Chapter 5 - THE MAN SHE CALLED GRANDPA V
“Elena, where is Sophie?”
My voice came out sharper than I intended.
She was already moving.
We found Sophie asleep on Mrs. Alvarez's couch beneath a quilt decorated with yellow ducks.
Bruno lay on the floor beside her.
Angelo had brought him over an hour earlier after Sophie asked whether the big dog missed his sneaker.
The sight should have reassured me.
Instead, I could barely breathe.
Someone had been speaking to my daughter.
Someone had told her about family.
And I had no idea what they planned.
Elena gently lifted Sophie into her arms.
The child stirred.
“Mommy?”
“I'm here, sweetheart.”
“Is Bruno staying?”
“For a little while.”
Sophie smiled and fell asleep again.
Only when Elena carried her upstairs did I turn to Mrs. Alvarez.
“Tell me everything.”
The older woman sat heavily.
“I didn't realize what it meant.”
“What happened?”
“Last Thursday, a man came by with a basket of groceries. He said he was from the neighborhood assistance program.”
“What did he look like?”
“Older. Gray hair. Nice coat.”
My stomach tightened.
“Did he give his name?”
“Vittorio.”
I closed my eyes.
“He said he'd known Elena's family for years. I told him she wasn't home.”
“And Sophie?”
“She was in the backyard.”
Mrs. Alvarez looked ashamed.
“He spoke to her through the fence.”
I imagined my uncle leaning over a garden fence, smiling at a five-year-old girl he had helped keep from her father.
“What did he say?”
“He gave her a little stuffed rabbit. Told her some families have secrets, but good surprises happen when everyone gets together.”
I took a long breath.
“Where's the rabbit?”
Mrs. Alvarez pointed upstairs.
“In her room.”
The rabbit was white with a pink ribbon.
Ordinary.
Soft.
The kind sold in hospital gift shops.
But attached to its ear was a small paper tag.
For Sophie, with love from Grandpa V.
Elena sat on the edge of the bed, holding the toy.
“Why would he do this?”
“That's what I'm going to find out.”
She shook her head.
“Dante, you don't understand. He knew about her all along.”
“Yes.”
“He knew while I was working night shifts. He knew when I was worried about rent. He knew when Sophie got pneumonia and I spent three nights sitting beside her hospital bed.”
Her voice broke.
“He knew she existed.”
I sat beside her.
“I know.”
“And you lived in that enormous mansion while we counted grocery money.”
I couldn't defend myself.
Not because I'd knowingly abandoned them.
But because the world I controlled had made their suffering possible.
“I can't change those years,” I said.
Elena looked at me.
“Then don't try to fix this by buying us things.”
I met her eyes.
“What do you want?”
“I want her to be safe.”
I nodded.
“And I want her to know that love doesn't disappear because somebody powerful decides it should.”
That answer stayed with me.
The next morning, I summoned Vittorio to my office.
He arrived wearing a navy suit and my father's gold watch.
As always, he seemed perfectly comfortable.
“Dante. I hear you've been asking questions at a kindergarten.”
I didn't offer him a chair.
“Why did you visit Sophie Carter?”
For the first time, he looked genuinely surprised.
Not frightened.
Surprised.
“Who told you that?”
“Answer me.”
He sighed.
“Because she's family.”
The words hit me like a punch.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Since before she was born.”
I stared at him.
He looked away.
“Your father knew too.”
Silence flooded the office.
My father had died four years earlier.
He had known about Sophie for nearly two years before his death.
And he'd never said a word.
“Why?”
Vittorio removed his glasses.
“Your father believed Elena was a vulnerability.”
“She was a nurse.”
“She was the woman who convinced you to walk away from business obligations you couldn't simply abandon.”
“I was trying to end the criminal side of the organization.”
“And there were people who would have killed you for it.”
“Then they should have come for me.”
“They would have used her.”
I stepped closer.
“So you threatened a pregnant woman?”
Vittorio's face tightened.
“I didn't order that.”
“Luca Ferraro wore your watch.”
His gaze dropped to his wrist.
Then something strange happened.
He looked almost sick.
“Luca stole this watch from my office six years ago.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“He returned it two days later.”
“Why didn't you report it?”
“Because I didn't realize what he'd done with it.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You seem to know everything about this family except the things that matter.”
Vittorio didn't answer.
Then he reached inside his jacket.
Rico immediately straightened beside the door.
My uncle paused.
“It's only a photograph.”
He placed it on my desk.
It showed my father standing outside a hospital beside Luca Ferraro.
The photograph was dated six years earlier.
My father looked frail.
Luca looked confident.
But the third person in the picture was the one who caught my attention.
Katherine Bell.
The hospital administrator.
Vittorio spoke quietly.
“Your father was receiving treatment at St. Catherine's. Katherine was arranging his appointments. Luca handled security.”
“So?”
“Your father discovered Elena was pregnant.”
My chest tightened.
“He ordered Luca to make sure she disappeared from your life.”
“Did you know?”
Vittorio looked me directly in the eyes.
“I knew he wanted her gone. I didn't know how far he'd gone until later.”
“Later when?”
“When Elena had already moved.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
His answer was almost a whisper.
“Because your father threatened to destroy you if I did.”
I stared at him.
“You're asking me to believe you were afraid of him.”
“I was.”
“You're still afraid of a dead man?”
“No, Dante.”
He looked toward the window.
“I'm afraid of what he left behind.”
After Vittorio left, Samuel joined me.
He had reviewed the foundation records.
And he'd found something.
A clause in my father's estate agreement.
If I failed to meet certain conditions of leadership, control of a valuable real-estate portfolio could transfer to an independent trust chaired by Vittorio.
That much I knew.
What I hadn't known was the clause concerning undisclosed heirs.
“A child?” I asked.
Samuel nodded.
“If an undisclosed descendant is formally acknowledged, it triggers a review of how the family trust was administered.”
“Which means?”
“Someone could lose control of substantial assets.”
“Vittorio?”
“Potentially. But there's another complication.”
He pushed forward an old financial report.
Seven years earlier, a large sum had vanished from the foundation's construction accounts.
My father had blamed a contractor.
But the transfer instructions had come through Luca Ferraro's security office.
I looked at the total.
Twenty-eight million dollars.
“Where did it go?”
Samuel shook his head.
“I haven't traced it yet.”
I thought about Luca, Katherine, Vittorio, and my father.
About Sophie.
And Friday's charity benefit.
Someone was planning to use my daughter as leverage in a fight over money.
But which one?
That night, I returned to Elena's house with groceries.
She opened the door and stared at the bags.
“Dante.”
“Dinner ingredients.”
“I told you not to buy us things.”
“You did.”
“Then why—”
“Because you said Sophie likes spaghetti, and I don't know how to make it.”
For the first time, Elena laughed.
A small sound.
But real.
She let me inside.
Sophie was sitting at the kitchen table with colored pencils.
When she saw me, she grinned.
“Dog Mister!”
I smiled.
“That's a new name.”
“Did you bring Bruno?”
“He's outside with Angelo.”
She considered that.
“Okay. You can stay.”
Elena rolled her eyes.
Apparently, I had passed inspection.
While Elena cooked, Sophie handed me another drawing.
“This is my family.”
There were three stick figures.
One with long blond hair.
One small.
And one tall, wearing a black suit.
I stared at it.
“Who's this?”
Sophie pointed.
“You.”
My throat tightened.
“Why?”
“Because Mommy smiled after you came.”
I looked toward Elena.
She was standing at the stove, pretending not to listen.
Sophie leaned closer.
“Grandpa V said you were supposed to know me.”
I went still.
“What exactly did he say?”
“He said you didn't know where I was.”
She looked confused.
“Then he said somebody took my name off a paper.”
“What paper?”
Sophie shrugged.
“The one that says who gets the big house.”
I looked at Elena.
Her face had gone white.
Then Sophie reached into her pocket and handed me a small folded card.
“Grandpa V said to give you this if I saw you.”
I unfolded it.
Inside was a photograph of my father's gold watch.
May you like
Written underneath were six words.
Ask Katherine who signed the birth certificate.
