittorio was building something for Luca.”
“What?”
“He never told me.”
An hour later, Luca arrived.
He walked into my study wearing a charcoal suit and the expression of a man mildly inconvenienced by drama.
At thirty-three, he looked enough like Vittorio to make my jaw tighten.
He saw Isabella.
His stride faltered.
That was enough.
“You know her.”
“No.”
“You hesitated.”
“I recognize the face.”
“From where?”
He smiled faintly.
“Maybe from one of your files.”
I crossed the room.
“Where is Sofia?”
“I don’t know.”
“Her baby is yours.”
The smile disappeared.
“Who told you?”
“She did.”
Luca looked away.
So it was true.
I had expected rage.
Instead, I felt tired.
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why?”
“Why let me build a nursery? Why stand beside me while I planned a wedding?”
His eyes hardened.
“Because Sofia was supposed to marry you.”
“While carrying your child?”
“Yes.”
Isabella whispered, “My God.”
Luca glanced at her.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
I stepped between them.
“Careful.”
Luca’s gaze returned to me.
“The marriage would have stabilized things.”
“What things?”
“Our family.”
I laughed.
“You slept with my fiancée to stabilize the family?”
“You still think this is personal.”
“It became personal when you put your child in my nursery.”
His face changed.
Then he said something I never expected.
“That nursery was never meant for your child.”
The room went silent.
“What does that mean?”
Luca walked toward the window.
“My father knew you couldn’t have children.”
I stared at him.
Lily looked up at Isabella.
“What?”
I barely heard myself.
“Say that again.”
“Vittorio had your fertility tested after the ambush.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He bribed a doctor.”
I looked at Lily.
Biological daughter.
Ninety-nine-point-nine-eight percent.
Luca continued.
“The test showed permanent damage.”
Isabella shook her head.
“No. That can’t be right.”
Luca smiled.
“Exactly.”
Something shifted.
“You knew Lily existed.”
He didn’t answer.
I stepped closer.
“You knew.”
Silence.
“Since when?”
He finally looked at me.
“Since she was three.”
Every instinct in my body went cold.
“And you never told me.”
“My father ordered me not to.”
“Why?”
“Because if you had an heir, everything changed.”
There it was.
Not family.
Power.
Succession.
Vittorio had wanted me isolated.
Childless.
Dependent on Luca.
“You helped hide my daughter.”
“I protected the organization.”
Isabella moved toward him.
“You ruined six years of her life.”
“No.”
Luca looked at her.
“I made sure you had money.”
Isabella froze.
“What?”
“The anonymous payments after Michael died.”
She went white.
I turned.
“Anonymous payments?”
“Every month,” she whispered. “I thought they came from a charity.”
Luca smiled.
“You’re welcome.”
I grabbed him by the jacket and slammed him against the wall.
Lily gasped.
I stopped.
Immediately.
Her face frightened me more than Luca ever could.
I released him.
Luca straightened his collar.
“Still emotional.”
“Where is Sofia?”
He stared at me.
“I told you. I don’t know.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
Sofia was crying.
“Alessandro?”
“Sofia.”
“Please help me.”
“Where are you?”
“I don’t know. Luca’s people—”
Luca’s face changed.
Not guilt.
Shock.
Then a man took the phone.
“Mr. Moretti.”
I recognized the voice.
Gianni Russo.
Former captain under Vittorio.
Missing for five years.
I looked at Isabella.
Her face went pale.
Gianni continued.
“I have Sofia.”
“What do you want?”
“Luca.”
Luca stopped breathing.
“Bring him to the old Moretti warehouse in Brooklyn.”
“Why?”
“Because his father killed mine.”
Then Isabella whispered something beside me.
“No.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Gianni Russo was my father’s younger brother.”
My phone almost slipped from my hand.
Her uncle.
May you like
Alive.
And suddenly, every lie from eight years ago was standing up at once.
