Chapter 9 - THE SON RICHARD STOLE
The second envelope contained one name.
Marco Moretti.
Luka’s father.
My knees nearly buckled.
“No.”
Luka didn’t speak.
I handed him the page.
He read it once.
Then again.
ETHAN COLE and MARCO MORETTI.
Probability of biological paternity: 99.98 percent.
Luka sat down.
For the first time since I met him, the controlled man in black looked completely shaken.
“Ethan is your brother.”
“Half brother.”
His voice barely carried.
I tried to understand the impossible shape of it.
My husband.
Luka.
The Moretti family.
My mother.
Everything connected.
“Did your father know?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Luka stared at the paper.
“If Marco knew he had another son, he would have moved heaven to find him.”
“Who was Ethan’s mother?”
“Richard’s wife, Catherine Cole.”
I remembered her photographs.
Beautiful.
Elegant.
Dead when Ethan was nine.
Luka stood and paced toward the fireplace.
“My father had an affair with Catherine before Richard married her.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t.”
I pointed to the DNA report.
“You know something happened.”
“That doesn’t tell me what.”
Then Amelia called.
Her news made everything worse.
Richard Cole had emptied a private corporate archive and disappeared.
But before leaving, he had transferred controlling shares of Cole Strategic into Ethan’s name.
“Why would he do that now?” I asked.
Amelia’s answer was immediate.
“To put the liability on Ethan.”
Luka looked at me.
Richard was preparing for something.
An hour later, Ethan arrived alone.
He looked destroyed.
His suit was wrinkled.
His eyes were bloodshot.
I met him on the porch.
He looked at the envelope in my hand.
“You opened it.”
“Yes.”
His eyes closed.
“You’re Marco Moretti’s son.”
Ethan opened them again.
“Apparently.”
Luka stepped into the doorway behind me.
Ethan looked at him.
Neither man spoke for several seconds.
Brothers.
Enemies.
Strangers.
Finally Ethan laughed bitterly.
“So that’s why he hated you.”
Luka’s jaw tightened.
“Richard?”
“He spent my entire childhood telling me Morettis were criminals.”
“And you believed him.”
“I was six when he started.”
Ethan looked at me.
“I found the first mention of M-17 two weeks ago.”
“You said Vanessa found the trust records.”
“She did.”
“And?”
“She found the DNA index too.”
Everything inside me sharpened.
“Vanessa knew?”
“She knew there were sealed tests.”
“Is that why she pushed you to leave me?”
Ethan said nothing.
That was answer enough.
“You abandoned Sophie because Vanessa told you I was hiding something.”
“She convinced me Moretti might be Sophie’s father.”
Luka actually looked disgusted.
“You thought I slept with your wife?”
Ethan looked ashamed.
“She showed me photographs.”
“What photographs?”
“Luka outside Mara’s prenatal clinic.”
I turned.
“You were there?”
Luka didn’t deny it.
“Yes.”
My stomach dropped.
“Why?”
“Your father’s instructions.”
“You were watching me?”
“Protecting you.”
“Without telling me?”
“I couldn’t approach you until the trust activated unless there was an immediate threat.”
Ethan laughed.
“Convenient.”
Luka looked at him.
“You walked out on your own daughter based on photographs you never verified.”
Ethan flinched.
“I know.”
“No.”
I stepped between them.
“You don’t know anything yet.”
I held up the LAST envelope.
“Because Dad left one more test.”
Ethan stared at it.
Then all the color left his face.
“Mara.”
“What?”
“Please.”
I had never heard him beg.
May you like
“Don’t open that one.”
And suddenly I knew he was more afraid of the last envelope than he had been of discovering Richard wasn’t his father.
