Chapter 12 - MY MOTHER’S FIRST SON
“No.”
The word came from me.
Then Adrian.
Then Mateo.
Three people denying the same truth for three different reasons.
Dr. Cross started crying.
“I delivered him.”
I stared at Adrian.
He was thirty-eight.
I was thirty.
My mother would have been eighteen when he was born.
It was possible.
I hated that it was possible.
“She never told me,” Mateo whispered.
Dr. Cross looked at him.
“She couldn’t.”
“Why?”
“Anthony Romano took the baby.”
Victor’s face became deadly.
“What?”
“Marisol was barely conscious after delivery.”
My stomach twisted.
“She had been hidden at a private clinic. Anthony found out.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Dr. Cross wiped her face.
“He offered her a choice.”
I already knew I would hate it.
“What choice?”
“Give up the child or watch Mateo die.”
Mateo stepped backward as though struck.
“She chose me.”
“She chose your life.”
“And my son was raised by my enemy.”
Adrian finally spoke.
“Stop calling me your son.”
Mateo looked at him.
“You are.”
“You were not there.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You still weren’t there.”
The words landed.
Victor stepped beside Adrian.
The brothers looked nothing alike in that moment.
Yet somehow, the bond between them was undeniable.
Adrian looked at him.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
“Did Sofia?”
Victor hesitated.
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“She did.”
“I think she suspected.”
“She left you the letter.”
“She never named you.”
Adrian looked at me.
“And your mother?”
I shook my head.
“She never told me.”
He stared.
“We share a mother.”
“Yes.”
It felt impossible.
The arrogant Romano brother who had secretly paid Caleb’s medical bills was my brother.
I remembered his first visit to the estate.
The way he had stared at me.
The strange generosity.
“Did you know?” I asked.
Adrian looked away.
“Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“Sofia told me Marisol Vega mattered.”
“When?”
“Before she died.”
“And you researched her.”
“Yes.”
“You found me.”
“Yes.”
My anger rose.
“You paid Caleb because you suspected?”
“I didn’t know what to believe.”
“So you bought my agency?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor’s phone buzzed.
He looked at it.
His face hardened.
“Mrs. Bellini is gone.”
I turned.
“What?”
“Security went to question her.”
“Gone how?”
“Her room is empty.”
Dominic came downstairs.
“Boss.”
Victor looked at him.
“What?”
“We found something in her room.”
He handed Victor a passport.
Not Mrs. Bellini.
The photograph was hers.
The name was different.
Evelyn Salazar.
Mateo stared.
“No.”
Dominic looked at him.
“You know the name?”
Mateo’s face had become gray.
“My mother.”
Silence.
I looked toward the stairs.
The woman who ran Victor’s household for decades—
Who had cared for Sofia.
Who had cared for Leo.
Who had hugged me when I returned—
was Mateo Salazar’s mother.
My great-grandmother.
Adrian’s grandmother.
And she had been standing inside the Romano family all along.
Victor’s expression changed from confusion to betrayal.
“She raised me.”
Mateo whispered, “She hated your father.”
“She raised me.”
“I didn’t know she was alive.”
Victor turned on him.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Yes.”
“Your mother lived in my house for twenty-five years.”
“She vanished when I was fourteen.”
Victor’s breathing changed.
So did mine.
This story had started with a shooting.
Now every person around us seemed connected by a secret older than Leo, older than me, older even than Victor’s rule.
Dr. Cross gripped the chair.
“Evelyn planned it.”
Everyone turned.
Victor stepped closer.
“Planned what?”
“All of it.”
“The baby switch?”
“The marriages.”
My skin prickled.
“What marriages?”
“Anthony and Victor’s mother. Sofia and Victor.”
Victor stared.
Dr. Cross continued.
“She believed the Romano and Salazar families destroyed her children.”
“What children?” Mateo asked.
“You and Marisol.”
I felt sick.
“Mom?”
“She loved Marisol.”
Mateo’s eyes filled.
“She sent her away.”
“She tried.”
Dr. Cross looked at Adrian.
“When Anthony took Marisol’s baby, Evelyn decided she would destroy the Romano family from the inside.”
Victor’s voice became quiet.
“So she came into our house.”
“Yes.”
“As staff.”
“Yes.”
“And waited twenty-five years?”
Dr. Cross looked toward the ceiling.
“She was patient.”
I thought about Mrs. Bellini’s hugs.
Her strict rules.
Her tenderness with Leo.
Was all of it fake?
Victor asked the most important question.
“Did she kill Sofia?”
Dr. Cross closed her eyes.
“I don’t know.”
Victor slammed his palm against the wall.
“Everyone keeps saying that.”
I touched his arm.
He stopped.
Not because I could physically stop Victor Romano.
Because he chose to.
Dominic’s phone rang.
He listened.
Then looked at me.
“Elise.”
My stomach dropped.
“What now?”
“Caleb’s gone.”
I froze.
“Gone?”
“Hospital security footage shows a nurse taking him downstairs twenty minutes ago.”
“No.”
“We checked the nurse’s identity.”
Dominic swallowed.
“She doesn’t exist.”
I reached for the wall.
Victor caught me.
“No.”
My voice broke.
“No, no, no.”
Victor held my shoulders.
“We’ll find him.”
“Who took him?”
His phone buzzed.
A text.
One photograph.
Caleb sat in a chair.
Alive.
Behind him stood Mrs. Bellini.
Except she was no longer wearing her black housekeeper’s dress.
She wore an elegant gray suit.
Her white hair was pinned perfectly.
She looked nothing like a servant.
Below the photograph was a message.
BRING ME VICTOR, ADRIAN, MATEO AND ELISE.
NO GUARDS.
ONE FAMILY SHOULD FINALLY HEAR THE TRUTH TOGETHER.
Victor looked at me.
I stared at the woman I had trusted.
May you like
Then another message arrived.
IF ANYONE ELSE COMES, CALEB DIES FIRST.
