Chapter 12 - WHO BEATRICE CHOSE
Raffaele wanted to reject it.
Not because of blood now.
Because of memory.
Beatrice as a child sitting on Luca’s shoulders.
Luca teaching her cards.
Family photographs.
Uncle Luca.
But if Luca was not blood, then everything looked different after adulthood.
Grace spoke carefully.
“Beatrice learned when she was twenty-one.”
“How?”
“Catherine told her.”
Raffaele’s face hardened.
“My wife knew.”
“Yes.”
“And never told me.”
“She feared Emilio.”
“Everyone feared Emilio.”
“Yes.”
Raffaele looked at Sofia.
“My family was built on fear pretending to be respect.”
Sofia said nothing.
Grace continued.
“Luca found out around the same time.”
“Who was his father?”
“I don’t know.”
“Elias?”
“No.”
Raffaele almost laughed.
At least not that.
“Then why did Emilio raise him?”
“Isabella begged him.”
“Why?”
“She believed Elias would hurt the baby.”
Raffaele frowned.
“Elias was a teenager.”
“Seventeen.”
“What had he done?”
“Already enough.”
Elias had become possessive of his mother.
He hated the child who would divide her attention.
Emilio agreed to raise Luca as Santoro.
Partly kindness.
Partly control over Isabella.
Everything Emilio did had two purposes.
“Did Elias know?” Sofia asked.
“Eventually.”
“And hated Luca.”
“Yes.”
Raffaele understood.
Luca received the Santoro name Elias wanted.
The house.
The father.
The brother.
Then Beatrice.
Everything Elias believed should have been his was reflected in Luca’s life.
Beatrice and Luca planned to leave.
Not marry publicly immediately.
Disappear.
Build something elsewhere.
Catherine helped.
Thomas helped.
Grace knew only fragments.
Emilio discovered it.
“He couldn’t allow it,” Grace said.
“Why?”
“Because Beatrice was useful to him.”
Raffaele’s eyes narrowed.
“How?”
“She kept you human.”
Raffaele stared.
Grace continued.
“Emilio understood you listened to Beatrice in ways you listened to nobody else. If she left with Luca, you would question why. Then eventually you would learn the truth.”
“So Father trapped her.”
“Yes.”
“Using Sofia.”
“Yes.”
“And Elias?”
“He wanted Luca destroyed.”
“So they worked together.”
“For that night.”
Temporary need.
Again.
Raffaele walked away.
“What happened after Beatrice went back?”
Grace shook her head.
“Thomas never knew.”
“Who does?”
“Luca, if alive.”
“Elias.”
“Yes.”
“Vincent.”
“Partly.”
“Catherine.”
“Dead.”
“Emilio.”
“Dead.”
Raffaele looked at Sofia.
“And you.”
She swallowed.
“Pieces.”
He nodded.
“No pressure.”
She appreciated that.
Anthony Russo entered from outside.
“We found Caleb.”
Grace stood.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In a church parking lot.”
Raffaele frowned.
“Which church?”
“Saint Michael of the River.”
Grace went pale.
“What?”
“Why?”
She looked at Raffaele.
“That’s where Thomas wanted Beatrice and Luca married.”
Silence.
Raffaele understood the photograph.
WE TELL HIM AFTER THE WEDDING.
They had planned a secret wedding.
Beatrice and Luca.
Not family by blood.
But raised as uncle and niece.
A scandal.
A rupture.
Emilio would have seen it as humiliation.
Raffaele?
Raffaele did not know what he would have done at thirty-three.
That uncertainty hurt.
Maybe Beatrice was right not to trust him.
Caleb was brought back.
Bruised.
Exhausted.
Alive.
Grace embraced him despite everything.
Then stepped away.
“Who took you?”
Caleb looked at Raffaele.
“Elias.”
“What did he want?”
“The key.”
“You had it?”
“Yes.”
“To Thomas’s locker?”
“No.”
Caleb laughed weakly.
“That was empty because I emptied it months ago.”
“What was inside?”
“A ring.”
Raffaele’s eyes narrowed.
“What ring?”
Caleb looked at Sofia.
“Beatrice’s.”
Sofia touched her own hand.
“What kind?”
“Wedding ring.”
The room went silent.
Caleb continued.
“Engraved inside.”
“With?”
“B + L.”
Beatrice and Luca.
They had married.
Maybe secretly.
Maybe before the river house.
Raffaele felt something crack.
His daughter had been a wife.
He never knew.
“Where is it?”
“Elias has it.”
“Why does he care?”
“Because there was something beneath the engraving.”
“What?”
Caleb swallowed.
“Coordinates.”
Raffaele frowned.
“To where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Elias does?”
“He said it leads to Luca.”
Sofia stood.
“Luca is alive.”
Caleb looked at her.
“Elias thinks so.”
Raffaele stared.
Eighteen years.
His brother.
Not brother.
Beatrice’s husband.
Maybe alive.
Then Caleb added:
“Elias said Luca has been waiting for Raffaele to learn the truth before he comes back.”
Raffaele’s voice became cold.
“He could have come anytime.”
Caleb shook his head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Elias told him Sofia would die if he did.”
Sofia stopped breathing.
Another person had stayed away to “protect” her.
Raffaele laughed bitterly.
“I am beginning to hate that word.”
Caleb looked at him.
“There’s more.”
“What?”
“Elias said Luca broke the promise.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
Raffaele’s eyes narrowed.
“What does that mean?”
A bodyguard entered before Caleb answered.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“There’s a man at the gate.”
May you like
“Who?”
“He says his name is Luca.”
