Chapter 8 - Someone Had Been Watching Noah
Sofia Lombardi was supposed to be dead.
Mateo had attended her funeral at twelve.
He remembered the black dress Claudia had not been permitted to attend.
He remembered his father standing beside the coffin.
He remembered touching his mother’s cold hand.
But the woman in the photograph had Sofia’s face.
Older.
Alive.
Claudia took the photograph.
“That isn’t Sofia.”
Mateo looked at her.
“Then who?”
“My other sister.”
Silence.
“You had another sister?”
“Half sister. Lucia.”
Mateo laughed without humor.
“How many relatives did my father erase?”
“Enough.”
Lucia had resembled Sofia closely.
Antonio had used that resemblance.
After Sofia died, Lucia occasionally signed documents under Sofia’s identity to protect assets Antonio wanted hidden.
Later she vanished.
Claudia believed Antonio had killed her.
Apparently he had not.
Hazel looked at the photograph.
“So Lucia worked with Victor.”
“Or was forced to.”
Mateo studied the date.
The morning after Hazel left.
He remembered that morning poorly.
He had not slept.
Victor brought whiskey.
Mateo drank.
Documents arrived concerning emergency transfers after the Moretti breach.
He signed dozens.
One could easily have been the amendment.
Hazel’s name had been inserted as beneficiary.
“Why me?”
Samuel answered.
“Because you were pregnant.”
Everyone turned.
Hazel’s face drained.
“You knew?”
Samuel nodded.
“How?”
“A private medical charge appeared on an estate account.”
Hazel remembered.
She had bought the pregnancy tests herself.
But the doctor?
She had scheduled a confirmation appointment through Mateo’s concierge physician.
She never attended.
“The appointment record,” she whispered.
Victor knew.
Before Mateo.
That changed everything.
Victor had known Hazel carried the direct heir.
He had engineered her removal.
Then forged the amendment.
But why make Hazel beneficiary?
Samuel read more carefully.
His expression changed.
“This isn’t giving Hazel money.”
“What is it doing?” Mateo asked.
“It makes her custodian of Noah’s voting rights until he turns twenty-five.”
Victor could not control the trust unless Hazel was removed.
Christian wanted Noah gone.
Victor needed Mateo dead.
And someone needed Hazel alive long enough to transfer control.
Three conflicting motives.
Three people manipulating each other.
Mateo looked at Hazel.
“You weren’t collateral damage.”
“What?”
“You were the target from the beginning.”
That afternoon, Noah disappeared for seven minutes.
Seven minutes.
Hazel nearly lost her mind.
They found him outside beside the garden wall.
Talking to an old woman.
Mateo drew his weapon.
The woman raised her hands.
Noah frowned.
“She gave me cookies.”
Hazel rushed to him.
“You do not take food from strangers.”
“She said she knew Dad when he was little.”
Mateo stared at the woman.
“Lucia.”
She smiled sadly.
“You have Sofia’s temper.”
Claudia came outside.
The sisters looked at each other for the first time in decades.
Claudia slapped her.
Then hugged her.
Lucia cried.
Her story filled the remaining gaps.
Victor had discovered the trust years ago.
He recruited Christian by promising him legitimacy.
He used Caleb to manufacture the Moretti betrayal.
He separated Hazel from Mateo because a united couple would be difficult to manipulate.
But when Lucia learned Hazel was pregnant, she altered Victor’s forged amendment.
“You changed it?”
Lucia nodded.
“He wanted himself named custodian. I replaced his name with Hazel’s.”
“So you protected Noah,” Hazel said.
“I tried.”
“Then why the photographs?”
“To warn Mateo away.”
Mateo’s eyes narrowed.
“You sent them?”
“Yes.”
“You made me believe finding Hazel would kill her.”
“It might have.”
“Because of Victor?”
“Because he had someone following you.”
Mateo stepped closer.
“Who?”
Lucia’s eyes filled with fear.
“The one person you never suspected.”
A gunshot shattered the window.
Mateo threw Noah and Hazel down.
Dante fired toward the trees.
Lucia collapsed.
Blood spread across her shoulder.
Claudia screamed.
Mateo dragged Lucia behind stone cover.
“Who?” he demanded. “Who was following me?”
Lucia struggled to speak.
“Your shadow.”
Mateo froze.
Only one man had been called that.
Dante.
Hazel looked across the garden.
Dante stood with his weapon raised.
May you like
Then slowly turned toward Mateo.
And pointed the gun directly at him.
