Chapter 9 - The Child Damien Tried to Use
Isabelle pointed at the frozen screen and whispered, "That's Uncle Gabriel."
Matteo opened the Marchetti family registry beside the video.
One death certificate had no hospital verification.
Antonio Marchetti's.
Their father had faked his death.
And Gabriel had helped him.
Gabriel Marchetti was their father's younger brother.
He had attended every funeral.
Every wedding.
He had walked Isabelle down the aisle beside Luca.
He had toasted Damien.
He had kissed Isabelle's forehead when she announced her pregnancy.
And he had apparently known Antonio was alive.
Luca called him.
No answer.
They went to his home.
Empty.
Closets cleared.
Passport gone.
But inside his study, Enzo found a photograph.
Antonio.
Alive.
Older.
Standing beside Richard Hale.
Taken eight months earlier.
Isabelle sat down.
Her father was alive.
The man she had mourned for twenty-nine years.
Alive.
And connected to the man trying to destroy her.
The emotional blow nearly triggered premature contractions.
Her brothers rushed her to the hospital.
For three hours, everything else stopped mattering.
The baby mattered.
Only the baby.
When the doctor finally told Isabelle her daughter was safe, she cried with relief.
Luca sat beside her.
"You don't have to keep fighting."
"Yes, I do."
"We can handle it."
"No."
She looked at her brother.
"They keep making decisions about me. Damien. Richard. Marcus. Mom. Dad. Everyone."
Her voice hardened.
"I'm done being the object in somebody else's plan."
The next morning, she requested every legal document concerning the trust.
She read them herself.
Page after page.
Hour after hour.
Then she found something Matteo had overlooked.
Not because he was careless.
Because the clause appeared meaningless.
A handwritten addendum stated:
No beneficiary may claim under this trust through coercion, fraud, or exploitation of a minor descendant.
Isabelle smiled for the first time in days.
"What?"
Matteo leaned closer.
She pointed.
"If Richard's plan depends on my daughter..."
"He loses everything."
"Not just Richard."
Matteo understood.
"Damien too."
The child Damien had tried to use was the very reason he could never benefit.
Marcus had anticipated greed.
Perhaps not the exact form.
But enough.
Isabelle's daughter was protected.
Now Isabelle needed proof.
Enzo traced Gabriel's flight reservation.
He hadn't boarded.
Instead, surveillance showed him entering a storage facility in Queens.
Police searched it.
Inside they found boxes belonging to Antonio Marchetti.
Letters.
Passports.
Cash.
And dozens of videotapes.
One tape was labeled:
FOR ISABELLE — IF ELENA FAILS.
Isabelle watched it surrounded by her brothers.
Antonio appeared on screen.
Older than she remembered.
Alive.
"I'm sorry."
Those were his first words.
Isabelle cried instantly.
Antonio explained.
He had discovered Elena's relationship with Marcus.
Not romantic at first.
Then, once.
One night.
A mistake.
Isabelle was conceived.
Antonio knew.
He chose to raise her.
But when criminal partners threatened the family, Antonio staged his death to disappear and investigate them from the outside.
Elena knew he survived.
The argument on the security footage wasn't about betrayal.
It was about Antonio wanting Elena and the children to flee.
She refused.
The contract she tore was a relocation agreement.
Then Antonio said:
"Gabriel betrayed us."
Luca leaned forward.
Gabriel had leaked Elena's movements.
Not knowing the leak would lead to her death.
Afterward, guilt kept him silent.
Richard later discovered the truth and blackmailed him.
Antonio had spent decades collecting evidence against Richard.
"Where are you now?" Isabelle whispered at the screen.
The video couldn't answer.
But the final seconds provided a clue.
Antonio held up a newspaper.
Behind him was a distinctive clock tower.
Enzo recognized it.
A small town in Pennsylvania.
They drove there.
At dusk, they found the house.
Isabelle stood outside.
Her hand trembled above the door.
Luca remained behind her.
"You want me to?"
"No."
She knocked.
Footsteps approached.
The door opened.
An elderly man stared at her.
His hair was white.
His body thinner.
But Isabelle knew his eyes.
She became seven years old again.
"Papa?"
Antonio's face broke.
"My little star."
Isabelle sobbed.
Then a gunshot shattered the window beside them.
Luca dragged her down.
Matteo shouted for cover.
Antonio stared toward the road.
A black SUV accelerated away.
But before it disappeared, Isabelle saw the passenger through the open window.
May you like
Gabriel.
Her uncle had found them first...
