Chapter 7 - THE FIRE VITTORIO PLANNED FOR THIRTY-NINE YEARS
The smoke was deliberate.
Luca knew it immediately.
Hotel fire doors had locked electronically.
Sprinklers failed to activate.
Emergency elevators stopped.
Someone had taken control of the building systems.
Daniel.
Thomas smashed a chair through the glass door connecting the suite to the room beside it.
Luca’s men were already moving guests toward a service stairwell.
Rachel helped Diane.
Alessandro, still weak from the gunshot wound, refused assistance until Luca grabbed his arm.
“For once in your life,” Luca said, “let somebody help you.”
Alessandro looked at him.
Something passed between them.
Biology suddenly uncertain.
History unchanged.
He accepted Luca’s shoulder.
They descended seventeen floors through smoke and alarms.
Outside, emergency vehicles surrounded the hotel.
Luca’s security chief was supposed to have been Thomas.
Now his remaining men treated Thomas like a prisoner.
Thomas didn’t complain.
He sat on the curb while paramedics wrapped his wound.
Rachel stood nearby.
“You could leave.”
Thomas looked up.
“So could you.”
“I don’t have several armed men deciding whether to shoot me.”
“Family gatherings are stressful.”
Rachel shook her head despite herself.
Then Luca approached.
He handed Thomas the laptop.
Thomas frowned.
“You trust me with this?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I trust Rachel.”
Luca looked at her.
“And she believes you’re more useful alive.”
Rachel folded her arms.
“Very touching.”
Luca almost smiled.
The archive had copied itself automatically to several protected servers once opened.
Destroying the laptop would no longer help Daniel.
That changed everything.
For the first time, Daniel Vaughn could be exposed.
But they still needed to understand Vittorio’s message.
Who was the “real heir”?
And why did Luca’s DNA not match Alessandro’s?
Margaret provided the next piece.
They returned to a secure Bellandi apartment across the city.
There, Margaret sat at the dining table with a cup of tea she never touched.
“I promised your mother I would never tell you,” she said to Luca.
“My mother is dead.”
Margaret nodded.
“She died believing the promise mattered.”
Luca waited.
Margaret inhaled.
“Your mother, Sofia, could not have children.”
Alessandro stared.
“No.”
Margaret looked at him sadly.
“You knew she struggled.”
“Yes.”
“You did not know how desperate she became.”
Thirty-nine years earlier, Sofia Bellandi suffered a final miscarriage.
Doctors told her another pregnancy could kill her.
Alessandro had been overseas handling family business.
Vittorio intervened.
A baby became available through an attorney connected to one of Vittorio’s companies.
No formal adoption.
No records that could be easily traced.
Sofia accepted the child.
Luca.
Alessandro returned believing his wife had concealed a late pregnancy from the family after repeated losses.
“I was an idiot,” he whispered.
“You were in love,” Margaret said.
Luca looked at her coldly.
“Who were my biological parents?”
“I never knew.”
“But Vittorio did.”
“Yes.”
“And he called me a shield for the real heir.”
Margaret nodded.
Thomas leaned against the wall.
“Maybe Luca was supposed to inherit publicly while someone else inherited privately.”
Rachel looked toward the archive.
“The second child.”
They searched deeper.
Folder after folder referenced SECOND CHILD, but identifiers were coded.
Then Rachel found a medical record from the night Luca was born.
Hospital.
Time.
A nurse’s statement.
Two male infants were admitted through a private entrance.
One became Luca Bellandi.
The other disappeared.
Thomas whispered, “There were two.”
Rachel stared.
“Twins?”
This time, yes.
Luca had an identical twin brother.
Vittorio separated them at birth.
One entered the Bellandi family.
The other became the contingency heir.
Alessandro looked furious.
“My father was insane.”
Evelyn, who had arrived after escaping Daniel’s men during the hotel chaos, shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“He was methodical.”
Rachel frowned.
“That’s worse.”
“Yes.”
The archive revealed that Vittorio feared his criminal empire would collapse if one line of succession could be targeted.
So he created parallel heirs.
One visible.
One hidden.
Luca was the visible Bellandi.
His twin was the invisible successor.
“Where is he?” Rachel asked.
Thomas searched the records.
No name.
Only a photograph.
The image loaded slowly.
A man in his forties.
Dark hair.
Short beard.
Rachel stared.
The resemblance to Luca was almost perfect.
Then Samuel entered the apartment.
He saw the screen.
Dropped the tray he was carrying.
Porcelain shattered.
Luca turned.
“You know him.”
Samuel backed away.
“No.”
“Samuel.”
The old man closed his eyes.
“I thought we were finished with secrets.”
“So did I.”
Samuel looked at the photograph.
“He called himself Gabriel Stone.”
Thomas straightened.
Rachel asked, “Who is that?”
Samuel’s voice trembled.
“The man who tried to kill Alessandro twelve years ago.”
Silence.
Alessandro stood.
“You told me the shooter died.”
“I believed he did.”
Luca stared at the face identical to his own.
“My brother tried to kill my father?”
“Not exactly.”
Samuel swallowed.
“He was trying to kill Vittorio.”
“But Vittorio was supposedly already dead,” Rachel said.
Samuel looked at her.
“No.”
Of course.
Another false funeral.
Vittorio had survived years longer than anyone knew.
Twelve years earlier, Gabriel discovered the truth.
He confronted Vittorio.
Alessandro happened to arrive during the attack.
Gabriel mistakenly believed Alessandro was protecting Vittorio.
Shots were fired.
Alessandro survived.
Vittorio escaped.
Gabriel vanished.
Alessandro then staged his own death because Vittorio threatened Luca.
Rachel put her hands over her face.
“This family needs fewer funerals.”
Thomas laughed despite himself.
Luca didn’t.
“Where is Gabriel now?”
Samuel shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
A computer notification sounded.
NEW ARCHIVE ACCESS.
Thomas spun toward the laptop.
Someone else had opened the Bellandi archive remotely.
Username:
G.STONE.
Luca became still.
His twin was alive.
A message appeared.
LUCA,
IF YOU ARE READING THIS, DANIEL FOUND YOU BEFORE I DID.
DO NOT TRUST ALESSANDRO.
HE KNOWS WHERE VITTORIO IS.
Luca turned toward his father.
Alessandro’s face drained of color.
Rachel stared.
“You told us Vittorio disappeared.”
Alessandro said nothing.
Luca’s voice dropped.
“Dad.”
That one word carried thirty-nine years.
“Where is he?”
Alessandro sat down.
“He’s alive.”
Nobody breathed.
“How old is he?” Rachel asked.
“Ninety-four.”
Luca looked at his father as though he had become a stranger all over again.
“Where?”
Alessandro closed his eyes.
“A private medical facility in Wisconsin.”
Thomas whispered, “Jesus.”
Alessandro continued.
“He has dementia. Most days he doesn’t know his own name.”
Luca leaned across the table.
“But Daniel knows he’s alive?”
“I don’t know.”
A second message appeared from Gabriel.
YES, DANIEL KNOWS.
Then:
HE IS ALREADY THERE.
May you like
A final line appeared.
AND HE TOOK CELESTE WITH HIM.
