Chapter 2 - Three Men at the Door
Isabelle locked herself inside Luca's car and whispered, "Tell me whose name was on that phone."
Matteo climbed into the opposite seat carrying Damien's confiscated black folder.
A laboratory reference number was clipped to the final page.
MC-7714.
Matteo already knew what it meant.
The car remained parked beneath the hotel awning.
Outside, camera flashes exploded against the tinted windows.
The gala had ended in chaos.
Inside the car, Isabelle heard only her own breathing.
Luca sat beside the driver.
Enzo remained outside speaking to hotel security.
Matteo faced Isabelle.
She had known him her entire life.
He was the brother who could tell a jury a devastating fact without changing his expression.
Tonight, however, his face gave him away.
"Tell me," Isabelle said.
"First, we need to get you checked."
"I'm not bleeding."
"You were assaulted."
"I said tell me."
Matteo looked down at the phone.
"The name was Marcus Cole."
Isabelle frowned.
"Damien's father?"
"Yes."
"He's been dead for eight years."
"I know."
"Then why would his name be on a DNA test?"
Matteo didn't answer.
That frightened her more than any answer could have.
Luca turned in his seat.
"We're going to the hospital."
Isabelle shook her head.
"Luca—"
"Not negotiable."
Normally she would have fought him.
Tonight she didn't have the energy.
The hospital examination took almost two hours.
The baby was fine.
Her blood pressure was elevated.
The mark on her cheek would bruise.
The physician documented everything.
When Isabelle finally emerged, Luca was pacing.
Enzo held three coffees nobody had touched.
Matteo was on his phone.
"Where's Damien?" Isabelle asked.
"With his attorney," Matteo said.
"Vanessa?"
"Gone."
"And the police?"
"They've spoken to witnesses. They'll speak to you when you're ready."
Isabelle sat down.
Her hands trembled.
She hid them beneath her coat.
"I want to know about Marcus."
Matteo ended his call.
Then he sat opposite her.
"Damien ordered a private genetic comparison six weeks ago."
"Between whom?"
"We don't know yet."
"You said Marcus."
"The message referenced archived genetic material associated with Marcus Cole."
Isabelle stared.
"Archived where?"
"That's what I'm finding out."
Enzo handed her water.
She took it.
"Why would Damien test his dead father's DNA?"
No one answered.
Then another possibility hit her.
She touched her belly.
"No."
Luca immediately understood.
"Don't jump there."
"Was he testing my baby?"
"We don't know."
"He had access to my prenatal samples."
Matteo's eyes sharpened.
"How?"
"The specialist's office. Damien handled the insurance paperwork after my amniocentesis."
Silence.
Luca cursed under his breath.
Isabelle stood.
"I want every record."
"You'll have them."
"Tonight."
"Isabelle—"
"Tonight."
Matteo nodded.
"Okay."
At 3:17 a.m., they reached Luca's townhouse.
Isabelle showered.
She stood beneath the water until the skin of her shoulders turned pink.
She did not cry.
Not yet.
When she came downstairs wearing Luca's oversized sweatshirt, her brothers had converted the dining room into a war room.
Documents covered the table.
Enzo had three laptops open.
Matteo was reading corporate filings.
Luca stood at the window.
Isabelle stopped.
"You've been investigating him."
Nobody denied it.
"For how long?"
Luca turned.
"Eleven days."
"Without telling me?"
"You told me you suspected an affair. Then Matteo found irregularities."
"What irregularities?"
"Transfers."
Isabelle walked to the table.
Enzo rotated a laptop.
Money had moved from a Cole-Marchetti subsidiary into three consulting companies.
Amounts just below internal review thresholds.
$480,000.
$495,000.
$472,500.
Again.
Again.
Again.
"How much?"
Enzo hesitated.
"At least $6.4 million."
Isabelle gripped the chair.
"Where?"
"We're tracing it."
"Vanessa?"
"Some."
"Some?"
"She owns one of the consulting companies."
Isabelle closed her eyes.
So Damien had not merely cheated.
He had paid his mistress with money connected to assets Isabelle owned.
"When did it start?"
"Fourteen months ago."
Her eyes opened.
Fourteen months.
That was three months before Isabelle became pregnant.
She thought of the fertility appointments.
Damien holding her hand.
Damien injecting medication into her abdomen.
Damien whispering, We're going to get our miracle.
She finally cried.
Not loudly.
One tear.
Then another.
Luca started toward her.
She raised her hand.
"Don't."
He stopped.
"If you hug me right now, I'll fall apart."
"Then fall apart."
"No."
Her voice cracked.
"Not yet."
At sunrise, Matteo received a call.
He stepped into the hall.
When he returned, his expression had changed.
"The lab confirmed the test."
Isabelle stood.
"Whose?"
"Damien submitted fetal genetic material."
Her stomach dropped.
"And Marcus?"
"The comparison requested was between your unborn child and Marcus Cole."
Isabelle stared at him.
"Why?"
Matteo placed the laboratory request form on the table.
At the bottom was Damien's signature.
The stated purpose read:
KINSHIP VERIFICATION FOR INHERITANCE ELIGIBILITY.
Isabelle read it twice.
Then a third time.
"Inheritance?"
Luca swore.
Enzo was already typing.
"What inheritance?" Isabelle asked.
Nobody knew.
But twenty minutes later, Enzo found the first clue.
Marcus Cole had established a private trust before his death.
Most of it had never appeared in ordinary probate filings.
The trust contained commercial property, securities, and mineral rights.
Estimated current value:
$112 million.
Isabelle stared at the number.
"Why would my daughter have anything to do with Marcus's trust?"
Matteo kept reading.
Then he stopped.
"What?"
He looked at Isabelle.
"The trust has a bloodline clause."
Her mouth went dry.
"What kind?"
"Certain assets transfer when a qualifying biological descendant is born."
"Damien is Marcus's son."
Matteo looked at her for a long moment.
"According to the trust, Damien isn't."
The room went silent.
Isabelle blinked.
"What?"
"Marcus apparently knew."
"Then whose son is Damien?"
"We don't know."
She sat down slowly.
The entire architecture of Damien's life had just shifted.
His obsession with the baby.
The DNA test.
The hidden phone.
The desperation for Isabelle's signature.
Perhaps none of it was separate.
Perhaps all of it was connected.
Enzo suddenly stopped typing.
"Wait."
He enlarged a scanned trust amendment.
"There."
A handwritten notation appeared beside the bloodline clause.
Three initials.
I.M.C.
Isabelle leaned closer.
"Those are my initials."
Matteo shook his head.
"The amendment was written twenty-three years before you married Damien."
"Then it's someone else."
Enzo searched.
Nothing.
Luca stared at the initials.
Then at Isabelle.
"Mom."
She looked at him.
"What about Mom?"
Their mother, Elena Marchetti, had died when Isabelle was nineteen.
Luca walked toward an old cabinet.
He opened a drawer.
From the back, he removed an envelope.
Isabelle stared.
"What is that?"
"A letter Mom made me promise not to give you unless something happened."
Her heart began pounding.
"Something like what?"
Luca didn't answer.
He handed her the envelope.
Across the front, in their mother's handwriting, were five words:
FOR ISABELLE. WHEN MARCUS RETURNS.
Isabelle looked up.
"Marcus is dead."
Luca's face had gone pale.
"I know."
She slid one finger beneath the seal.
Before she could open it, someone knocked on the townhouse door.
Three slow knocks.
Enzo checked the security camera.
Then he froze.
"Who is it?" Matteo asked.
Enzo turned the screen toward them.
A gray-haired man stood outside holding a photograph of their mother.
He looked directly into the camera.
May you like
Then he said a name none of them had heard in twenty years.
A name written inside Marcus Cole's secret trust...
