Chapter 3 - The Bride He Invented in the Rain
Isabella nearly dropped the bottle she was holding.
Nobody had called her Bella that way since she was nine.
Not softly.
Not with the second syllable stretched just slightly.
She turned toward the black passage.
“Who’s there?”
Cecilia grabbed her arm.
“Don’t.”
“Who is that?”
The voice came again.
“Bella.”
Luca stirred.
Isabella’s pulse hammered.
Dante was still beyond the hidden wall.
She heard him confronting the man in the vault.
But the passage behind her led somewhere else.
Someone else was inside it.
Isabella stepped forward.
Cecilia blocked her.
“Not with Luca.”
“Then tell me who it is.”
Cecilia looked frightened.
That frightened Isabella more.
The Mafia matriarch had stood outside while bullets struck her gate without flinching.
Now one voice had stripped the color from her face.
“Who?”
Cecilia whispered one name.
“Gabriel.”
Isabella frowned.
It meant nothing.
Then the hidden panel beside them opened wider.
A gray-haired man emerged.
He was perhaps sixty.
Thin.
His left leg dragged slightly.
A pale scar crossed his forehead.
Isabella knew the face.
The hospital photograph.
The man behind the curtain.
He stared at her with wet eyes.
“You look like your mother.”
Isabella stepped backward.
“Don’t.”
“I waited so long—”
“Don’t say that.”
Cecilia moved between them.
“You should not be here.”
Gabriel laughed bitterly.
“Neither should you.”
“Who are you?” Isabella demanded.
He looked at her.
“I’m Gabriel Vale.”
“That means nothing to me.”
“It meant something to Thomas.”
“My father?”
Gabriel flinched.
“Yes.”
She noticed the answer.
Not a denial.
Not a correction.
Just yes.
“Did you know him?”
“He saved your life.”
Isabella’s throat tightened.
“What are you talking about?”
A gunshot sounded in the vault.
She jerked.
Dante’s voice followed.
“Isabella!”
She ran toward the hidden wall.
Cecilia tried to stop her.
Too late.
Isabella emerged with Luca against her chest.
Dante stood beside the overturned table.
The stranger who had arrived by elevator was gone.
A bullet had struck the stone wall.
Dante was unhurt.
His anger was another matter.
His eyes found Gabriel.
Everything stopped.
“You.”
Gabriel looked almost amused.
“Hello, Dante.”
Dante raised the pistol.
Isabella stepped between them without thinking.
“No.”
Dante stared at her.
“Move.”
“No.”
“He’s connected to Elena’s death.”
Gabriel’s expression tightened.
“I tried to save Elena.”
“You were in the hospital room.”
“Yes.”
“You vanished afterward.”
“Because your mother told me to.”
Dante looked at Cecilia.
“Did you?”
Cecilia closed her eyes.
Dante laughed once.
“Of course.”
Isabella looked between them.
“What is happening?”
Gabriel reached inside his jacket.
Dante aimed higher.
“Slowly.”
Gabriel removed a folded document.
He put it on the table.
“My daughter deserves the truth.”
Isabella froze.
Dante did not lower the weapon.
“Prove it.”
Gabriel nodded toward the document.
“DNA.”
Isabella’s legs felt weak.
“No.”
“You were four months old when Thomas took you.”
“Stop.”
“Your mother was my sister-in-law’s employee. She witnessed something Vittorio’s partners needed buried.”
“Stop.”
“Thomas protected you when I couldn’t.”
“I SAID STOP.”
Luca began crying.
Silence swallowed the room.
Isabella closed her eyes.
Her anger immediately turned into guilt.
She rocked Luca slowly.
“I’m sorry.”
The baby’s crying softened.
Dante lowered his gun.
He crossed toward her.
“Give him to me for a minute.”
She looked up.
Something in Dante’s face had changed.
Not command.
An offer.
Isabella hesitated.
Then carefully transferred Luca into his arms.
Dante held the infant awkwardly at first.
Then instinct took over.
His palm supported Luca’s head.
The baby stared at him.
Dante stared back.
Six months of denied fatherhood seemed to settle into one unbearable moment.
“Hey,” Dante whispered.
Luca grabbed his tie.
Isabella nearly cried.
Gabriel watched them.
“So now you understand.”
Dante looked up.
“Understand what?”
“Why Elena hid the pregnancy.”
“You think I didn’t know?”
“You knew the baby was yours. You didn’t know why she disappeared before delivery.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
Gabriel continued.
“She discovered a ledger.”
“What ledger?”
“The Mercy Ledger.”
Cecilia whispered, “Gabriel.”
“No more secrets.”
Dante looked at his mother.
“What is the Mercy Ledger?”
Gabriel answered.
“A list of every payment made to keep your father’s enemies loyal.”
“I’ve seen ledgers.”
“Not this one.”
“What makes it different?”
“It continued after Vittorio died.”
Dante went still.
“Who continued it?”
Gabriel looked toward Cecilia.
She shook her head.
He ignored her.
“Someone in the Moretti family.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“Who?”
“Your uncle.”
“Alessandro?”
“No.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed.
“I only have one living uncle.”
Gabriel said nothing.
Then Dante understood.
His face changed.
“My father’s brother Enzo died twenty years ago.”
“No,” Gabriel said.
“He disappeared twenty years ago.”
Cecilia looked exhausted.
Isabella stared.
“Why does any of this involve me?”
Gabriel pointed toward her father’s note.
“Because Thomas stole the ledger.”
“And hid it.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“He never told me.”
“Then why are people trying to kill me?”
“Because he left a clue tied to you.”
Isabella laughed shakily.
“Everybody keeps saying that.”
Gabriel’s gaze moved toward Luca.
“And tied to him.”
Dante shifted the baby higher.
“No one uses my son as a key.”
Gabriel smiled sadly.
“That decision was made before he was born.”
Dante’s phone buzzed.
He answered.
Marco’s voice came fast.
“Boss, east wing secure. Mrs. Bell is alive.”
Isabella exhaled.
“Where?”
“Old nursery storage. But there’s something else.”
“What?”
“Main driveway is filling up.”
“With who?”
“Family.”
Dante frowned.
“What family?”
“All of them.”
Cecilia went pale.
Dante looked toward her.
“You invited them?”
“No.”
Marco continued.
“Your aunt. Cousins. Alessandro. The Contis. Two council attorneys. Father Sebastian.”
Dante’s expression became colder with every name.
“Why is a priest here?”
Marco hesitated.
“He says he was summoned to witness a marriage.”
Isabella stared at Dante.
Dante stared at Cecilia.
Gabriel muttered something under his breath.
Cecilia moved quickly.
“We need to go upstairs.”
Dante did not move.
“Whose marriage?”
No answer.
Dante’s phone buzzed again.
A message appeared.
He read it.
Then handed the phone to Isabella.
An image filled the screen.
A legal notice.
PETITION FOR EMERGENCY CUSTODY OF LUCA MORETTI.
Petitioner: Cecilia Moretti.
Isabella looked at her.
“You filed this?”
Cecilia shook her head.
“I did not.”
Dante read further.
A hearing had been scheduled for the next morning.
Attached documents claimed Dante was unfit.
They claimed Luca’s mother had named the Moretti Family Trust as guardian.
They claimed Isabella had abducted him.
“This is fake,” Cecilia said.
Dante looked at Gabriel.
“How do we stop it?”
Gabriel’s answer was immediate.
“Establish a household.”
Isabella frowned.
“What?”
“Under the trust charter Vittorio created, custody defaults to the recognized household of the biological parent before extended family.”
Dante understood before Isabella did.
“No.”
Gabriel nodded.
“Yes.”
Isabella looked between them.
“What are you talking about?”
Dante set Luca carefully back into her arms.
Then he looked toward the elevator.
“Someone brought a priest.”
Her eyes widened.
“No.”
“Isabella.”
“No.”
“I’m not asking you to marry me.”
“That is exactly what this sounds like.”
“I’m asking you to help me keep Luca out of the hands of whoever staged tonight.”
“By pretending to be your bride?”
“Temporarily.”
“That is the worst proposal in human history.”
Despite everything, Dante almost smiled.
“Agreed.”
Isabella stared at him.
“You lied to me for six months.”
“Yes.”
“You put me in a house where people were watching me.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Luca was your son.”
“Yes.”
“And now you want me to stand upstairs and tell your entire family I’m your wife?”
“I want them to believe they cannot separate you from him without going through me.”
Her anger paused.
“Why me?”
Dante looked at Luca.
Then at her.
“Because when bullets hit that gate, every trained man out there took cover.”
He stepped closer.
“You covered my son.”
Isabella swallowed.
“That doesn’t mean you trust me.”
“It means I know what you do when you’re afraid.”
“What?”
“You protect him.”
The elevator chimed.
Marco appeared.
He looked between them.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“They’re waiting in the ballroom.”
“For what?”
Marco hesitated.
“For you to introduce the bride.”
Isabella stared at Dante.
He looked toward the elevator.
Then toward her.
“This only works if they believe it.”
She tightened her hold on Luca.
“How believable?”
Dante’s eyes met hers.
“Completely.”
Upstairs, church bells began ringing from the estate chapel.
Nobody had ordered them.
Cecilia looked toward the ceiling.
Gabriel went still.
Dante’s face hardened.
Then Isabella’s phone lit up.
One message.
FROM: UNKNOWN.
MARRY DANTE TONIGHT AND THE BABY LIVES.
She stared at the screen.
A second message arrived.
REFUSE, AND MRS. BELL WON’T BE THE NEXT PERSON WE TAKE.
Then a photograph loaded.
It showed Isabella’s younger sister leaving work.
May you like
Ten minutes ago.
Someone was standing behind her.
