Chapter 3 - THE LETTER THAT NEVER CAME FROM HIM
Alessandro did not raise his voice.
That was how I knew Renata had made a terrible mistake.
He simply stood with Mia in his arms and asked, “Why?”
Renata closed the library doors behind her.
“You are emotional.”
“You forged a letter in my name.”
“I protected this family.”
“You threatened the mother of my child.”
“You did not know she was your child.”
“Neither did you.”
Renata’s gaze moved toward me.
“She claimed she was pregnant after one night with a billionaire. What conclusion was I supposed to reach?”
I felt heat rise into my face.
“The conclusion that you had no right to pretend you were Alessandro.”
Renata ignored me.
“You have no idea what women have attempted since Alessandro became wealthy.”
“Enough.”
Alessandro’s voice cut through the room.
Renata looked at him.
“You entered Elena’s room. You intercepted her call. You forged my signature.”
“I prevented a scandal.”
“You stole seventeen months from me.”
His words landed with far more force than a shout.
Mia startled.
Immediately, Alessandro lowered his voice.
I stepped closer.
“Give her to me.”
He hesitated.
Only a second.
Then he placed her into my arms.
Renata watched the movement with visible disgust.
“You are behaving as though a resemblance proves paternity.”
“The laboratory will confirm it tomorrow.”
“And until then?”
“Until then, you will explain everything.”
“There is nothing to explain.”
Luca spoke from near the door.
“There is also the trust notification.”
Renata’s face changed.
Alessandro noticed.
“What trust notification?”
She remained silent.
Alessandro walked toward her.
“What happens if I have a child?”
“Alessandro—”
“What happens?”
Renata exhaled.
“Your grandfather was an old-fashioned man.”
“That is not an answer.”
She looked at Luca.
“You had no authority to access those files.”
Luca did not blink.
“I had Alessandro Duca’s authority.”
Her lips tightened.
Alessandro crossed to his desk and called his attorney.
“David, come to the estate.”
A muffled response came through the phone.
“Now.”
He hung up.
Renata shook her head.
“You are humiliating yourself over a housemaid.”
Alessandro looked at her.
“No. I am discovering how thoroughly my own family humiliated me.”
Her face hardened.
I had spent years making myself invisible around powerful people.
That afternoon, I stopped.
“You knew Mia had been born.”
Renata turned toward me.
I held my daughter tighter.
“The trust received notification eight months ago.”
“I receive hundreds of documents.”
“You knew.”
“Elena—”
“You knew.”
My voice cracked.
“You looked me in the face every week. You saw me come back to work after maternity leave. You knew there was a baby.”
Renata’s eyes sharpened.
“You should be grateful I allowed you to remain employed.”
Alessandro’s head snapped toward her.
I felt as if someone had struck me.
There it was.
The truth.
Not regret.
Not misunderstanding.
Power.
Renata believed my life existed because she had permitted it.
Alessandro stepped between us.
“Leave.”
She blinked.
“This is my home.”
“No.”
His voice remained calm.
“It was my father’s home. He left it to me.”
“Alessandro.”
“Your rooms will be packed tonight.”
Renata stared at him.
“You would throw me out over her?”
“Over seventeen months of fraud.”
“You know nothing about what I prevented.”
“Then explain.”
She looked at Mia.
And suddenly I understood.
This was not only about reputation.
“There’s money,” I whispered.
Renata’s gaze flicked toward me.
Alessandro noticed.
“What money?”
Nobody answered.
When attorney David Kaplan arrived forty minutes later, he carried a locked leather case.
He had represented three generations of the Duca family.
He looked at Mia once.
Then at Renata.
And sighed.
“I was afraid this day would come.”
Alessandro’s expression went cold.
“You knew too?”
“Not about the child.”
David sat down.
“But I know why Mrs. Duca is frightened.”
Renata snapped, “You are violating privilege.”
“My client is Alessandro.”
“He represents the family.”
“No,” David said calmly. “I represent the controlling shareholder.”
Alessandro leaned against the desk.
“Explain the trust.”
David opened the case.
“Your grandfather created the Duca Legacy Trust thirty-two years ago.”
“I know.”
“You know part of it.”
He removed a thick document.
“At your father’s death, twenty-two percent of voting shares remained in trust.”
Alessandro frowned.
“Renata controls those votes.”
“Temporarily.”
The room shifted.
David continued.
“Your grandfather believed direct descendants should control the family company. Under Section Fourteen, those voting shares transfer permanently to you when you have a legally acknowledged biological or adopted child.”
I stared at Alessandro.
He stared at Renata.
“And if I never have a child?”
“At age forty, the votes transfer to the secondary branch.”
Renata’s son.
Matteo.
Alessandro’s stepbrother.
He was thirty-six, charming in public, cruel in private, and had spent his entire adult life complaining that Alessandro controlled too much.
Alessandro understood instantly.
“You hid Mia because her existence costs Matteo control.”
Renata stood.
“I hid nothing.”
“You intercepted the trust notification.”
“I prevented unverified information from disrupting a company worth eleven billion dollars.”
“Elena wasn’t asking for company shares.”
“No,” Renata said. “But children grow up. Mothers hire attorneys. Newspapers discover scandals.”
I finally understood the scale of what she had done.
I had thought she hated me because I was poor.
That was only part of it.
Mia represented twenty-two percent of an empire.
Alessandro looked sick.
“You used my name to abandon my daughter because of voting shares.”
“I protected Matteo’s future.”
“I am your son too.”
Renata’s face softened.
“No, Alessandro.”
The words were quiet.
“You are Vittorio’s son.”
Not hers.
Alessandro looked as if the distinction had wounded him despite everything.
Renata turned toward the door.
“Do whatever you want. But when this becomes public, do not pretend I failed to warn you.”
Alessandro stopped her.
“It will become public.”
She turned.
“If the DNA test confirms Mia is mine, I will acknowledge her immediately.”
My head snapped toward him.
“No.”
He looked at me.
I stepped forward.
“You don’t get to announce my daughter to the world without discussing it with me.”
“Our daughter.”
“Exactly.”
For several seconds, we stared at each other.
Then Alessandro nodded.
“You are right.”
Renata gave a humorless laugh.
“You see? This has already begun.”
Alessandro never looked away from me.
“We will decide together.”
Those five words affected me more than they should have.
Renata left the library.
But before the door closed, I saw something in her expression.
Not defeat.
Calculation.
The DNA results arrived at 9:12 the next morning.
I had barely slept.
Mia and I had been moved to a guest suite near Alessandro’s private wing after he insisted the employee cottage was not secure.
He posted security outside.
I hated it.
I also slept more safely than I had in months.
When I entered the breakfast room, Alessandro was already waiting.
Dr. Warren stood beside him.
A sealed envelope rested on the table.
My hands began shaking.
It made no sense.
I knew who Mia’s father was.
Still, seeing everything reduced to a laboratory result made my chest tighten.
Alessandro noticed.
“You don’t have to be afraid.”
I almost laughed.
“You keep saying things like that as if my life has not become completely insane.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
“Fair.”
Dr. Warren opened the envelope.
“Mia Marquez and Alessandro Vittorio Duca share a probability of paternity greater than 99.9999 percent.”
The room became silent.
Alessandro closed his eyes.
Only briefly.
Then he looked at Mia.
His daughter.
Not a possibility.
Not a resemblance.
His.
Mia sat in a high chair smashing banana across the tray.
Alessandro walked to her.
He crouched.
“Hello, Mia.”
She offered him a crushed piece of banana.
He took it.
I covered my mouth because suddenly I was crying.
Alessandro looked at me.
His eyes were wet too.
“I missed everything.”
I shook my head.
“Not everything.”
“Her birth.”
“Yes.”
“Her first smile.”
“Yes.”
“Her first Christmas.”
“Yes.”
Each answer hurt.
Then I said, “But you didn’t know.”
He looked down.
“No.”
“You didn’t leave us.”
His gaze returned to mine.
“No.”
For the first time in seventeen months, the version of Alessandro I had hated began disappearing.
In its place stood a man who had been lied to just as deeply as I had.
By noon, David filed the paternity documents under seal.
By two, the trust transfer process began.
By four, Alessandro called a meeting with the Duca board.
He planned to tell them he had a daughter.
Not because of the shares.
Because he refused to let Mia begin her life as a secret.
I was terrified.
He listened.
We agreed that nothing would be released publicly until security was prepared.
That evening, Alessandro came to the nursery we had temporarily arranged beside my suite.
He sat on the floor while Mia crawled across the rug.
“You hate me less today,” he said.
I looked at him.
“That is an arrogant question.”
“Not a question.”
I almost smiled.
Then the lights went out.
Everything went black.
Alessandro stood immediately.
“Mia.”
Emergency lighting should have activated.
It didn’t.
I heard movement in the hallway.
A thud.
Then something breaking.
Alessandro grabbed his phone.
No signal.
“Stay here.”
“Absolutely not.”
He opened the nursery door.
One of the guards was lying unconscious outside.
My stomach dropped.
“Mia?”
I turned.
The crib was empty.
For one second, my brain refused to understand what I was seeing.
Then I screamed.
“MIA!”
The balcony doors were open.
Curtains moved in the night wind.
A white envelope lay inside the crib.
Alessandro snatched it.
There were only two sentences.
May you like
SIGN AWAY THE LEGACY TRUST.
OR THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE YOUR DAUGHTER, SHE WILL NOT BE BREATHING.
