Chapter 3 - The Bellini Deception
By midnight, the grand mansion was completely silent.
The twenty-eight dinner guests were gone, blissfully unaware of the storm brewing within the Moretti inner sanctum.
I was resting on a soft velvet sofa in Luca's private library, wrapped in a plush cashmere blanket that Luca himself had placed over my shoulders. Dr. Harris had administered a mild painkiller, and the throbbing in my collarbone had finally settled into a dull, manageable ache.
The door clicked open, and Luca walked in, holding two porcelain mugs of hot tea. He handed one to me, sitting in the armchair opposite the sofa.
"How is the shoulder?" he asked gently.
"Much better, thank you, sir," I replied, taking a small sip.
"Call me Luca," he said quietly. "We are far past 'sir,' Claire."
I looked down at my tea, feeling a blush warm my cheeks. Luca Moretti was one of the most powerful and feared men in Chicago, a man whose family empire bridged legitimate real estate with deep underground influence. Yet sitting here in the dim amber light of the fire, he looked human, vulnerable, and fiercely protective.
The door opened again, and Daniel stepped inside, carrying a thick black binder and a sealed evidence bag containing a small silver object.
"We found the delivery truck at a rest stop on Interstate 90," Daniel reported, setting the evidence bag on the table. "The driver confessed immediately. Vanessa paid them ten thousand dollars in cash to transport the original portrait to an auction house in Philadelphia. She had already listed it under a fake seller profile for two hundred thousand dollars."
Luca picked up the evidence bag. Inside lay the delicate silver baptismal medal. It was engraved with a single word: Marco.
"And the woman in the photograph?" Luca asked.
Daniel opened the binder, laying out several black-and-white hospital documents from 1995.
"Her name was Sister Agnes Vance," Daniel said smoothly. "She was a head nurse at St. Jude's Maternity Ward in Milwaukee—a facility funded by the Bellini family thirty years ago."
Luca’s eyes narrowed dangerously. "The Bellini family?"
"Yes," Daniel confirmed. "Vanessa's father, Arthur Bellini, was the principal trustee of that hospital in 1995. According to the archived medical records I just pulled, Helena Moretti gave birth to twins on October 14, 1995."
My breath caught in my throat. I sat up straight, ignoring the sharp pull in my shoulder. "Twins?"
Daniel nodded, looking at Luca. "You were born at 2:14 AM, Boss. But twenty minutes later, a second boy was born—Marco Moretti. The records state that Marco suffered severe respiratory distress and died three hours after birth."
Luca gripped the edge of his desk, his knuckles turning stark white. "And was he dead?"
"No," Daniel revealed, his voice dropping into a solemn whisper. "Sister Agnes signed a falsified death certificate. The baby was quietly handed over to a private adoption agency controlled directly by Arthur Bellini."
Luca stood up, the absolute temperature in the room dropping to sub-zero. "Arthur Bellini stole my twin brother?"
"It gets worse, Boss," Daniel continued. "Arthur Bellini used that baby as leverage over your father, Anthony Moretti, for over two decades. That's how the Bellini family secured their thirty-percent share in the Moretti shipping docks back in 2002. Your father spent his entire life paying blackmail to keep his lost son safe, never knowing if the boy was actually alive."
"And Vanessa knew," I whispered, the puzzle pieces rapidly falling into place. "That's why she wanted the wedding portrait removed! She knew the envelope was hidden behind the frame!"
May you like
"She wasn't just replacing a painting, Claire," Luca said, his voice terrifyingly cold. "She was destroying the evidence before our wedding. If I married her, the Bellini family would have secured total legal immunity and merged our estates forever. She wanted to lock the secret away forever."
Luca turned toward Daniel. "Bring Vanessa down here."
