Dominic Moretti had attended his mother’s funeral eleven years earlier.

He had carried her coffin.

He had watched it disappear beneath the earth.

And now Isabella was standing in front of him with a message written in her handwriting.

“Where did you get this?”

Isabella hesitated.

“From the woman who helped me escape.”

“Who?”

“Your mother.”

Dominic stepped backward.

“That’s impossible.”

“I thought so too.”

Outside, rain began striking the restaurant windows.

The boys huddled together beside their mother, unaware that the adults were discussing a secret powerful enough to destroy the Moretti family.

Dominic took them through a private service exit.

His security chief, Marco DeLuca, arrived within minutes.

“Get them somewhere safe,” Dominic ordered.

Marco studied the children.

His eyes widened.

“Boss…”

“Not one word.”

They drove to an old waterfront property Dominic owned under a private trust.

It had no public address attached to his name.

Inside, Isabella finally told him what had happened six years earlier.

She had discovered she was pregnant shortly after Dominic’s father demanded that their relationship end.

At first, she intended to tell Dominic.

But then someone delivered a photograph of Dominic unconscious inside a hospital room.

Alongside it was a warning.

Leave Boston, or he will never wake up.

Dominic remembered that hospitalization.

He had been told he collapsed from exhaustion after a business meeting.

He had never questioned the explanation.

“I tried calling you,” Isabella said. “Every number was disconnected. Every letter came back.”

“Why didn’t you come to my house?”

“Because someone was waiting outside my apartment.”

She paused.

“And because I was told your father had already arranged my disappearance.”

Dominic stood motionless.

“My father?”

Isabella nodded.

“Three weeks after I left, a woman contacted me. She knew everything about your family. She knew about my pregnancy.”

“Who was she?”

“She called herself Eleanor.”

Dominic gripped the table.

His mother’s name was Eleanor Moretti.

Isabella continued.

“Eleanor gave me money, new identification, and a place to stay. She said your father had lied about her death.”

“Did you see her face?”

“Yes.”

Isabella opened her phone.

A photograph appeared.

An older woman stood beside Isabella in a garden.

Silver hair.

Green eyes.

A familiar smile.

Dominic sank into a chair.

His mother.

Alive.

For eleven years.

“Where is she now?”

“I don’t know. She disappeared eight months ago.”

Suddenly, Nicholas approached the table.

“Mommy, can I show him?”

Isabella stiffened.

“Show him what, sweetheart?”

Nicholas pulled a folded drawing from his pocket.

Four little boys stood beneath a large house.

A woman watched from an upstairs window.

Beside her was a man with no face.

Dominic studied the picture.

“Who is this man?”

Nicholas pointed.

“Grandpa.”

Dominic felt a sharp chill.

“Have you met your grandfather?”

The boy nodded.

“He came to our school.”

Isabella turned pale.

“When?”

“Last Tuesday.”

Gabriel added something that made the room fall silent.

“He said we weren’t supposed to tell Mommy.”

Dominic knelt.

“What else did he say?”

Gabriel looked toward his brothers.

“He said one of us had something that belonged to him.”

Before Dominic could ask another question, Marco entered.

His expression was grim.

“Boss, you need to see this.”

He placed a tablet on the table.

Security footage showed the conservatory where Dominic was supposed to propose.

Sloane Barrett stood beside Vittorio Moretti.

They were arguing.

Then Vittorio handed her a folder.

The camera captured its title.

“The Bennett Children: Genetic Evaluation.”

Dominic’s stomach tightened.

But the next image was worse.

A laboratory report.

Four children’s names.

Four DNA profiles.

And beside the paternal identification field, one name appeared.

Not Dominic Moretti.

Vittorio Moretti.

Dominic stared at the screen.

His father had apparently been listed as the father of all four boys.

And someone had gone to extraordinary lengths to make that claim official.