Chapter 2 - The Voice Luca Recognized Too Late

The call ended before Luca could answer.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Emma had gone white.

Belini stared at the phone.

Marco watched all three of them.

Luca looked at Emma.

“What does he mean?”

“I don’t know.”

“Blood type.”

“I heard him.”

Her voice sharpened.

“I said I don’t know.”

Luca believed the fear.

He did not yet know whether he believed anything else.

Then one of the private office doors opened.

The tallest boy stood there.

Matteo.

Six years old.

Serious eyes.

Too observant.

“Mom?”

Emma immediately crossed the room.

“You should be with Aunt Rosa.”

“She said Leo feels sick.”

Everything else disappeared.

Emma hurried out.

Luca followed.

All four boys were together near the restaurant table.

Leo sat pale in Rosa’s lap.

Emma knelt.

“What hurts?”

“My stomach.”

Rosa whispered:

“He gets anxious when people argue.”

Luca stopped several feet away.

The smallest boy looked at him.

Then at the black velvet ring box still in Luca’s hand.

“Were you going to marry the red lady?”

Nobody answered.

Belini had followed them.

Still in deep crimson.

Her face tightened.

Luca put the ring box away.

“Not tonight.”

Marco approached quietly.

“Boss.”

Luca turned.

“I traced the call.”

“And?”

“Private relay. But the original number belongs to a line registered to the Moretti estate.”

Emma looked up.

Belini went still.

Luca’s eyes hardened.

“Which line?”

Marco hesitated.

“Your father’s study.”

Silence.

Vittorio Moretti was still alive.

Seventy-eight.

Recovering at the family estate outside Palermo after a second cardiac episode.

And he had spent six years telling Luca that Emma left because she wanted freedom from his world.

Luca took out his phone.

“Call him.”

Marco did.

No answer.

Again.

Nothing.

Emma stood.

“You knew your father was involved.”

“No.”

“You said he told you I chose another life.”

“He did.”

“And now his phone calls to tell you one of my sons might not be yours.”

Luca looked at her.

“Our sons.”

The words stopped her.

He repeated them more carefully.

“If they are mine, then they were ours before either of us knew how badly we were being lied to.”

Belini looked away.

Luca caught it.

“Why did my father hand you the envelope?”

Belini’s composure cracked.

“He told me Emma was dangerous.”

Emma laughed once.

“Pregnant and twenty-three. Terrifying.”

Belini ignored her.

“He said she was trying to trap you before a family alliance.”

“What alliance?”

Belini looked at Luca.

“Ours.”

The room changed.

Luca’s voice lowered.

“You and I had never met.”

“Our fathers had.”

Marco’s phone buzzed.

He read the message.

Then looked at Luca.

“We found something else in the old visitor archive.”

“What?”

“Your father entered a private note after Emma left the gate.”

Marco turned the screen.

One sentence.

MATTER RESOLVED. FOUR DEPENDENTS. NO CONTACT WITH L.

Emma stared.

“Dependents.”

Her eyes filled.

“He knew there were four.”

Luca looked at Belini.

“So did you?”

She did not answer.

That was answer enough.

Then Marco added:

“There’s a medical attachment.”

Luca’s jaw tightened.

“What kind?”

“Prenatal records.”

Emma stood completely still.

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Her voice came out barely above a whisper.

“I never gave anyone those.”