Chapter 14 - The Baby Was Never Isabella'sThe world went silent.
I stared at my mother.
“No.”
Lucia was crying.
“I'm sorry.”
“No.”
I looked at Isabella.
She couldn't meet my eyes.
“Tell me she's lying.”
Isabella whispered:
“She isn't.”
My knees nearly collapsed.
Dante looked at Gabriel.
Then at me.
“How?”
Isabella stepped forward.
“Because the night you remember wasn't a memory of visiting me.”
She swallowed.
“It was the night you gave birth.”
I couldn't breathe.
I remembered the hospital.
The baby.
The crying.
The promise.
But I had believed Gabriel was Isabella's son.
My mother continued.
“You were pregnant at nineteen.”
I shook my head.
“I would remember.”
“You were drugged.”
My stomach turned.
“Why?”
“Because Carlo was trying to control the inheritance.”
I looked at Isabella.
“She carried him afterward.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To make everyone believe he was hers.”
“Then why did she disappear?”
“To keep you hidden.”
I stared at Gabriel.
The baby looked at me.
His eyes opened.
He reached toward me.
I took him.
He immediately buried his face against my chest.
Just like the first night.
Everything suddenly made sense.
The smell.
The heartbeat.
The instinct.
The recognition.
He wasn't recognizing his aunt.
He was recognizing his mother.
Tears filled my eyes.
“Oh, God.”
Dante stood in front of us.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Isabella looked at him.
“Because if Carlo learned Elina was alive and Gabriel's true mother, he would never stop hunting her.”
Dante looked at me.
I saw the devastation in his eyes.
“You're his mother.”
I nodded through tears.
Gabriel's fingers curled around mine.
Dante reached toward him.
Then stopped.
He looked as though he didn't know whether he had the right.
I handed Gabriel to him.
“He's still your son.”
Dante looked down.
“He always was.”
The moment felt almost peaceful.
Then the chapel windows exploded.
Gunfire.
People screamed.
Victor's men had found us.
Dante pushed us down.
“Back exit!”
We ran through the crypt beneath the chapel.
The tunnel led toward the cliffs.
Behind us came footsteps.
Dante handed Gabriel to Isabella.
“Get him out.”
I stopped.
“No.”
Dante looked at me.
“He's my son too.”
He nodded.
“Then we all leave.”
We reached the cliffside.
A helicopter waited.
Lucia looked at me.
“Go.”
“What about you?”
“I stay.”
“No.”
She smiled sadly.
“This started with me.”
Then she turned.
A shot rang out.
Lucia fell.
“Mom!”
I ran toward her.
Dante caught me.
“No!”
I screamed.
Blood spread across her dress.
She looked at me.
“Don't look back.”
I fell to my knees.
“Mom.”
Her fingers touched my cheek.
“I was never ashamed of you.”
Then her eyes closed.
I screamed her name.
Dante pulled me away as bullets struck the stone.
We reached the helicopter.
Isabella climbed inside with Gabriel.
Dante followed.
I looked back once.
Men appeared along the cliffs.
At their center stood Victor.
He smiled.
Then he raised a phone.
My mother's phone.
He had called someone.
Dante's phone rang.
He answered.
A voice came through.
Dante went still.
I looked at him.
“What?”
He slowly lowered the phone.
“Carlo.”
I stared.
“Your father is dead.”
Dante looked at me.
“I know.”
He swallowed.
“The voice on the phone wasn't his.”
“Then who was it?”
He looked toward Victor.
“Someone pretending to be him.”
The helicopter lifted.
Below us, the chapel disappeared into the fog.
I thought it was over.
Then Dante opened the message that had just arrived.
There was a photograph.
My mother.
Alive.
Taken ten minutes earlier.
And underneath it were five words.
She was never the real target.
Dante looked at me.
“Who was?”
I stared at Gabriel.
Then at Isabella.
Then at the darkness below.
And understood.
It had never been about money.
It had never been about the empire.
Someone had been using us for twenty-four years.
May you like
And the final piece was still missing.
Me.
