Chapter 7 - The Lie That Broke Us
The next morning, I woke up in a guest bedroom at the Rossi estate.
I didn't remember walking there.
I didn't remember falling asleep.
I remembered my mother's words.
Dominic is your brother.
They played over and over inside my head.
But something didn't make sense.
Dominic couldn't be my brother.
Could he?
I needed proof.
I found my mother downstairs.
She was sitting alone in the kitchen.
For the first time in my life, she looked old.
Not tired.
Not sick.
Old.
"Mom."
She looked up.
"Emily."
"Tell me everything."
She began crying.
I sat across from her.
"Please."
She nodded.
"Richard Rossi had two children."
"Dominic and Daniel?"
"No."
She looked at me.
"Dominic and you."
My heart stopped.
"But that's impossible."
"Richard was not your biological father."
"Then who was?"
She looked toward the door.
Dominic stood there.
He had heard everything.
My mother whispered:
"His father."
Dominic stared at her.
"My father?"
She nodded.
"You were born from an affair between Ellen and Richard."
"No."
Dominic's voice was almost a whisper.
"That isn't true."
My mother closed her eyes.
"Richard believed Emily was his daughter."
Dominic looked at me.
Then at my mother.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because Richard threatened both of us."
"You let me believe she was a stranger."
"I was trying to protect her."
Dominic stepped backward.
"And now?"
My mother cried.
"Now he's dead."
Silence.
I stood.
"I need air."
Dominic followed me outside.
We walked through the gardens without speaking.
Finally, I stopped.
"If we're related..."
"We're not."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"My father wasn't your father."
"But my mother said—"
"She said Richard believed he was."
I froze.
Dominic continued.
"My father had doubts."
"Then why did he put me in the trust?"
"Because he suspected."
I stared at him.
"Suspected what?"
"That you were the daughter of someone else."
"Who?"
He looked away.
"My father's closest friend."
My stomach dropped.
"Who was that?"
Dominic didn't answer.
Then Enzo arrived.
"DNA results."
We both looked at him.
"What DNA results?" I asked.
He handed Dominic an envelope.
Dominic opened it.
He read.
His eyes closed.
"What?"
He handed it to me.
I read the first line.
Probability of biological relationship between Dominic Rossi and Emily Hayes: 0.00%.
I exhaled.
Relief.
Then I read the next line.
Probability that Richard Rossi is Emily Hayes's biological father: 2.4%.
I looked at Dominic.
"What does that mean?"
"It means my father wasn't your father."
"Then who was?"
Enzo looked at Dominic.
"We found the original birth records."
He handed me another document.
The father's name had been removed.
But beneath the blacked-out section was a hospital identification code.
We traced it.
The code belonged to one man.
Samuel Moretti.
Dominic stared.
"Moretti?"
"Who is he?" I asked.
"My father's best friend."
The same man who had disappeared twenty-six years earlier.
The same man whose photograph appeared in old Rossi records.
My mother suddenly entered.
She looked at the document.
Then closed her eyes.
"Samuel."
"You knew?"
She nodded.
"Samuel was your father."
I felt as if the floor disappeared.
"Where is he?"
My mother began crying.
"Dead."
Dominic looked at her.
"How?"
She shook her head.
"Richard killed him."
The room went silent.
I stared at Dominic.
"Your father killed mine?"
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"Apparently."
Then a shot came through the window.
The glass exploded.
Dominic pushed me down.
Enzo returned fire.
My mother screamed.
When it ended, we found a bullet lodged in the wall.
Attached to it was a tiny folded note.
Dominic opened it.
His face changed.
"What?"
He handed it to me.
Three words.
You are next.
Underneath was a photograph.
A picture of me as a baby.
My mother holding me.
And standing behind us was a man I had never seen.
Samuel Moretti.
Alive.
The date on the photograph was three months after his supposed death.
I looked at my mother.
"You told me he was dead."
She whispered:
"He was supposed to be."
Dominic stared at the photograph.
"Then where has he been?"
My mother shook her head.
"I don't know."
The lights went out again.
This time, nobody moved.
Then a voice came through the house security system.
"Hello, Emily."
I knew that voice.
The lawyer.
"Come outside."
Dominic raised his gun.
"Not happening."
The voice laughed.
"If you don't, your mother dies."
My mother's eyes widened.
"Emily, don't."
The front doors opened.
A car waited outside.
I looked at Dominic.
He shook his head.
I whispered:
"I'm going."
"No."
"If I don't, he'll kill her."
Dominic stepped closer.
"Then I'll go with you."
The voice came through the speakers again.
"No, Dominic."
A pause.
"Only Emily."
The doors locked.
The house alarms activated.
And from somewhere beneath the estate came the sound of an explosion.
The floor shook.
Dominic grabbed my hand.
"Run."
But the basement doors had already opened.
And someone was coming up the stairs.
A man with silver hair.
A man who looked exactly like the photograph.
My father.
May you like
Samuel Moretti.
Alive.
