Chapter 6
Giovanni drove to Victoria's estate himself.
Marco sat beside him.
Emilio, Clarissa, and Sofia followed in another car.
Nobody wanted to wait.
Nobody trusted phones anymore.
Victoria Moretti lived twenty minutes away in the family estate where Giovanni and Marco had grown up.
A stone mansion behind iron gates.
Giovanni had always considered it the safest place in his childhood.
Now it looked like a fortress designed to hide secrets.
Victoria waited in the drawing room.
She wore the same black dress from Elena's funeral.
Her silver hair remained perfectly arranged.
But her eyes were swollen.
She looked older than she had that morning.
Giovanni walked in first.
“Tell me everything.”
Victoria looked beyond him.
She saw Sofia.
Her face collapsed.
“My God.”
Sofia stopped.
Victoria stood slowly.
“You look like Elena.”
Sofia's expression hardened.
“Don't.”
Victoria flinched.
Clarissa noticed.
“What did you do to her?”
Victoria sat again.
Giovanni remained standing.
“Mother.”
She looked at her oldest son.
“You won't understand the decisions I made.”
“Try me.”
“I was protecting this family.”
“From a newborn baby?”
Victoria closed her eyes.
Marco stepped forward.
“Was Sofia taken because of you?”
Victoria whispered, “Yes.”
Clarissa began crying.
Sofia didn't.
Her face simply emptied.
Giovanni's voice turned cold.
“Why?”
Victoria looked at Clarissa.
Then Sofia.
Finally, she said, “Because one of you wasn't supposed to exist.”
Emilio frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Victoria's hands trembled.
“Elena nearly died during the pregnancy.”
Giovanni stared.
“You knew she was carrying twins?”
“Yes.”
“And I didn't?”
“She discovered it late.”
“How late?”
“Very late.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if nobody was looking for a second fetus.”
Giovanni shook his head.
“Stop talking in riddles.”
Victoria inhaled.
“Elena had become pregnant through fertility treatment.”
Giovanni went still.
“No.”
“She never told you.”
“She didn't need fertility treatment.”
“She believed she did.”
Giovanni stared at his mother.
Victoria continued.
“After Emilio was born, Elena had two miscarriages.”
Giovanni remembered.
They almost never spoke about them.
Then Clarissa came.
A miracle.
At least, that was what he had always believed.
“Elena went to St. Catherine's privately,” Victoria said. “Dr. Vale helped her.”
“With what?”
“An embryo transfer.”
Giovanni felt dizzy.
“You're saying Clarissa—”
“Is your biological daughter.”
Clarissa exhaled.
Victoria looked at Sofia.
“So is Sofia.”
“Then what was the problem?”
“The embryos.”
Giovanni stared.
Victoria's voice dropped.
“Dr. Vale transferred two.”
“So?”
“One belonged to you and Elena.”
“And the other?”
Victoria looked away.
“Mother.”
“The other was never supposed to be implanted.”
Sofia's jaw tightened.
“Whose was it?”
Victoria didn't answer.
Clarissa looked between them.
“If we're twins, how can we both be Dad's daughters if one embryo belonged to someone else?”
Victoria looked at Sofia again.
“You are not identical twins.”
“We know.”
“The second embryo was created from Giovanni's sperm.”
Giovanni felt his pulse pounding.
“But not Elena's egg.”
Silence.
Clarissa stared at Sofia.
Sofia took one step backward.
“Whose egg?”
Victoria's lips trembled.
“Mine.”
For a second, nobody understood.
Then Marco made a sound of disgust.
“What?”
Victoria began crying.
“It wasn't supposed to happen.”
Giovanni looked physically ill.
“My sperm and your egg?”
“No!”
Victoria stood.
“No. Not biologically mine. Listen to me.”
Giovanni's rage paused.
Victoria struggled for breath.
“The embryo belonged to another couple.”
“Then why say yours?”
“Because I arranged it.”
Everyone stared.
Victoria pressed one hand against her chest.
“Years earlier, before Dr. Vale's clinic became part of St. Catherine's, he ran an illegal embryo program.”
Sofia's voice became sharp.
“Illegal how?”
“Private clients. Wealthy families. Embryos stored under false identities.”
“Why?”
“Some were trying to hide fertility treatments. Some were donors. Some were… arrangements that should never have happened.”
Giovanni's patience broke.
“Whose embryo was implanted in Elena?”
Victoria looked at him.
“Your father's.”
Marco went still.
Giovanni said nothing.
Victoria continued.
“Before Antonio died, he had frozen embryos with another woman.”
Marco stared at his mother.
“Our father?”
“Yes.”
“Who was the woman?”
Victoria wiped her tears.
“My sister.”
Silence crashed through the room.
Giovanni stepped back.
“Aunt Isabella?”
Victoria nodded.
Marco cursed.
Emilio looked confused and horrified.
“Wait. You're saying one of Mom's babies came from Grandpa Antonio and his wife's sister?”
“Yes.”
Clarissa whispered, “Then Sofia isn't Dad's daughter.”
Victoria looked at her.
“Biologically, she would be Giovanni's half-sister.”
Sofia's face lost all color.
Giovanni stared at Sofia.
His daughter.
Not his daughter.
His sister.
Raised believing Elena was her mother.
Everything had become impossible.
Sofia backed away.
“No.”
Victoria stood.
“Sofia—”
“Don't say my name.”
“I am sorry.”
“No, you're not.”
“I am.”
“You stole me.”
Victoria shook her head.
“I tried to protect you.”
“You stole me from the woman who gave birth to me.”
“Elena discovered the truth after delivery.”
Sofia's eyes filled.
“And what did she do?”
“She begged me to let her keep you.”
That stopped Sofia.
Victoria cried openly now.
“Elena said she had carried you. She had felt you move. She had almost died bringing you into the world. She didn't care whose DNA you had.”
Clarissa began crying too.
Victoria continued.
“But I panicked.”
“Why?” Giovanni asked.
“Because if the truth became public, your father's affair would destroy everything he built.”
Giovanni laughed in disbelief.
“He was dead.”
“The company wasn't.”
“So you traded a child for a reputation?”
“I thought there was another solution.”
“You mean Rosa.”
Victoria nodded.
“Dr. Vale said we could report the second baby as stillborn and place her privately.”
Marco stared at his mother as if she were a stranger.
“You let Elena believe Sofia died?”
“For one day.”
“One day?”
“Then I told her Sofia had survived.”
Giovanni's eyes narrowed.
“And?”
“Elena attacked me.”
“That part I believe.”
“She threatened to call police.”
“You should have been arrested.”
“I know.”
Victoria's voice broke.
“I convinced her that making the truth public would put both babies at risk.”
“How?”
“I told her Antonio's former partners would destroy anyone connected to evidence of his private life.”
“Was that true?”
Victoria hesitated.
Giovanni slammed his fist on the table.
“Was it true?”
“I didn't know!”
There it was.
The ugliest truth.
She had guessed.
She had manipulated.
And a child had lost her family.
Sofia stared at the floor.
“So Mom agreed to hide me?”
Victoria shook her head.
“No. Elena never agreed.”
Everyone looked at her.
“She started planning to expose us.”
“Us?” Giovanni asked.
“Vale. Me. The hospital.”
“What stopped her?”
“You did.”
Giovanni went still.
“What?”
Victoria sank into the chair.
“When Clarissa and Sofia were seven, Rosa contacted Elena. Elena found Sofia. She intended to bring her home.”
Marco slowly sat down.
Giovanni whispered, “And I found out.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“You overheard Elena arguing with me.”
Memory flashed.
A hallway.
His mother crying.
Elena screaming.
A child's photograph on a table.
Giovanni gripped his head.
Something had always lived behind a locked door in his memory.
Now the door moved.
“What did I do?”
“You confronted me.”
“About Sofia?”
“Yes.”
“Then what?”
“You threatened to go to the police.”
Giovanni stared.
“That doesn't sound like trying to kill you.”
“You were furious.”
“I should have been.”
“You grabbed me.”
Marco stepped forward.
“Mom.”
Victoria looked ashamed.
“I fell.”
“You said he tried to kill you.”
“I believed he might.”
“That isn't the same thing.”
Victoria shook her head.
“You don't understand how he looked.”
Giovanni laughed bitterly.
“So you hired a doctor to erase my memory?”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“I called Dr. Cross.”
“How did you even know him?”
“Vale.”
Of course.
Everything returned to Dr. Vale.
“Cross said your rage and trauma could trigger a complete breakdown.”
“So he treated me.”
“Yes.”
“Did I consent?”
Victoria didn't answer.
Giovanni's voice lowered.
“Did I consent?”
“No.”
Clarissa whispered, “Oh my God.”
Victoria rushed on.
“You had been in the car accident two days later.”
Giovanni looked up.
“What?”
“The accident happened after you found out.”
His breathing stopped.
Victoria continued.
“You were driving to find Elena and Sofia.”
“Why?”
“Because Rosa called. Someone had tampered with her car.”
The burning vehicle.
Giovanni remembered driving fast.
Rain.
Headlights.
A truck.
His hands shaking.
He had always been told the crash happened during an ordinary business drive.
Another lie.
“You were terrified,” Victoria said. “Then the truck pushed your car off the road.”
“Pushed?”
“Yes.”
“Police said I lost control.”
“I paid to keep the report quiet.”
Giovanni stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because I thought someone from your father's past was coming after us.”
“So instead of telling me, you let Cross manipulate my memory?”
“He said he could reduce the trauma.”
“What did he actually do?”
Victoria's face tightened.
“I don't know.”
Sofia spoke.
“You paid him for fifteen years.”
Victoria looked at her.
“Not for Giovanni.”
“For what?”
“To keep him silent.”
“About what?”
“His methods.”
Emilio rubbed his forehead.
“This keeps getting worse.”
Sofia stepped toward Victoria.
“Why was the payment renewed six weeks ago?”
Victoria looked confused.
“It wasn't.”
“We saw it.”
“I stopped paying Cross eleven years ago.”
Giovanni stared.
“The records show annual payments.”
“Then someone used the trust without my authorization.”
Marco frowned.
“Who controls it?”
“Three trustees.”
“Names.”
Victoria looked at him.
“Me.”
Then Giovanni.
“And Giovanni.”
Giovanni shook his head.
“I never approved those payments.”
Victoria whispered the third name.
“Leonard Hale.”
The family attorney.
The man who had handed Emilio and Clarissa Elena's final instructions.
The man who stood at the funeral pretending to know almost nothing.
Giovanni immediately called him.
No answer.
Again.
Voicemail.
Emilio pulled out his phone.
“I'll check his office.”
Sofia stopped him.
“Wait.”
Her own phone was ringing.
Unknown number.
Everyone looked at her.
Sofia answered.
“Hello?”
A distorted male voice responded.
“You should have stayed on the island.”
Sofia's face tightened.
“Who is this?”
“You have something that belongs to me.”
“What?”
“The memory card.”
Giovanni stepped closer.
Sofia put the phone on speaker.
The voice continued.
“Elena stole it.”
“What is on it?”
“You don't need to know.”
Sofia looked at Giovanni.
Then said, “Come get it.”
The voice laughed.
“I already am.”
The line disconnected.
At that exact moment, every light in Victoria's mansion shut off.
Clarissa screamed.
Emilio grabbed her.
Giovanni reached for Sofia.
Somewhere downstairs, glass shattered.
Marco shouted, “Security!”
No answer.
Then an alarm began screaming.
A red emergency light flickered on.
Giovanni looked through the drawing room doorway.
A dark figure stood at the end of the hall.
Gun raised.
Giovanni shoved his children down.
A shot exploded.
The bullet struck the wall.
Marco tackled Victoria behind the sofa.
The shooter fired again.
Giovanni pulled Sofia toward a side corridor.
“Move!”
They ran.
Emilio and Clarissa followed.
Another shot.
Then another.
A bodyguard appeared from the stairwell and fired back.
The attacker disappeared.
Giovanni pushed everyone into Victoria's reinforced panic room.
Marco dragged their mother inside.
The steel door closed.
Silence.
Everyone breathed hard.
Victoria clutched her chest.
Clarissa knelt beside her.
“Grandma?”
Victoria shook her head.
“I'm fine.”
Sofia reached into her pocket.
The memory card was still there.
Giovanni stared at it.
“What is on that thing?”
Sofia looked at him.
“I don't know.”
“Then let's find out.”
The panic room contained a secure computer.
Sofia inserted the card.
One encrypted video file appeared.
Password required.
A clue beneath the field.
THE DAY WE BECAME FIVE.
Giovanni stared.
Emilio whispered, “Five?”
Giovanni.
Elena.
Emilio.
Clarissa.
And—
Sofia.
Clarissa looked at Sofia.
“The day we became five would be the day we were born.”
She entered her birthday.
Password accepted.
The video opened.
Elena appeared.
But she wasn't alone.
Leonard Hale sat beside her.
The date was six weeks earlier.
Elena looked straight into the camera.
“If you are watching this, I am probably dead.”
Giovanni's blood turned cold.
Elena continued.
“And if I am dead, Leonard Hale knows exactly who killed me.”
Everyone turned toward the screen.
Leonard looked frightened in the recording.
May you like
Then Elena said:
“Because Leonard helped him do it once before.”
