Chapter 10 - The Name He Was Born With|
Damian had spent his entire life believing he was Salvatore Moretti's biological son.
The family records supported that belief. His birth certificate, childhood photographs, and the stories told by Isabella all placed him firmly within the Moretti bloodline.
But the documents Michael had found suggested that someone had changed his identity before he was born.
Damian contacted his attorney and requested a complete review of his birth records.
The original hospital had closed decades earlier. Some records had been transferred to a state archive, while others had been destroyed according to retention policies.
The surviving documents contained discrepancies.
His birth certificate had been amended twice.
The first amendment changed his middle name.
The second altered the identity of his biological father.
Neither amendment included a clear explanation.
Damian confronted Isabella.
She arrived at the estate carrying the expression of a woman who had prepared herself for a difficult conversation.
“Did you know my birth certificate had been changed?”
Isabella sat down.
“Yes.”
The answer stunned him.
“Who is my biological father?”
She folded her hands.
“I don't know.”
“Don't lie to me.”
“I'm not lying.”
“Then why was the record changed?”
“Your father asked me to protect you.”
“From whom?”
She looked toward the window.
“From a man who believed you belonged to him.”
Damian's anger rose.
“Who?”
Isabella shook her head.
“Your father never told me the man's name. He said that if anyone discovered the truth, you would become a target.”
“Then why didn't you tell me when I was old enough to understand?”
“Because the people involved were dangerous.”
“Everyone in my life seems to have an excuse for keeping secrets.”
Isabella's composure finally broke.
“I was afraid.”
Damian stared at her.
“Of losing me?”
“Of losing everything.”
She admitted that Salvatore had received a sealed envelope shortly before Damian's birth. It contained a letter from a woman whose name Isabella had never learned. The letter claimed that the child would be in danger if his biological father discovered his existence.
Salvatore had arranged the amended birth records and raised Damian as his own.
“He loved you,” Isabella said. “Whatever the truth about your blood, he was your father in every way that mattered.”
Damian sat in silence.
He wanted to reject her explanation.
But he remembered the photographs of Salvatore holding him as a baby, the old man's insistence that loyalty meant protecting the vulnerable, and the way he had taught Damian to play chess when he was too young to understand business.
“Why did you let me believe the records were accurate?”
“Because I thought the truth would destroy you.”
Damian rose.
“The truth doesn't destroy me. The lies do.”
He asked Isabella to leave and told her that future contact would depend on her cooperation with the investigation.
Then he turned to the one person who might help him understand.
Michael.
Together, they reviewed Eleanor's remaining documents. They found a letter written by Salvatore three months before his death.
If Damian ever discovers the truth, tell him that his name was chosen to protect him, not to deceive him. His biological father wanted to claim him, but he was not a safe man. I made a promise to keep the child away from the violence that created him.
The letter contained no name.
But it included a location: an old church outside Chicago.
Damian and Michael visited the church with an investigator. The building had been renovated, but the priest's records had been preserved in a basement archive.
A baptismal register contained an entry for a baby born under a different surname.
The mother was listed as Elena Voss.
The father was listed as unknown.
Beside the entry was a handwritten note:
The child has been placed under the protection of Salvatore Moretti.
Damian stared at the page.
“Who was Elena Voss?”
The priest searched the archive and found a second record.
Elena had been a nurse at a private clinic. She disappeared shortly after giving birth.
A death certificate was filed two years later.
The cause of death was listed as an accident.
Damian felt a familiar chill.
Another woman had disappeared.
Another record had been altered.
And another child had been raised without knowing the truth.
Michael pointed to a name written at the bottom of the file.
The attending physician had been Dr. Thomas Vale.
Damian recognized the name.
Vale had served as the Moretti family's personal physician for more than thirty years. He had retired only six months earlier.
Damian called him.
The doctor answered cautiously.
“Damian?”
“I need to ask you about Elena Voss.”
The line went silent.
Then Dr. Vale whispered, “Where did you find that name?”
“In my father's records.”
“Then your father never told you the most important part.”
“What part?”
May you like
The doctor took a shaky breath.
“Your biological father is still alive.”
