Chapter 4
Marcello called the number back immediately.
Nothing.
Detective Brooks grabbed his phone.
“Don’t keep calling. We need to trace it.”
Her team moved fast.
One officer contacted the carrier.
Another pulled Victor aside.
I stood near the basement stairs with my hands shaking.
Sofia was alive.
At least she had been thirty seconds ago.
Marcello paced.
“You have to find her.”
“We’re working on it.”
“She said they came back.”
“I heard her.”
“Then who?”
Elena looked toward Victor.
“That’s what I’m trying to determine.”
Victor sat handcuffed at a basement table.
His face had lost all arrogance.
“I wasn’t holding her.”
Elena walked over.
“Then who was?”
He remained quiet.
She leaned closer.
“If Sofia gets hurt, you’re no longer looking at document fraud.”
Victor swallowed.
“I never wanted anyone hurt.”
“You helped abduct a pregnant woman.”
“She came willingly at first.”
“To sell her child?”
He looked at the floor.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
Marcello slammed his hand against the wall.
“Tell us where she is!”
Victor looked up.
“There’s a farmhouse.”
“Where?”
“North of Bellmont.”
Elena immediately signaled an officer.
Victor gave them the address.
Police left within minutes.
I thought the nightmare might finally be ending.
It wasn’t.
Detective Brooks remained with us while another team searched the farmhouse.
Isabella had been taken downstairs separately.
Marcello refused to look at her.
I understood.
He was grieving someone who had never existed.
Not Isabella.
Matteo.
For months, Marcello had believed he was becoming a father.
Now every kick Isabella claimed to feel, every ultrasound photo, every baby shower gift had become evidence of betrayal.
I touched his arm.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
His eyes filled.
“I should have known.”
“How?”
“I loved her.”
“That isn’t a crime.”
He laughed bitterly.
“It made me stupid.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“It made you trust someone who wanted to be trusted.”
Before he could answer, Detective Brooks’s phone rang.
Her face changed as she listened.
“What?”
She walked away.
Marcello and I exchanged a look.
When Elena returned, I already knew something was wrong.
“The farmhouse is empty.”
Marcello stared at her.
“What?”
“There are signs someone was there recently.”
“Sofia?”
“We found food, medical supplies, and restraints.”
I felt sick.
“But no Sofia?”
“No.”
Victor cursed.
Elena turned on him.
“You gave us the wrong place.”
“No!”
He stood so fast the officer beside him grabbed his shoulder.
“She was there.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Who moved her?”
Victor looked toward the staircase.
At Isabella.
Detective Brooks noticed.
“Who?”
Victor lowered his voice.
“Her partner.”
Marcello froze.
“Isabella has another partner?”
Victor laughed nervously.
“Not romantic.”
“Who?”
Victor hesitated.
Then he said a name that made Dad sit down.
“Adrian Moretti.”
I thought I had misunderstood.
“What?”
Dad went white.
Marcello stared at him.
“Who is Adrian?”
Dad didn’t answer.
Mom had just reached the basement stairs.
She heard the name.
The glass of water in her hand fell.
It shattered.
Marcello turned to her.
“Mom?”
She looked at Dad.
“You told me he was gone.”
My heartbeat pounded in my ears.
“Who is Adrian?”
Dad closed his eyes.
“My brother.”
I had never known Dad had a brother.
Neither had Marcello.
“What brother?” I demanded.
Dad sat heavily.
“Adrian was my younger brother.”
Mom stared at him with anger I had never seen before.
“He tried to destroy this family thirty years ago.”
Dad looked ashamed.
“Our father removed him from the company.”
“Why?”
“He stole money.”
Victor laughed.
“That family really does repeat itself.”
Elena silenced him.
Dad continued.
“Adrian believed the company belonged to him. He forged contracts. Manipulated accounts. When our father discovered it, Adrian was cut out of the inheritance.”
Marcello stared at him.
“And you never told us?”
“He disappeared.”
Mom snapped.
“No. He threatened us first.”
Dad looked at her.
“What threat?”
She stepped closer.
“You never knew?”
Dad’s face changed.
Mom’s voice trembled.
“The night before he left, Adrian came to our apartment.”
I had never heard this story.
“He told me your father stole his future. He said one day he would take ours.”
Dad stood.
“You never told me.”
“I was pregnant with Marcello. I was terrified.”
Marcello looked sick.
Victor leaned back.
“That explains why Adrian was so interested in him.”
Every head turned.
“What do you mean?” Marcello asked.
Victor shrugged.
“This entire plan was Adrian’s.”
Isabella had lied.
But she had not created the scheme.
Adrian had.
Victor explained slowly.
Adrian met Isabella almost two years earlier.
She had debt.
No family.
No money.
But she was beautiful and ambitious.
Adrian introduced her to Marcello intentionally.
He taught her about our family.
Our habits.
Our finances.
Even Marcello’s grief over his first wife.
Isabella knew exactly how to become the woman Marcello would trust.
I wanted to be sick.
Marcello looked destroyed.
“She targeted me.”
Victor nodded.
“She was supposed to marry you.”
“She kept delaying the wedding.”
“Because the pregnancy accelerated the plan.”
“What plan?”
Victor looked at Dad.
“Control.”
Adrian wanted the company.
He couldn’t inherit it himself.
But if Isabella produced Marcello’s legal heir and gained control of that heir’s voting shares, Adrian could use her to force his way back into Moretti Shipping.
Dad’s fists tightened.
“So Sofia’s baby was going to become their fake heir.”
“Yes.”
My stomach turned.
“And Sofia?”
Victor looked uncomfortable.
“She wanted money.”
“For her baby?”
“At first, she agreed to adoption.”
Marcello stared.
“Legal adoption?”
“No.”
Victor looked down.
“When she realized they planned to falsify the birth and claim Marcello was the biological father, she refused.”
“So they imprisoned her.”
Victor said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Detective Brooks’s phone rang again.
She answered.
Then immediately grabbed a pen.
“Repeat that.”
Everyone watched.
She wrote something.
“Send the location.”
Marcello moved closer.
“Is it Sofia?”
Elena nodded.
“The carrier got a partial tower trace from her call.”
Hope exploded inside me.
“Where?”
“Industrial district near the river.”
Victor went pale.
“No.”
Elena noticed.
“You know the location?”
He shook his head.
But his face had already answered.
She grabbed his shirt.
“Where?”
Victor whispered, “The old Moretti warehouse.”
Dad staggered backward.
Our family had owned a warehouse near the river decades earlier.
It had been closed for almost fifteen years.
Dad said, “Adrian knows that building.”
Police raced out.
Marcello tried to follow.
Elena stopped him.
“You stay.”
“That woman is trapped because of my family.”
“And I’m not sending you into a possible hostage situation.”
He wanted to argue.
Then he looked at me.
I shook my head.
“Stay alive.”
He finally nodded.
Thirty minutes passed.
Then forty.
Nobody spoke.
Finally Elena received a call.
She listened.
Her expression softened.
“They found Sofia.”
My knees weakened.
Marcello grabbed the table.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
I started crying.
“Is the baby okay?”
“She’s being transported to the hospital.”
Marcello exhaled.
Then Elena’s face changed again.
“What?”
She listened.
“No, do not approach alone.”
Marcello stared at her.
“What happened?”
Elena ended the call.
“Adrian wasn’t there.”
Dad closed his eyes.
“He escaped.”
Elena shook her head.
“That isn’t the problem.”
She looked at Marcello.
“One of the officers found a room filled with photographs.”
“Of what?”
Elena turned toward me.
“Your family.”
May you like
Then she looked down at Lily.
“Especially your daughter.”
