Chapter 15 - The Name She Never Told ThemTwenty Years Later, the Family Finally Heard the Truth
Nobody moved.
Rain hammered the warehouse roof.
Sophia looked at Elena.
"Lucia?"
Elena's face was wet with tears.
"Elena Romano was the name I used to survive."
Matteo's gun lowered slightly.
"You are my mother."
"No."
She shook her head.
"I am your father's wife."
Matteo stared.
"My mother."
"Yes."
"You let me believe you were dead."
"I had to."
"You let me believe Elena..."
"Because Elena truly died."
Sophia's breathing stopped.
"What?"
The woman standing before them looked at Sophia.
"The real Elena Romano died twenty years ago."
Sophia stepped backward.
"No."
"She died protecting you."
"You're lying."
"I wish I were."
Lucia looked toward Luca.
"Your mother gave me the children."
Sophia's eyes filled.
"Why?"
"Because Matteo's enemies were searching for his bloodline."
She looked at Matteo.
"Your father wanted both of you dead."
Matteo's voice was barely audible.
"And you?"
"I took you."
"You became Elena."
"I had to."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because every time I looked at you, I saw the life I had destroyed."
Sophia shook her head.
"And Luca?"
"His father died protecting him."
Sophia understood.
"Enrico."
Lucia nodded.
"Enrico wasn't a traitor."
Matteo's expression changed.
"He worked for you."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"To keep you alive."
Marco laughed.
"You still haven't told them everything."
Lucia turned.
Marco pointed his gun at Sophia.
"The ledger doesn't matter."
Matteo raised his weapon.
"Put the gun down."
Marco shook his head.
"Your family spent twenty years killing each other over a book."
He smiled.
"But the real secret is simpler."
"What?"
"Matteo isn't the heir."
Sophia looked at him.
Marco continued:
"You are."
Silence.
"The Bellandi succession document names Sophia Romano as the sole legal heir to the entire empire."
Matteo stared.
"That's impossible."
Marco pulled a folded document from his coat.
"Read it."
He threw it onto the floor.
Sophia picked it up.
The signature was unmistakable.
Her grandmother's.
The seal of the Bellandi family.
And beneath it:
Sophia Bellandi Romano, legitimate heir.
Her hands shook.
Matteo stared at the document.
His entire empire had been built around protecting a woman who had never known she owned it.
Marco smiled.
"Now you understand why everyone wanted you dead."
A gunshot exploded.
Marco fell.
Sophia screamed.
But Matteo had not fired.
Marco collapsed against a crate.
Behind him stood Salvatore.
His gun smoking.
Marco looked down at the blood spreading across his shirt.
"Why?"
Salvatore answered quietly:
"Because Elena asked me twenty years ago."
Marco fell.
Silence.
Luca was free.
Sophia ran to him.
Matteo stood beside Lucia.
His face was broken.
"You should have told me."
Lucia looked at him.
"You would have come."
"Yes."
"And everyone would have died."
Matteo's eyes filled.
"I would rather have known."
Lucia smiled sadly.
"I know."
Sophia looked down at the succession document.
A terrible realization settled over her.
The money.
The companies.
The politicians.
The men.
The power.
All of it belonged to her.
She looked at Matteo.
"Was this what you wanted?"
He shook his head.
"I wanted you alive."
"And now?"
Matteo looked at the empire outside the warehouse.
Then at his daughter.
"Now I want you to decide what happens to it."
Sophia folded the document.
Outside, police sirens approached.
For the first time in twenty years, the Bellandi empire had no secret left to hide.
But as Sophia turned toward the door, she noticed one final line written beneath her grandmother's signature.
She read it twice.
Then looked at Matteo.
"There's one more clause."
"What?"
Her voice trembled.
"It says the heir cannot assume control until she discovers who ordered Elena's original murder."
Matteo's expression changed.
"That's impossible."
Sophia turned the paper around.
A second signature waited beneath the clause.
Not her grandmother's.
Not Elena's.
Not Matteo's.
A name Matteo had not heard spoken in twenty years.
The name of the man everyone believed was dead.
His father.
May you like
And beneath that signature were four words.
THE WAR WAS NEVER OVER.
