Chapter 2 - THE BROTHER I NEVER KNEW
I laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because sometimes the truth becomes so impossible that your brain chooses laughter instead of fear.
“I don’t have a brother.”
Victor didn’t argue.
That frightened me.
He walked toward a glass conference room beside the private medical suite and motioned for me to follow.
“I’m staying with Lily.”
“She’s sleeping.”
“I don’t care.”
“You need to hear this.”
“No. What I need is for everyone to stop telling me my entire life is a lie.”
Victor’s expression softened.
Only slightly.
“Hannah.”
“My mother died in an accident. Apparently that’s a lie.”
He said nothing.
“My daughter’s father abandoned us. Apparently he’s a criminal.”
Still nothing.
“Now I have a secret brother?”
“Yes.”
I stared at him.
“Wonderful.”
My voice cracked.
“Maybe next you’ll tell me I’m secretly the queen of Italy.”
A tiny smile almost touched his mouth.
It vanished immediately.
“Your brother’s name is Gabriel Rossi.”
The name meant nothing to me.
“He’s thirty.”
“I’m twenty-nine.”
“I know.”
I stopped.
“How do you know?”
Victor looked away.
And suddenly I understood.
“You’ve known who I am.”
“No.”
“How long?”
“I suspected after you said Elena’s name.”
“That was thirty minutes ago.”
“I recognized your eyes before that.”
My stomach twisted.
“What?”
Victor sat at the table.
I remained standing.
“Elena’s eyes were unusual. Green with a gold ring around the pupil.”
I had heard that all my life.
People always commented on my eyes.
Lily had them too.
“You said she died because of you.”
“She died protecting Gabriel.”
I sat despite myself.
Victor continued.
“When Elena became pregnant, the war between the Morettis and Valentis was at its worst.”
My breathing slowed.
“Pregnant with Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“Who was his father?”
Victor didn’t answer.
I stared.
“No.”
His face remained unreadable.
“No.”
“Hannah—”
“You?”
Victor nodded once.
I stood so quickly the chair fell backward.
“No.”
“He is my son.”
“You were with my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Then what am I?”
Victor flinched.
It was subtle.
But I saw it.
“What am I, Victor?”
“You are not my daughter.”
Relief struck so hard my knees nearly weakened.
I hadn’t even realized what I feared.
“Elena married your father after Gabriel was born.”
“My father was Thomas Reed.”
“Yes.”
“He died when I was three.”
Victor nodded.
“Thomas was a good man.”
“You knew him?”
“He saved my son’s life.”
The room became very still.
Victor looked through the glass at Lily’s medical room.
“After Gabriel was born, my father demanded Elena give him up.”
“Why?”
“Because she was a waitress from Brooklyn and I was expected to marry someone useful.”
I stared at him with disgust.
“And you agreed?”
“No.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“I tried to leave.”
That surprised me.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“For my mother?”
“Yes.”
Something about his voice made me believe him.
“For six months, Elena and I planned to disappear. California. Maybe Canada.”
“What happened?”
“My father found out.”
Victor looked down at his hands.
“He threatened her family.”
“Salvatore?”
“And everyone connected to him.”
I swallowed.
“Elena disappeared with Gabriel.”
“You let her?”
“I helped her.”
That was not the answer I expected.
Victor continued.
“Thomas Reed was my friend.”
“My father was friends with a crime boss?”
“I wasn’t a boss then.”
“But he knew.”
“Yes.”
I suddenly remembered a photograph.
My father standing beside a black car.
Another man’s shoulder barely visible at the edge.
My mother had torn the picture in half.
“Thomas took Elena and Gabriel to Vermont under new names.”
“Then what happened?”
“A year later, Elena contacted me.”
Victor’s voice changed.
“She was afraid.”
“Of your father?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“She had discovered the Valenti organization knew where Gabriel was.”
I felt cold despite the heat.
“And she learned something else.”
“The traitor.”
Victor nodded.
“She said someone close to me had been responsible for dozens of deaths.”
“Did she give you a name?”
“She said she would.”
“What happened?”
“She never made the meeting.”
My throat tightened.
“They killed her.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“A staged car accident.”
I closed my eyes.
“My father?”
Victor’s voice softened.
“Thomas survived the attack.”
My eyes opened.
“What?”
“For two years.”
“But he died in a construction accident.”
“Another lie.”
I could barely breathe.
“He moved you constantly. He placed Gabriel with someone else because two children together were easier to find.”
“Who raised Gabriel?”
“A retired federal agent named Samuel Pierce.”
I shook my head.
“This is insane.”
“It was necessary.”
“Then why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Because the people looking for him never stopped looking.”
“And now they have him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Victor’s eyes dropped to the locket.
“That.”
I covered it with my hand.
“You said it was a key.”
“To Salvatore Rossi’s archive.”
“What is in it?”
“Enough evidence to destroy families, companies, political careers and criminal organizations across three states.”
I laughed weakly.
“My mother left world-changing evidence in a necklace?”
“Not the evidence. The access sequence.”
“Where is the archive?”
“No one knows.”
I thought of all the years I had worn the locket.
School.
My first job.
My wedding that never happened.
Lily’s birth.
I had slept with it beside my bed.
And someone had been hunting it.
“Michael.”
Victor nodded.
“He met me because of this.”
“Probably.”
My stomach turned.
Every kiss.
Every promise.
Every soft conversation.
Had all of it been fake?
“He knew I was pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“Was Lily part of the plan?”
Victor said nothing.
My hand flew to my mouth.
“No.”
“Hannah.”
“No.”
“You don’t know that.”
“You were thinking it.”
“We need facts.”
I stood.
“I need my daughter.”
When I entered Lily’s room, she was sleeping beneath a small white blanket.
An oxygen tube rested under her nose.
I sat beside her and took her hand.
Her fingers closed around mine.
I cried silently.
Not because I was weak.
Because I had nowhere else to put the terror.
A few minutes later, Victor entered.
He did not speak.
He simply stood near the door.
I looked at him.
“Do you have children besides Gabriel?”
“No.”
“You never married?”
“I did.”
“What happened?”
“She died.”
I looked away.
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
Silence stretched between us.
Then his phone vibrated.
He read a message.
“Gabriel is alive.”
I looked up.
“How do you know?”
“They sent proof.”
Victor handed me the phone.
A video began.
A man sat tied to a chair.
He had dark hair.
Bruising around one eye.
But my breath stopped because he looked like my mother.
Not exactly.
But enough.
The shape of his mouth.
The green eyes.
The way one eyebrow lifted when he looked at the camera.
A man’s voice spoke from behind the phone.
“Victor Moretti.”
Gabriel raised his head.
Blood ran from his lip.
“You have twelve hours.”
The unseen voice continued.
“Bring the Rossi key and Elena’s granddaughter.”
I grabbed Victor’s arm.
“No.”
The video continued.
“Or your son dies.”
Gabriel suddenly smiled.
Even tied to a chair.
Even bleeding.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Victor.”
The captor struck him.
Gabriel laughed.
Then he shouted.
“Don’t give them the girl!”
The screen went black.
I stared at Victor.
“Why does he care about Lily?”
“He knows what they want.”
“What?”
Victor’s eyes hardened.
“I don’t know yet.”
A nurse entered.
“Mr. Moretti?”
“Yes?”
“We received the lab results.”
I stood immediately.
“Is Lily okay?”
The nurse looked confused.
“Her infection is responding well. But the bloodwork showed something unexpected.”
My heart jumped.
“What?”
She looked between us.
“Was she born at New York Presbyterian?”
“Yes.”
“Were there complications?”
“No.”
The nurse frowned.
“That’s strange.”
“What is?”
“She has a rare antibody marker.”
Victor became completely still.
The nurse continued.
“It can run in families.”
My stomach tightened.
“So?”
She looked at Victor.
“You should probably speak to the doctor.”
Ten minutes later, Dr. Keller entered with a file.
He closed the door.
“I want to be very careful here.”
I hated doctors who started sentences that way.
“Say it.”
He looked at me.
“Lily’s blood type is AB negative.”
“Okay.”
“Michael Hayes’s blood type, according to the medical record Mr. Moretti’s staff obtained, is O positive.”
I frowned.
I knew enough biology to understand something was wrong.
The doctor said it gently.
“An O-positive biological father cannot produce an AB-negative child with your blood type.”
The room went silent.
I looked at Victor.
“What does that mean?”
No one answered.
I asked again.
“What does that mean?”
Dr. Keller swallowed.
“It means Michael Hayes is not Lily’s biological father.”
My entire body went numb.
I sat down.
“That’s impossible.”
“I recommend a proper paternity test.”
I tried to remember.
The months before I became pregnant.
Michael and I had been together.
There had been no one else.
Then a memory surfaced.
A night I had spent years trying to forget.
A charity fundraiser.
My temporary cleaning assignment.
Champagne I never ordered.
Waking in a hotel medical room after fainting.
A man sitting beside the bed.
A stranger.
No.
Not a stranger.
I looked at Victor.
He saw something in my face.
“What?”
I whispered the name.
“Daniel.”
Victor’s expression changed.
“Daniel who?”
“Daniel Vale.”
The silence that followed was worse than anything before it.
Victor stood.
His chair slid backward.
“What did you say?”
“Daniel Vale.”
Victor looked almost furious.
“You knew him?”
“Barely.”
“When?”
“About nine months before Lily was born.”
Victor walked to the door.
Then turned.
“Hannah.”
“What?”
“There is no Daniel Vale.”
I stared at him.
Victor’s voice lowered.
“There is Daniel Valenti.”
My chest tightened.
“Dominic Valenti’s only son.”
And suddenly the attack on the mansion made sense in a way I desperately wished it didn’t.
May you like
The Valentis did not want Lily because she carried a secret.
They wanted her because she carried their blood.
