PART 4 — THE DNA RESULT THAT SHATTERED EVERYTHING
The call ended.
But Lorenzo remained frozen.
He stared at his phone as though the device itself had just betrayed him.
Then his eyes moved toward Isabella.
She was crying silently.
Not denying anything.
Not defending herself.
Not even looking at him.
That frightened Lorenzo more than the threat.
He slowly walked toward the bed.
"Look at me."
Isabella didn't.
"Isabella."
Her fingers tightened around the blanket.
Lorenzo's voice became colder.
"Who is the father of my children?"
Isabella closed her eyes.
"I can't."
"You can."
"If I tell you—"
"Tell me."
"They'll kill you."
Lorenzo let out a humorless laugh.
"Isabella, I've had men put guns to my head and still asked them to pull the trigger."
His face hardened.
"You think a name is going to scare me?"
Isabella finally looked at him.
"It isn't the name I'm afraid of."
"Then what?"
"The truth."
* * *
Three hours later...
A private laboratory beneath Lorenzo's estate was operating at full capacity.
No hospital computers.
No government databases.
No outside technicians.
Only Lorenzo's personal forensic team.
The two newborns had been transferred under maximum security.
His son was sleeping inside a protected neonatal chamber.
His daughter was still missing.
And Lorenzo had ordered the hospital sealed until every employee had been questioned.
At the center of the laboratory sat Isabella's blood sample.
Beside it...
Lorenzo's.
And a sample taken from his newborn son.
The forensic specialist stared at the computer.
"Boss, the first test is ready."
Lorenzo stood behind him.
"Run it."
The machine processed the samples.
Thirty seconds.
One minute.
Two.
Then the screen changed.
The specialist stopped breathing.
Lorenzo noticed.
"What?"
The man swallowed.
"There's a problem."
Lorenzo stepped closer.
"Say it."
"The results don't match the hospital report."
Lorenzo's eyes narrowed.
"How different?"
The specialist turned the screen toward him.
"Your DNA matches the boy."
Lorenzo stared.
"How much?"
"99.99%."
For the first time that night, Lorenzo breathed.
His son was his.
Then the specialist continued.
"But there's something else."
Lorenzo's expression hardened.
"What?"
"The maternal sample."
"What about it?"
The specialist hesitated.
"It doesn't match Isabella."
Silence.
Lorenzo slowly turned toward her.
Isabella was standing behind the glass partition.
Her face was pale.
Lorenzo stared at her.
"Explain."
She shook her head.
"I can't."
His voice dropped.
"Explain."
Isabella began crying.
"I told you."
"Told me what?"
"Those aren't my DNA results."
Lorenzo froze.
"What?"
"The blood sample they used..."
She looked down.
"...wasn't mine."
* * *
Lorenzo's forensic specialist immediately ran another test.
Then another.
Then a third.
Every result was identical.
The blood stored under Isabella Rossi's name belonged to another woman.
Lorenzo's face became expressionless.
"Whose?"
"We're searching the database."
"Don't use the hospital database."
The specialist looked up.
Lorenzo's voice became deadly calm.
"Use every private database we control."
"Yes, Boss."
"And don't tell anyone what you find."
The man nodded.
Minutes later, a result appeared.
The specialist stared at the screen.
Lorenzo noticed.
"What?"
The man turned around.
"We found the woman."
"Name."
"Elena Moretti."
Lorenzo's eyes narrowed.
"Who is she?"
The specialist looked uncomfortable.
"That's the problem."
"What?"
"She's been dead for eleven years."
* * *
Silence.
Lorenzo walked closer.
"Show me."
A photograph appeared on the screen.
A young woman.
Dark hair.
Green eyes.
A small scar above her left eyebrow.
Lorenzo stared.
He had never seen her before.
But Isabella had.
The moment Isabella saw the photograph...
She collapsed into the chair.
Lorenzo turned.
"You know her."
Isabella covered her mouth.
Tears streamed down her face.
"Isabella."
She whispered:
"She was my sister."
Lorenzo went completely still.
"You never told me you had a sister."
"Because everyone believed she was dead."
"When did she die?"
"She didn't."
Lorenzo's eyes hardened.
"What?"
Isabella looked at the photograph.
"Elena disappeared eleven years ago."
"Why?"
"Because she discovered something."
"What?"
Isabella's voice trembled.
"The truth about the Bellini family."
* * *
The forensic specialist suddenly spoke.
"Boss."
Lorenzo turned.
The computer screen had changed.
A second file had appeared.
It was encrypted.
The security team had cracked it.
Lorenzo stepped forward.
"What is that?"
"We don't know."
"Open it."
The file contained one photograph.
Then another.
Then another.
Lorenzo's face changed.
They were photographs of Isabella.
Six months ago.
Five months ago.
Three months ago.
One month ago.
Pregnant.
Someone had been following her.
The next image showed Isabella entering a small apartment.
The next showed her leaving a clinic.
Then—
A photograph of Isabella sleeping.
Lorenzo's jaw clenched.
Someone had been watching her for months.
Then the final image appeared.
Lorenzo stopped breathing.
It showed Isabella standing outside the hospital...
Six hours before she went into labor.
Beside her stood a man.
The image had been zoomed in.
Lorenzo recognized him immediately.
Adrian Bellini.
But that wasn't the shocking part.
Adrian wasn't threatening Isabella.
He was handing her something.
A small envelope.
And in the corner of the photograph...
Was another person.
An elderly man.
Lorenzo's blood ran cold.
He knew that face.
Everyone in the De Luca organization knew it.
It belonged to the man who had raised Lorenzo.
His father's closest adviser.
The man Lorenzo had trusted for twenty-five years.
Victor De Luca.
His uncle.
* * *
"No."
Lorenzo stepped backward.
The specialist looked at him.
"Boss?"
Lorenzo stared at the photograph.
"My uncle has been dead for two years."
The specialist slowly shook his head.
"No, Boss."
He enlarged the image.
"He's alive."
Lorenzo's phone suddenly rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Silence.
Then a man's voice.
Old.
Calm.
Familiar.
"Hello, Lorenzo."
Lorenzo's blood turned to ice.
He knew that voice.
He had heard it throughout his childhood.
"Uncle Victor."
A quiet laugh.
"You always were the clever one."
Lorenzo's grip tightened around the phone.
"You've been alive this entire time."
"Of course."
"You ordered the explosion."
"No."
Lorenzo froze.
Victor continued:
"I didn't order the explosion."
"Then who did?"
A pause.
"The same man who took your daughter."
Lorenzo's eyes narrowed.
"Adrian."
Victor laughed softly.
"You're finally beginning to understand."
Lorenzo looked toward Isabella.
She was staring at him in horror.
Victor's voice became colder.
"Six months ago, Isabella discovered the truth."
"What truth?"
"That your family and the Bellinis were never enemies."
Lorenzo's expression changed.
"What?"
Victor continued.
"They built the entire war together."
Lorenzo's face went blank.
"The murders."
"The kidnappings."
"The assassinations."
"The territory wars."
Victor laughed.
"All theater."
Lorenzo's breathing became heavier.
"Why?"
"To control you."
"Control me?"
"Your father knew you would never willingly become the head of the empire."
Victor's voice became darker.
"So they created enemies for you to destroy."
Lorenzo stared into nothing.
Every war.
Every assassination.
Every betrayal.
Every funeral.
All of it.
A lie.
Victor whispered:
"And Isabella discovered the evidence."
Lorenzo looked at her.
"Where is the evidence?"
Victor laughed.
"Ask your wife."
Lorenzo's eyes immediately locked onto Isabella.
"Where is it?"
Isabella began shaking.
"Lorenzo..."
"WHERE IS IT?"
She burst into tears.
"I hid it."
"Where?"
"Somewhere nobody would ever search."
"Where?"
Isabella stared at him.
Then whispered:
"Inside your father's grave."
Silence.
Lorenzo stopped breathing.
Victor suddenly spoke again.
"And there's one more thing you need to know."
Lorenzo raised the phone.
"What?"
Victor's voice became almost a whisper.
"The twins aren't the only children Isabella was carrying."
Lorenzo's face went blank.
"What did you say?"
"The night Isabella disappeared..."
A pause.
"She was pregnant with three babies."
Lorenzo's blood froze.
"No."
"Your daughter was born tonight."
Victor laughed softly.
"But the third child..."
He paused.
"...was born six months ago."
Lorenzo stared at Isabella.
Her face crumpled.
And she whispered:
"I'm sorry."
Lorenzo's phone slipped from his hand.
The room fell silent.
Because somewhere in the city...
There was another child.
A child born six months earlier.
A child Isabella had hidden from him.
And a child Adrian Bellini had apparently been protecting.
To be continued...
