Chapter 9 - THE VOICE OF A DEAD WOMAN
Victor dropped the phone.
Actually dropped it.
I had seen him stand calmly during gunfire.
I had seen him receive news that his own brother might have betrayed him without changing expression.
But hearing Sofia’s voice shattered something.
The phone landed on the rug.
The call remained connected.
“Victor?”
The woman’s voice came again.
Leo looked up.
“Mama?”
Victor snatched the phone.
“Who is this?”
Silence.
Then:
“You found the drawer.”
Victor’s hand trembled.
“Who are you?”
“You know.”
“Sofia is dead.”
Another silence.
“I know.”
The voice broke.
“I watched them bury her.”
Victor went still.
Not Sofia.
Someone who sounded like her.
My mind raced.
“Sister,” I whispered.
Victor heard me.
“Isabella?”
The woman inhaled sharply.
“Yes.”
Mrs. Bellini began crying.
Victor’s face became stone again.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“You threatened Leo.”
“No.”
“The note at the hospital.”
“I wrote it.”
“That is a threat.”
“It was a warning.”
“From whom?”
“I don’t know.”
Victor’s anger exploded.
“You expect me to believe you contacted my son after two years, gave him a death threat and disappeared because you don’t know who wants him dead?”
“I know who wanted Sofia dead.”
Everyone froze.
Victor’s voice dropped.
“Say the name.”
“I can’t.”
“Say it.”
“If I do, Leo dies.”
Victor closed his eyes.
I stepped closer.
“Isabella?”
Silence.
“Whoever you are, listen to me. I’m Elise.”
“I know.”
Of course she did.
“Why did Sofia have a fake paternity test?”
“It isn’t fake.”
Victor looked at me.
I continued.
“The lab was under investigation.”
“The test is real.”
“Then Leo is Mateo’s?”
“No.”
I frowned.
“That makes no sense.”
“That report doesn’t say what you think.”
“It literally says ninety-nine point nine-nine percent.”
“The names were changed.”
Victor’s face darkened.
“Whose DNA was tested?”
Isabella answered quietly.
“Adrian’s.”
Everyone turned toward Dominic as if he could somehow explain.
Victor looked at Adrian’s absent seat.
“My brother is Leo’s father?”
“No.”
“Then explain.”
“Adrian’s DNA was compared to Leo’s.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“To prove they were related.”
I suddenly understood before Victor did.
“Oh.”
He looked at me.
“Victor…”
The pieces aligned.
Adrian.
Victor.
Shared blood.
The test was not checking whether Adrian was Leo’s father.
It was checking whether Leo belonged to the Romano bloodline.
Isabella whispered through the phone.
“Sofia suspected someone had switched Leo after birth.”
My stomach turned.
Victor sat down.
“What?”
“There were two newborn boys in the private maternity ward.”
“No.”
“One was Sofia’s.”
Victor’s hand clenched around the phone.
“The other?”
“Born to a woman connected to Salazar.”
Leo looked confused.
I crouched beside him.
“Go with Mrs. Bellini.”
“I want Daddy.”
Victor nodded.
“Stay.”
He would not send Leo away now.
Isabella continued.
“Sofia began investigating after Leo was three.”
“Why?”
“A nurse contacted her.”
“What nurse?”
“She disappeared before Sofia could meet her.”
Victor’s face became murderous.
“What does this have to do with my wife’s death?”
“Everything.”
A sound came through the phone.
A door?
Isabella’s breathing changed.
“I have to go.”
“No.”
“Listen carefully.”
Victor stood.
“Isabella—”
“The attack at the estate was not about Elise saving Leo.”
I looked at Victor.
“What?”
“They needed her blood inside the house.”
My skin went cold.
Victor’s voice became deadly.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because Sofia left me one final instruction.”
“What?”
“If Elise Carter ever bleeds inside the Romano estate, run.”
The call disconnected.
Nobody spoke.
Dominic immediately ordered the call traced.
Impossible.
Encrypted route.
Victor turned toward me.
“Your blood.”
I felt suddenly exposed.
“What could they do with it?”
“DNA.”
I remembered the old paternity test.
The switched infant theory.
My stomach dropped.
“Why would my DNA matter?”
Victor stared at me.
Then something occurred to him.
“Your mother.”
“What about her?”
“What was her name?”
“Marisol Carter.”
“Before marriage.”
“Vega.”
Victor’s face changed.
“Vega?”
“Yes.”
Dominic looked up.
“Boss.”
Victor turned.
“You know that name?”
Dominic’s expression was grim.
“Salazar’s mother was a Vega.”
I stared at him.
“That means nothing. Vega is common.”
Victor was already calling someone.
“Run Elise’s family history.”
“No.”
He stopped.
I stepped closer.
“My mother died when I was nineteen. You do not drag her into this without telling me why.”
Victor lowered the phone.
“Mateo Salazar’s mother was Lucia Vega.”
I stared.
“My grandmother’s name was Lucia.”
Silence.
Dominic asked carefully, “Your mother’s mother?”
“Yes.”
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
“Did your mother have siblings?”
“One brother.”
“What was his name?”
I tried to remember.
Mom rarely spoke about him.
They had fallen out before I was born.
Then the name came back.
“Mateo.”
Victor went completely still.
I laughed once.
Not because it was funny.
Because my brain rejected the alternative.
“No.”
Dominic’s face confirmed it before anyone spoke.
I shook my head.
“No. My uncle Mateo repaired cars in Arizona.”
“Did you ever meet him?”
“No.”
“Photos?”
“Maybe when I was little.”
Victor’s voice softened.
“Elise.”
“No.”
But I already knew.
My mother had spent her entire life hiding something.
My parents moved every few years.
She never spoke about Chicago.
She hated when I asked about her childhood.
And when she died, we discovered almost no records from before she married Dad.
Dominic’s phone buzzed.
He looked at the result.
Then at me.
“Elise.”
I did not want to hear it.
He showed me the screen.
An old photograph.
My mother.
Young.
Standing beside a teenage boy.
The boy was unmistakable.
Mateo Salazar.
Chicago’s most notorious rival to Victor Romano was my uncle.
And suddenly I understood why someone had maneuvered me into the Romano estate.
I was not random.
I was blood.
Victor’s phone rang.
Salazar.
He answered slowly.
A man’s voice came through.
“Victor.”
Victor’s eyes locked on mine.
“What do you want?”
May you like
Mateo Salazar laughed softly.
“My niece.”
