Chapter 5 - The Letter That Never Reached Him
Luciano did not move.
The voice came again.
“Open the door.”
Kate watched the blood leave his face.
“Who is that?”
Luciano whispered, “My father.”
Marco looked at him sharply.
“Your father has been dead thirty-three years.”
“I know.”
The voice sounded again.
“Luciano.”
Marco drew his gun.
He approached the sealed door.
Luciano joined him.
The lock had rusted years ago.
Yet the handle moved.
Marco pulled the door open.
Empty corridor.
No man.
Only a small recorder sat on the floor.
Luciano stared.
Marco picked it up.
A red light blinked.
Recorded audio.
Someone had used his father's voice.
Luciano pressed stop.
Kate whispered, “They're trying to scare you.”
“No.”
He looked down the corridor.
“They're trying to make me follow.”
Marco wanted to search first.
Luciano refused.
The corridor led through the oldest wing of Hawthorne Ridge.
Dust covered the floor.
One set of footprints cut through it.
They ended at a narrow staircase.
At the bottom stood a locked archive room.
Marco broke the lock.
Inside were boxes.
Aruri records.
Decades old.
Luciano found one labeled ELENA.
His mother.
Inside were medical documents, photographs, and letters.
One envelope carried his father's handwriting.
VITTORIO — IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO US.
Luciano opened it.
His father had discovered financial theft inside the family organization.
Vittorio had been moving assets.
Elena feared their children would become leverage.
Children.
Plural.
Luciano kept reading.
If you are reading this, protect both boys.
Matteo must never be used against Luciano.
Matteo.
His brother had a name.
Marco whispered, “My God.”
Another document revealed that the second infant had been moved immediately after birth.
Temporary protection.
The person entrusted with him was listed only by initials.
E.W.
Kate’s mother had been Evelyn Ward.
Luciano returned upstairs carrying the file.
Kate read the letter.
“My mother took your brother.”
“It appears so.”
“But why didn't she tell anyone?”
“She may have been protecting him.”
Kate remembered her mother’s final months.
The locked drawer.
The old photographs she refused to explain.
A silver necklace Kate inherited but rarely wore.
She suddenly looked toward her jewelry box.
“Luciano.”
“What?”
“My necklace.”
She told a nurse to retrieve it.
The necklace was an antique silver medallion.
Luciano stared.
He had seen the same symbol in his mother's file.
An A surrounded by olive branches.
Aruri.
Kate opened the locket.
Inside was a photograph.
Two infant boys.
Luciano had always assumed they were anonymous children.
Now he knew.
On the back, faded ink:
L + M.
Luciano and Matteo.
Kate whispered, “My mother gave me this the night she died.”
“Did she say anything?”
“She said someday a man would come looking for the truth.”
Luciano sat beside her.
“Why give it to you?”
“I don't know.”
Marco searched the file.
He found another envelope.
Addressed to Kate.
Evelyn had written it before her death.
Kate opened it with shaking fingers.
Her mother explained that she had helped Elena Aruri hide Matteo after learning Vittorio planned to control both children.
She had arranged an adoption.
Only three people knew the new identity.
Evelyn.
Elena.
And Luciano’s father.
All three were now dead.
But the final paragraph stopped Kate.
Matteo grew up believing he was someone else.
And if Vittorio ever discovered who he became, he would either control him or destroy him.
Kate lowered the letter.
Luciano asked, “Does it name him?”
“No.”
“Anything?”
Kate turned the page.
A photograph was attached.
A boy around ten.
Silver-gray hair.
Dark eyes.
Luciano's eyes.
Behind him stood Evelyn.
The photograph had been taken at a summer camp.
Kate stared.
“I know him.”
Luciano's heart accelerated.
“Who?”
“I've seen this man.”
“Where?”
“At my mother's funeral.”
“Name.”
Kate tried to remember.
Then she did.
“Michael Ward.”
Marco frowned.
“Ward?”
“My mother's nephew.”
“You have a cousin named Michael?”
“I thought he was my cousin.”
Luciano took the photograph.
His twin brother had grown up inside Kate's extended family.
Close enough to know her.
Close enough perhaps to know Luciano.
“Where is he now?”
“I haven't seen him in years.”
Marco started searching.
Kate suddenly gripped the blanket.
Another contraction.
Margaret returned.
“Everybody out.”
Luciano stayed.
Kate didn't object this time.
Hours passed.
The medication finally worked.
The contractions slowed.
The baby remained inside.
Twenty-nine weeks.
Every additional hour mattered.
Near midnight, Kate woke.
Luciano was asleep in a chair.
His coat was gone.
His shirt sleeves were rolled up.
For once, he looked less like a man feared across three countries and more like the husband she remembered.
She whispered his name.
His eyes opened instantly.
“Baby?”
“Fine.”
He relaxed.
“Then what?”
“You.”
“What about me?”
“Why did you really come today?”
“To end the marriage.”
She flinched.
He continued.
“Because I thought that was what you wanted. And because staying married to someone who didn't love me anymore was destroying me.”
Kate studied him.
“I never stopped loving you.”
Luciano looked at her.
“That's what made it worse.”
He took her hand.
She let him.
His phone vibrated.
Marco.
Luciano answered.
“Did you find Michael?”
Silence.
Then Marco said something that made Luciano stand.
“What?”
Kate watched him.
“Luciano?”
He lowered the phone.
“Michael Ward died six years ago.”
Kate stared.
“That can't be.”
“There's a death certificate.”
“But—”
“There's more.”
Luciano looked toward the bedroom door.
“Someone has been using Michael's identity ever since.”
The door opened.
A nurse entered carrying a package.
“This was left at the gate.”
Luciano looked at the label.
No sender.
Only Kate's name.
Inside was a second silver medallion.
Identical to hers.
And beneath it was a note.
Kate read the first line.
Then she looked at Luciano.
“He's alive.”
Luciano took the note.
At the bottom was an address.
May you like
And one sentence.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT TO MEET YOUR BROTHER.
