Chapter 5 - THE MAN INSIDE LUCA’S HOUSE
Thomas Reed had been trusted with every entrance to Luca Bellandi’s world.
His mansion.
His vehicles.
His security codes.
His private schedule.
The safety of Margaret.
The movements of every employee.
Rachel thought of the first night she arrived at the estate.
Thomas had personally checked her identification.
He had smiled.
Welcomed her.
And carried one of her bags upstairs.
He had known exactly who she was.
The realization made her skin crawl.
Back at the mansion, Thomas was gone.
So was Celeste.
But he had left Luca’s study unlocked.
A single envelope sat on the desk.
Luca opened it.
Inside was a photograph of Thomas as a boy standing beside Vittorio Bellandi.
On the back:
THE HEIR NO ONE COULD SEE.
Alessandro, his shoulder bandaged, stared at it.
“My father raised him.”
Margaret sat near the fireplace.
“Not personally.”
“How did none of us know?”
“Because Vittorio moved him between families.”
Samuel answered this time.
“Foster homes. Private schools. Foreign academies.”
Rachel looked at him.
“You knew?”
“Not who he was.”
Samuel’s shame seemed genuine.
“I knew Vittorio sponsored a boy. I thought he was the child of an associate.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“I learned the truth years later.”
Rachel crouched beside her.
“Why didn’t you tell my mother?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Seventeen years ago.”
The night Evelyn appeared at the Bellandi estate.
Margaret had discovered documents proving Evelyn’s son had survived.
She intended to tell her.
But before she could, Vittorio’s people attacked the estate.
Alessandro helped Evelyn escape with Rachel.
Thomas was already gone.
Vittorio disappeared days later.
“And my mother?” Rachel asked.
“She spent the next five years looking for Thomas.”
“But I was told she died.”
“Because she realized people were following you.”
Evelyn staged her death to protect Rachel.
The explanation did not erase seventeen years.
Rachel’s voice was small.
“She could have called.”
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“She wanted to.”
“That’s not the same.”
“No.”
Margaret didn’t defend Evelyn.
That somehow hurt more.
Luca stood by the window.
“What does Thomas want?”
Alessandro answered.
“The trust.”
“Money?”
“Control.”
The Bellandi empire Luca publicly controlled was only one layer.
Vittorio’s private network owned portions of shipping companies, commercial buildings, investment funds and overseas holdings.
Thomas believed they belonged to him.
But the final trust had been designed with multiple biometric and documentary safeguards.
It required proof of Evelyn’s first child.
And authorization from Evelyn’s second surviving child.
Rachel.
“So he needs me,” Rachel said.
Alessandro nodded.
“And Luca?” she asked.
“Luca controls the public Bellandi holdings. Thomas wants both halves.”
“So Celeste marries Luca.”
Margaret nodded.
“Daniel gains legal access through her.”
“And Thomas uses me.”
“Yes.”
Rachel laughed bitterly.
“Everybody has a plan for me.”
Luca turned.
“Not everybody.”
Their eyes met.
He said nothing more.
He didn’t need to.
For seventeen days Luca had been her employer.
In less than twenty-four hours he had become her half-brother.
The word still felt impossible.
Yet when the gunfire started at the warehouse, Luca had thrown himself over her without hesitation.
No calculation.
No trust documents.
No money.
Instinct.
Family, perhaps, arriving before either of them had accepted it.
Rachel looked away first.
A guard entered carrying a laptop.
“We traced activity from Thomas’s credentials.”
Luca moved toward him.
“Where?”
“He accessed a Bellandi property thirty minutes ago.”
“Which property?”
The guard hesitated.
“St. Vincent Cemetery.”
Alessandro went pale.
Luca noticed.
“What is there?”
“My grave.”
They reached the cemetery near midnight.
Alessandro’s mausoleum stood near the north wall.
Luca had not entered it in years.
Inside, dust covered marble surfaces.
At the center stood a stone sarcophagus.
Empty, supposedly.
Thomas had opened it.
Beneath the false bottom was a staircase.
Rachel stared.
“Your family really does hide rooms everywhere.”
Luca almost smiled.
“Apparently.”
They descended.
The underground chamber contained boxes of documents.
Old photographs.
Film reels.
A desk.
And an enormous steel safe.
Open.
Empty.
Someone had been there minutes earlier.
Rachel smelled cigarette smoke.
Celeste smoked when nervous.
They followed a corridor to another room.
A light burned.
Evelyn sat at a table.
Alone.
Rachel stopped.
Her mother looked older than the woman in her childhood memories.
Of course she did.
Gray threaded through her dark hair.
Fine lines surrounded her eyes.
But it was her.
Rachel knew the shape of those hands.
The tilt of that head.
The face she had spent seventeen years trying not to forget.
Evelyn stood.
“Rachel.”
Rachel did not move.
Her mother took one step.
Rachel stepped backward.
The pain on Evelyn’s face was immediate.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You let me bury you.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
“I was six.”
“I know.”
“I slept with your sweater for two years because it still smelled like you.”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Luca looked away.
Rachel’s anger finally broke through.
“You don’t get to cry like you were the one abandoned.”
“You’re right.”
That stopped Rachel.
Evelyn lowered her hands.
“You are absolutely right.”
No defense.
No excuse.
“I made a choice that saved your life and broke your heart. Both things can be true.”
Rachel stared.
“Why now?”
“Because Thomas found you.”
“He found me before I came to the estate.”
“No. He arranged the job before he confirmed who you were.”
Rachel frowned.
“What?”
“Your application was intercepted. Celeste pushed your hiring because Thomas believed your name matched one of my old aliases.”
“So all of this started because I applied for a housekeeping job?”
“It started thirty years ago.”
Luca stepped forward.
“Where is Thomas?”
“Taking the trust key to Daniel.”
“What key?”
Evelyn opened her palm.
Empty.
“He thinks he has it.”
Rachel stared.
“You switched it.”
“Yes.”
A small smile appeared through Evelyn’s tears.
“I’ve been difficult to kill for a reason.”
Rachel almost smiled despite herself.
Then she remembered.
“Celeste?”
“Still with Thomas.”
“Willingly?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“That depends on what you call willing.”
Luca’s expression changed.
“What happened?”
“Celeste discovered three months ago that Daniel never intended to leave her anything.”
Rachel blinked.
“What?”
“She thought marrying Luca would make her powerful. Then she learned Thomas would inherit everything and she would become disposable.”
“So she turned on Daniel?”
“She tried.”
“That’s why Margaret was hurt,” Rachel said.
Evelyn nodded.
“Margaret had proof Celeste wanted to defect.”
Luca stared.
“Celeste shoved her.”
“Yes.”
“Then lied.”
“Yes.”
“But she was trying to escape her father?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Being trapped does not make her innocent.”
Rachel understood.
Celeste could be victim and villain at the same time.
Evelyn reached beneath the table.
She placed a small brass key in Rachel’s hand.
“What is this?”
“The real key.”
“To what?”
“Vittorio’s archive.”
Alessandro stepped closer.
“You found it.”
“I never lost it.”
Luca asked, “Where is the archive?”
Evelyn looked at Rachel.
“Somewhere Thomas will never search.”
Rachel waited.
“Where?”
Evelyn’s expression softened.
“With the only person nobody in this family ever considered important enough to watch.”
Rachel suddenly knew.
“Aunt Diane.”
Evelyn nodded.
“She doesn’t know she has it.”
Rachel’s phone rang.
Diane.
Rachel answered immediately.
“Aunt Diane?”
A man spoke.
Thomas.
“You should have come home faster.”
Rachel’s blood froze.
Behind his voice, Diane was crying.
Thomas continued.
“Your aunt just found something in her basement.”
Rachel gripped the phone.
“Don’t hurt her.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Then leave her alone.”
“That depends on you.”
Luca reached for the phone.
Rachel shook her head.
Thomas laughed softly.
“I know Luca is listening.”
Luca spoke.
“Thomas.”
“Boss.”
The word dripped with mockery.
“Touch Diane and you’ll spend whatever remains of your life regretting it.”
“You really do sound like Alessandro.”
Thomas paused.
“But I’m not interested in Diane.”
“Then what?”
“The woman standing beside you.”
Rachel looked at her mother.
Thomas’s voice softened.
“Ask Evelyn why she never told you who my real father was.”
Evelyn went white.
Rachel looked at her.
“Mom?”
Thomas laughed.
“You thought this was about Bellandi blood?”
A pause.
“Ask her whose blood I actually carry.”
The call ended.
Rachel turned toward Evelyn.
Her mother did not speak.
Alessandro stared at her.
Slowly, fear replaced confusion on his face.
“No.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
Rachel whispered:
“Who is Thomas’s father?”
May you like
Evelyn opened her eyes.
“Daniel Vaughn.”
