Chapter 5 - THE BROTHER WHO NEVER CAME HOME
“Gabriel went to Carlo Bellini?”
Luca stared at Sofia Reyes.
She nodded.
“Three years ago.”
“That's impossible.”
His voice sounded empty.
“My brother left Chicago because he wanted nothing to do with this family.”
Sofia studied him.
“Is that what you were told?”
Luca looked away.
I stood beside the church pew, watching something painful unfold.
This wasn't simply a mystery about stolen money anymore.
It was a family that had spent years believing the wrong things about one another.
“What happened between you and Gabriel?” I asked quietly.
Luca glanced at me.
Then he sat.
“Our father wanted Gabriel involved in the family business. Gabriel refused. He wanted to build houses, not control people.”
“What did you do?”
“I told him he was ashamed of us.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“We argued. He left. I never apologized.”
Sofia's expression softened.
“He wasn't ashamed of you.”
“How would you know?”
“Because Isabel told me he spoke about his brother all the time.”
Luca looked up.
“He did?”
“He said you were stubborn, loyal, and terrible at saying you were sorry.”
A faint, painful smile crossed Luca's face.
“That sounds like him.”
Then the smile disappeared.
“Where is Gabriel?”
Sofia shook her head.
“I don't know.”
She opened the blue ledger to a page Elena had marked with a ribbon.
“Your wife was trying to find him.”
The page contained dates and brief handwritten notes.
Gabriel had gone to Bellini Development's downtown office after discovering that Isabel was being threatened over financial records.
He had demanded the return of documents and access to Daniel.
Afterward, his phone stopped working.
But one entry caught my attention.
G. seen alive. November 14. Westbridge facility.
I pointed.
“What is Westbridge?”
Sofia looked uncertain.
“A private residential treatment center. Carlo's company helped finance it.”
Luca frowned.
“Gabriel wasn't ill.”
“I know.”
The implication hung between us.
Someone might have used the facility to isolate him.
But a note in a ledger wasn't proof.
“Was Elena ever able to visit him?” I asked.
Sofia shook her head.
“She tried. They told her there was no patient by that name.”
Luca stood.
“Dominic can find out who owns Westbridge.”
Sofia caught his sleeve.
“You promised you wouldn't act recklessly.”
“I promised not to hurt anyone.”
“And I need you to keep that promise.”
He stared at her.
Then nodded.
Back at the mansion, the engagement dinner had ended.
Most guests were gone.
Vanessa waited in the sitting room.
Her red gown was wrinkled now, and her makeup had faded.
She stood when Luca entered.
“Did you find Sofia?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa looked toward me.
“You took Emily with you?”
“She helped Lily feel safe enough to speak.”
Vanessa's lips tightened.
“I see.”
Luca placed the blue ledger on the table.
“Did you know Gabriel Moretti had a son?”
Vanessa froze.
“No.”
“Did you know your father helped obtain custody of Daniel Reyes?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know why?”
She hesitated.
“My father said the boy needed protection from his parents.”
“What protection?”
“Gabriel was involved in some dispute at work. Isabel was accused of stealing. My father said they couldn't provide a stable home.”
Luca stared at her.
“Did you ever ask to see evidence?”
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because when you're raised in my family, questioning my father isn't something you learn to do.”
For the first time, her voice sounded less arrogant than exhausted.
“My mother questioned him once. He moved her into a separate wing of the house for six months.”
I felt a chill.
Vanessa looked toward the staircase.
“Daniel used to ask me if his mother was coming back.”
Luca waited.
“I told him she loved him.”
“And then?”
“My father found out. He said if I interfered again, Daniel would be sent somewhere I couldn't visit.”
Her voice cracked.
“So I stopped talking about his mother.”
It wasn't an excuse.
But it explained why Vanessa had become so practiced at silence.
Luca folded his arms.
“Then why did you steal Elena's donation records?”
Vanessa stared at the notebook.
“I didn't steal them.”
“Margaret says you tried to remove the agreement.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Anthony told me the church was about to accuse my father of taking the fund. He said if the original agreement disappeared, he could arrange a replacement that would protect the charity.”
Luca looked disgusted.
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
“That's not the same thing.”
“I know.”
She sat down.
“Luca, Bellini Development is collapsing. My father has been using money from different accounts to keep the company alive.”
“Money Elena left for hungry children.”
Vanessa started crying.
“I thought we could repay it after our upcoming project closed.”
“What project?”
She didn't answer immediately.
Then she looked at the blue ledger.
“The Westbridge redevelopment.”
Luca went still.
“Your father owns Westbridge?”
“He controls the company that owns the property.”
That explained why Gabriel's name might have disappeared into its records.
But I noticed something else.
“Vanessa, why were you trying to stop Lily from wearing her mother's shoes?”
She looked at me with resentment.
“Because they reminded Luca of Elena.”
“That wasn't the only reason.”
Her expression changed.
I stepped closer.
“Lily lost her butterfly in the church office. You knew she'd seen the folder.”
Vanessa stared at the floor.
“I saw her reaching under the cabinet. I panicked.”
“And then you told her her father would send her away.”
Vanessa covered her face.
“I was terrified she'd tell him about the fund.”
“She's seven,” I said.
“I know.”
“Then imagine how terrified she was.”
Vanessa began crying quietly.
Luca didn't comfort her.
He looked toward the staircase.
“My daughter has been afraid in her own home.”
Vanessa whispered, “I never meant for that to happen.”
“But it did.”
A long silence followed.
Then Dominic entered.
“Mr. Moretti, we've confirmed something about Westbridge.”
Luca turned.
“What?”
“The facility stopped admitting patients under its original name two years ago. It's now operated through a private management company.”
“Who owns it?”
“Bellini Development has controlling interest.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Dominic continued.
“There's another detail. Gabriel Moretti wasn't listed as a patient.”
Luca's expression hardened.
“Then what was he listed as?”
Dominic unfolded a printed employment record.
“Maintenance supervisor.”
Sofia, who had accompanied us back, stepped forward.
“Gabriel was working there?”
“Possibly,” Dominic said. “The employment record ended six months ago.”
Luca took the paper.
The final entry contained a forwarding address.
A small apartment building on Chicago's west side.
“We need to go there,” he said.
I looked toward Lily's room.
“Not tonight.”
He turned.
I met his eyes.
“Your daughter needs to wake up knowing someone stayed.”
Something shifted in his expression.
He looked upstairs.
Then nodded.
“Tomorrow.”
But before anyone moved, Sofia noticed a photograph attached to the employment record.
She stared.
Then whispered, “That's not Gabriel.”
Luca looked down.
The man in the photograph had Gabriel's name.
His employee number.
His signature.
But the face belonged to someone else.
Anthony Romano.
Dominic frowned.
“Why would Romano be working under Gabriel's identity?”
Sofia's face drained.
“Because Gabriel wasn't the person they needed to hide.”
Luca looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
She pointed toward the employee number.
“Look at the date it was first issued.”
October twenty-third.
Three years earlier.
One day after Elena died.
May you like
Sofia's voice trembled.
“LUCA, SOMEONE USED YOUR BROTHER'S NAME TO ENTER WESTBRIDGE THE DAY AFTER YOUR WIFE'S FUNERAL.”
