Chapter 11 - Blood Does Not Make a Brother
The beam burned through my gloves.
I lifted anyway.
Matteo stared at me from the floor.
“What are you doing?”
“Get up.”
He did not move.
“I said get up.”
“You should leave me.”
“Probably.”
Flames climbed the wall behind us.
I pulled him free.
Marco and two guards helped drag him toward the stairs.
We made it outside seconds before the underground corridor collapsed.
The ballroom windows shattered behind us.
Fire tore through part of the old wing.
Exactly twelve years after the first fire, the Rossi estate burned again.
But this time, every child made it outside.
Matteo lay on the wet grass.
His hands were cuffed.
Paramedics treated burns on his shoulder and arm.
He looked at me.
“You saved me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I looked toward Nico.
He stood beneath Sophia’s red umbrella.
Marco was beside him.
Elena held both boys close.
“Because my son was watching.”
Matteo laughed weakly.
“So now you get to be the good man.”
“No.”
“I get to be a better father than you.”
That finally silenced him.
Police vehicles entered the estate.
Matteo looked toward them.
“You think prison ends this?”
“No.”
“Half the board is loyal to me.”
“They were loyal to your money.”
“My signatures control the companies.”
“Not anymore.”
His face tightened.
I crouched beside him.
“You left your phone in the warehouse.”
“You left bank records in shell companies.”
“You recorded yourself.”
“Isabella recorded you.”
“Marco saved the originals.”
“Elena survived.”
“Viktor survived.”
“And Valentina is talking.”
For the first time, Matteo looked truly defeated.
He glanced toward Valentina.
She sat in the back of an ambulance.
Her wrists were also cuffed.
“You betrayed me.”
She looked at him.
“No.”
“I betrayed him.”
Her eyes moved to me.
“Twelve years ago.”
Matteo’s mouth twisted.
“You think he will forgive you?”
Valentina lowered her head.
“I don’t deserve him to.”
Police lifted Matteo onto his feet.
Before they took him away, he looked at me one last time.
“Tell me something.”
I waited.
“If the DNA test had never existed, would you still call me your brother?”
The question hurt more than I expected.
“Yes.”
His face changed.
I continued.
“You stopped being my brother when you chose power over children.”
“Not when a laboratory told me we had different blood.”
Matteo stared at me.
Then police led him away.
The sun was beginning to rise.
Nico walked toward me.
He looked at the burning mansion.
“Is it gone?”
“No.”
“Can they save it?”
“Most of it.”
He nodded.
Then he looked at my burned hands.
“You went back for him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I gave him the same answer.
“Because you were watching.”
He was quiet.
Then he stepped closer.
“Did you mean what you said?”
“What?”
“That you’re my father.”
My throat tightened.
“Yes.”
“But you don’t know me.”
“No.”
He looked nervous.
“I don’t know you either.”
“I know.”
“What happens now?”
I looked at the boy I had mourned for twelve years.
“We start there.”
“Where?”
“Not knowing.”
His eyes filled.
I held out my hand.
He looked at it for several seconds.
Then slowly took it.
Behind us, a police officer approached.
“Mr. Rossi.”
“We found something in the vault.”
I turned.
“What?”
“A sealed legal document.”
“Signed by your father.”
My stomach tightened.
“What does it say?”
May you like
The officer looked toward Marco.
“It names another Rossi heir.”
