Chapter 9
Clara stumbled backward until her spine hit the velvet drapes.
"No," Clara whispered, her mind spinning into a vortex of impossible thoughts. "I never saw you before six months ago! I was never in Milan! I lived in Syracuse my entire life!"
Alessandro stared at Emma, his breath shallow, his Glock dangling loosely by his side. "I didn't father this child."
"Then why does she have your eyes?!" Clara cried, tears streaming down her face. "Why did Julian give her your mother’s ring?! What did he do to me?!"
"I have a younger brother," Alessandro said, the words dragging out of his throat like crushed glass. "Lorenzo."
Clara blinked through her tears. "You said you only had a foster brother. Lucas."
"Lorenzo was my blood brother. Two years younger than me," Alessandro murmured, his gaze distant, haunted by a fire from years ago. "Five years ago, during the Valenti war, Lorenzo disappeared in the explosion in Genoa harbor. We found his watch, his jacket, and dental remains that matched our family records. We buried him in the family vault next to my mother."
Clara looked down at Emma, who was quietly hugging the blue rabbit, staring up at Alessandro with those wide, haunting gray eyes.
"Lorenzo had those eyes," Alessandro whispered. "Our mother’s eyes."
A sudden realization struck Clara like a sledgehammer.
Six months before she became pregnant, Julian had taken her on a weekend trip to a secluded mountain cabin in Vermont. She remembered waking up in a hospital clinic in Burlington after what Julian had claimed was a severe allergic reaction to wild mushrooms. She had lost two days of memory. Julian had held her hand, weeping, swearing he would never let anything happen to her again.
Four weeks later, the clinic in Syracuse confirmed she was pregnant.
Julian had never been an ordinary husband. Julian had been an operative executing an extraction mission.
"Emma wasn't an accident," Clara gasped, horror pooling in her gut. "Julian didn't father her... he was hiding her. He used me as a cover to keep Lorenzo’s child safe!"
Before Alessandro could speak, the interior study door burst open.
A man in a black tactical sweater entered—not Marco, but one of Alessandro’s trusted inner-circle lieutenants, a young soldier named Leo.
"Boss! We have a breach in the basement!" Leo shouted, his weapon drawn. "Vivian Romano slipped past the guards! She had a master override card!"
Alessandro spun around. "Where is she heading?"
"The underground garage!" Leo yelled. "And boss... Don Ricci’s private militia just arrived at the front gate in three armored SUVs. They aren't waiting for a parley. They’re breaching the courtyard right now!"
Alessandro didn't hesitate. He grabbed Clara’s arm, pulling her toward the concealed passage behind the bookcase.
"Take Emma and go down the service stairs to the wine cellar," Alessandro commanded, thrusting a spare handgun into Clara’s shaking hands. "There is a tunnel behind the south barrel rack that leads to the boathouse on the river. Take the boat and don't stop until you reach the city limits."
"What about you?!" Clara shouted over the sound of heavy automatic gunfire erupting from the front gates.
"I have to go to the rail station," Alessandro said, his jaw setting like stone. "I need to know what’s inside locker 402."
"You can't go alone!" Clara pleaded. "It’s a trap! Ricci wants you out of this house!"
Alessandro looked at Emma, then at Clara. For the first time, the icy shell around his eyes melted, replaced by a fierce, desperate resolve.
"If Lorenzo is alive, I bring him home," Alessandro said. "And if he’s dead, I bury the people who used this child as a pawn."
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He shoved Clara into the secret passage and slammed the heavy door shut, leaving her in the dark.
***
