Chapter 6 - Caleb Comes Back
Claudia Bell was sixty-two years old.
She entered with empty hands.
Mateo still aimed a gun at her.
Hazel moved closer to Noah’s bedroom.
Claudia noticed.
“The boy is safe.”
“You don’t get to tell me that,” Hazel said.
Claudia looked tired.
Not frightened.
“You look like Sofia,” Mateo said.
“So did my son.”
Mateo’s weapon lowered half an inch.
“Christian.”
Claudia nodded.
The story came slowly.
Antonio Lombardi and Sofia had struggled to conceive.
Claudia became pregnant young.
The father disappeared.
Sofia supported her secretly because Antonio considered an unmarried pregnancy a disgrace.
Then Sofia became pregnant too.
The sisters delivered sons within hours of each other.
Mateo and Christian.
Not twins.
Cousins.
Antonio saw opportunity where everyone else saw family.
He wanted an unquestioned male heir.
Sofia’s baby was premature and sick.
Claudia’s was healthy.
For forty-eight hours, Antonio considered switching the infants.
Hazel stared at Mateo.
“Did he?”
“No,” Claudia said. “Sofia threatened to expose him.”
“So why the records?”
“Because Antonio prepared them before changing his mind.”
Mateo lowered the gun.
“And Christian?”
Claudia’s eyes hardened.
“Your father made sure we disappeared.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew what he was capable of.”
Christian grew up under another surname.
Years later, he returned to Chicago.
He wanted part of the Lombardi empire he believed had been stolen from him.
Antonio refused.
Christian turned to the Morettis.
“And Victor?” Mateo asked.
“Christian recruited him.”
Hazel understood.
“C.B.”
“Christian Bell,” Claudia said. “Not me.”
Mateo’s eyes narrowed.
“Then why did Caleb tell us it was Claudia?”
“Because Caleb only saw the initials.”
A knock interrupted them.
Dante opened the door.
Caleb collapsed inside.
Hazel screamed his name.
He was alive.
Barely.
They laid him on the couch.
His face was bruised.
One hand was bandaged.
When his eyes opened, he saw Hazel.
“I’m sorry.”
She cried as she hugged him.
“You idiot.”
“I know.”
“You absolute idiot.”
“I know.”
Noah appeared in the hallway.
Caleb stared.
“That him?”
Hazel nodded.
Caleb smiled weakly.
“He looks like Mateo.”
From behind Hazel, Mateo said, “Everyone keeps telling me.”
Caleb’s smile vanished.
“Sorry.”
“You should be.”
Hazel glared at Mateo.
Mateo added, “But not for the reason you think.”
Caleb explained everything.
He had stolen money.
Victor discovered it.
Victor forced him to provide passwords.
When Caleb realized Victor worked for Christian, he tried to confess.
Victor arranged the evidence first.
After Mateo captured Caleb, Victor secretly released him during a transfer and told him Hazel would die if he returned.
Caleb spent years moving.
Then he discovered Noah.
“I wanted to come home.”
Hazel squeezed his hand.
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because Christian knew about him.”
“How?”
Caleb looked at Claudia.
“I don’t know.”
Claudia did.
“Sofia kept journals.”
Mateo frowned.
“My mother’s journals disappeared after she died.”
“Christian has them.”
“What would they say about Noah?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why does he care?”
Claudia looked at Mateo.
“Because of the Lombardi trust.”
Mateo went still.
Hazel asked, “What trust?”
Antonio had structured the family’s legitimate holdings decades earlier.
Control passed through direct descendants.
Mateo had no acknowledged children.
If he died childless, certain assets reverted to another family branch.
Christian had spent years positioning himself to claim them.
Then Noah was born.
Mateo’s son erased Christian’s path.
Hazel felt nauseated.
“My five-year-old is standing between a grown man and money?”
“Hundreds of millions,” Claudia said.
Hazel looked toward Noah.
“No.”
Mateo understood immediately.
“No what?”
“Noah isn’t part of your empire.”
“He doesn’t have to be.”
“You just said—”
“I said he is my son. I didn’t say he becomes me.”
That stopped her.
Mateo crouched in front of Noah.
“Listen to me.”
Noah looked nervous.
“Nothing I own matters more than you.”
“Even your cars?”
Mateo almost smiled.
“Even the cars.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
Noah considered the magnitude of this sacrifice.
“Wow.”
Hazel laughed despite herself.
Then Caleb grabbed Mateo’s wrist.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Christian doesn’t only want the trust.”
Caleb struggled to sit.
“He wants you to acknowledge Noah publicly.”
“Why?”
“So everyone knows the boy matters.”
Hazel’s blood chilled.
“He wants leverage.”
Caleb nodded.
Mateo’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Victor’s voice came through.
“Congratulations on meeting your son.”
Mateo’s expression turned lethal.
“Victor.”
“I have a proposition.”
“You have thirty seconds.”
“Bring me the original Lombardi trust.”
“For what?”
Victor laughed.
“Ask Claudia what happens if the direct heir dies after being formally acknowledged.”
Mateo looked at Claudia.
She went pale.
Victor continued.
“Midnight tomorrow. Come with the document.”
The call disconnected.
Then Caleb whispered, “That isn’t the worst part.”
Hazel turned.
“What could possibly be worse?”
Caleb looked toward Noah.
“Christian already has someone inside this building.”
The lights went out.
May you like
A child’s bedroom door opened.
And Noah said, “Mom, who is that man?”
