Chapter 9 - THE LAST SECRETFor several seconds, Serafina thought she had misheard.
“What daughter?”
Matteo looked equally confused.
Domenico handed her a tablet.
The recovered video was grainy.
Antonio sat inside a study.
Across from him was a young woman, perhaps twenty-two.
Dark hair.
Green eyes.
A face that made Matteo go completely still.
“No.”
Serafina looked at him.
“You know her?”
“No.”
But his face said something else.
Not recognition.
Resemblance.
The woman looked like Matteo’s younger sister, Sofia, who had died at seventeen.
Antonio spoke on the recording.
“When this is finished, the Moretti organization belongs to you.”
The young woman answered.
“I don’t want it.”
“You were born for it.”
“I was born because you people make terrible decisions.”
Serafina almost smiled despite the circumstances.
Antonio’s expression hardened.
“Your father has no idea you exist.”
The woman looked toward the camera.
“I know.”
Video ended.
Serafina stared at Matteo.
He looked sick.
“There was no one else.”
She believed him.
“When?”
“I don’t know.”
Domenico said, “We checked the metadata. The woman’s name may be Grace Nolan.”
Nolan, overhearing, stepped closer.
“Excuse me?”
“Surname Nolan,” Domenico clarified.
Victor frowned.
“Who is she?”
Elena arrived with Mia and Leo.
The children stayed in the vehicle.
Elena looked at the frozen frame.
Her face changed.
“I know her.”
Everyone turned.
“She worked for Antonio.”
“As what?”
“Medical assistant.”
Matteo stared.
“What does that have to do with me?”
Elena looked uncomfortable.
That frightened Serafina.
“During your captivity,” Elena said, “Antonio had doctors take blood. Tissue samples.”
Matteo’s face went white.
“No.”
Serafina understood before he did.
“You mean—”
Elena nodded.
“IVF.”
Victor muttered a curse.
Matteo stepped backward.
“He created a child?”
“It appears so.”
Serafina felt anger rise, but not at Matteo.
The violation was staggering.
His body had been used without consent.
A daughter created as part of a succession scheme.
“Who was the mother?” Serafina asked.
“I don’t know.”
Domenico said, “Grace is twenty-two. That doesn’t fit.”
Matteo disappeared seven years ago.
Elena looked at him.
“Samples may have been taken earlier.”
Matteo stared at her.
“When?”
“Do you remember being hospitalized after the shooting in 2004?”
He nodded slowly.
“Antonio controlled that clinic.”
Serafina felt ill.
This plan had begun more than two decades earlier.
Matteo was nineteen.
Antonio had created a biological insurance policy.
A child with Moretti blood whom he could eventually shape and use.
Victor whispered, “My father was insane.”
“No,” Serafina said.
“He was deliberate.”
That was worse.
They returned to Bellavita.
Antonio was brought upstairs.
For the first time, the old man looked amused.
“So you found Grace.”
Matteo crossed the room and punched him.
Antonio fell sideways.
Nobody stopped Matteo.
“You stole from me.”
Antonio wiped blood from his mouth.
“I preserved your bloodline.”
“I already have children.”
“You didn’t then.”
“You had no right.”
“Rights?”
Antonio laughed.
“Men like us built this country because we didn’t wait for permission.”
Serafina stepped between them.
“Where is Grace?”
Antonio smiled.
“She’ll find you.”
“Why?”
“Because she wants answers.”
“So do I.”
Antonio looked at her.
“You won’t like them.”
Serafina leaned closer.
“You are running out of leverage.”
“Am I?”
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Serafina answered.
“Hello?”
A young woman spoke.
“Is Matteo there?”
Serafina’s eyes moved toward him.
“Yes.”
“I want to meet him.”
“Who are you?”
“You know.”
“Grace.”
Silence.
Then, “Yes.”
“Where?”
“No guns.”
“Fine.”
“Just you and Matteo.”
“Fine.”
Antonio smiled.
Serafina looked at him.
Grace gave an address.
A public diner in White Plains.
“Thirty minutes.”
The line ended.
Matteo sat down.
“I have a twenty-two-year-old daughter.”
Serafina sat beside him.
“Apparently.”
“You’re taking this disturbingly well.”
“I’m deciding which emotion gets priority.”
“And?”
“Rage is winning.”
He laughed weakly.
Then his expression changed.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“This is—”
“Not infidelity.”
“No.”
“Not your choice.”
“No.”
“Then don’t apologize.”
He looked at her.
Seven years had changed both of them.
But some things remained simple.
She took his hand.
“We meet her.”
Grace was already inside the diner when they arrived.
She occupied a corner booth.
Coffee untouched.
Hands folded.
She looked up.
Matteo stopped walking.
Serafina felt him tremble.
Grace had his eyes.
There was no denying it.
They sat.
For a long time, nobody spoke.
Finally Grace said, “You look older than the pictures.”
Matteo laughed.
“I’ve had a difficult week.”
She almost smiled.
Serafina watched her carefully.
Grace looked at her.
“You’re not what Antonio said.”
“What did he say?”
“That you were cold.”
“I can be.”
“That you care about power more than people.”
“I used to think I had to.”
Grace studied her.
“Are Mia and Leo okay?”
Serafina’s posture changed.
“How do you know their names?”
Grace noticed.
“Relax. I’m not going near them.”
“I didn’t accuse you.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Matteo said softly, “Grace.”
She looked at him.
The word from his mouth affected her.
Her eyes filled slightly.
Then she looked away.
“I didn’t know how I was born until I was sixteen.”
Matteo waited.
“The woman who carried me wasn’t my mother in any real sense. She was paid.”
Serafina’s jaw tightened.
“Antonio raised you?”
“Boarding schools. Tutors. Handlers.”
“Did he hurt you?” Matteo asked.
Grace gave him a long look.
“You mean physically?”
His face fell.
“No.”
“Then not usually.”
Matteo closed his eyes.
Grace’s expression softened.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize.”
“I shouldn’t have said it like that.”
“You can say anything you want.”
She stared at him.
“You don’t know me.”
“No.”
“You’re not my father.”
The words hurt.
Matteo accepted them.
“No.”
Grace looked surprised.
“I’m biologically connected to you. That’s all I have the right to claim.”
Silence.
“Antonio said you’d try to control me.”
“He was wrong.”
“He said Serafina would see me as a threat.”
Serafina answered.
“You’re twenty-two.”
“So?”
“So at twenty-two, you should be worried about terrible landlords, jobs you hate, and whether the person you’re dating is worth your time.”
Grace blinked.
“Not succession wars.”
A reluctant laugh escaped her.
It broke the tension.
Serafina leaned back.
“What do you want?”
Grace looked at Matteo.
“To know why I existed.”
“I can’t answer that.”
“I know.”
She looked down.
“Antonio can.”
“No,” Serafina said. “Antonio can tell you why he created you. That isn’t the same as why you exist.”
Grace looked up.
Serafina continued.
“You get to decide that.”
Something in Grace’s face broke.
She wiped one tear away angrily.
“I hate crying.”
“So does Mia.”
Grace froze at the name.
Serafina noticed.
“You’ve watched them.”
Grace nodded.
“From far away.”
Matteo’s expression tightened.
“I wanted to know what a real family looked like.”
That sentence silenced the booth.
Matteo reached across the table.
He did not touch her.
Just as he had done with Serafina.
Permission.
Grace stared at his hand.
Then placed hers in it.
Matteo’s eyes filled.
Grace whispered, “I don’t know what happens now.”
“Neither do I.”
“Good.”
He smiled.
“We can be confused together.”
The diner door opened.
Domenico entered quickly.
He was not supposed to.
Serafina knew immediately something was wrong.
“What happened?”
He walked to the table.
“Antonio escaped.”
Serafina stood.
“How?”
“One of the seven traitors.”
“Who?”
“Giuseppe.”
Of course.
“Where are they going?”
“We don’t know.”
Grace did.
She went pale.
“I do.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Antonio has one final place.”
“Where?”
“A chapel in the Catskills.”
“What’s there?”
Grace swallowed.
“Everything.”
“What does that mean?”
“Records. Accounts. Blackmail files. Evidence on judges, politicians, businesses, every family.”
Serafina understood.
Enough information to destroy hundreds of people.
“Why would he go there now?”
Grace looked terrified.
“Because there’s a failsafe.”
“What failsafe?”
“If Antonio believes he’s lost control, the entire archive is released automatically.”
“When?”
Grace checked the clock.
“Midnight.”
Serafina looked at the time.
10:17 p.m.
Less than two hours.
Grace whispered, “If he activates it, he won’t just destroy the organization.”
May you like
She looked at Serafina.
“He’ll burn down everyone connected to it.”
