Chapter 5 - THE WARNING I WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO FIND
My mother left the nursery without saying another word.
That bothered me more than an argument would have.
Isabella Rossi never walked away from anything.
She controlled conversations.
She controlled rooms.
She controlled people.
But this time…
she looked scared.
I followed her down the hallway.
“Mom.”
She stopped.
Slowly turning around.
“What?”
“What are you hiding?”
Her expression hardened.
“Excuse me?”
“The nurse. The payment. The message.”
Her face remained calm.
Too calm.
“You’re accusing your own mother?”
“I’m asking questions.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“You’re letting grief make you paranoid.”
That sentence hit something inside me.
Because everyone kept telling me that.
Since Sophia died.
They said I was angry.
Obsessed.
Broken.
Maybe they were right.
But my instincts had kept me alive for years.
And they were screaming now.
“I saw the footage.”
Her eyes changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
“What footage?”
There it was.
The mistake.
She knew there was footage.
I smiled coldly.
“You just proved you know more than you should.”
Her face went pale.
For a second, she looked like my mother again.
Not the powerful woman.
Not the Rossi matriarch.
Just a scared person.
Then she whispered:
“Lorenzo, you don’t understand what you’re dealing with.”
“Then explain it.”
She looked toward Leo’s room.
“Some things are bigger than you.”
I laughed quietly.
“My son’s life is bigger than me?”
“You think this is about Leo?”
My blood froze.
“What did you say?”
She immediately realized her mistake.
But it was too late.
I stepped closer.
“Mom.”
Silence.
“Who is trying to hurt my son?”
She looked at me.
And for the first time…
she looked guilty.
Then she whispered:
“Ask your father.”
My father had been dead for six years.
I stared at her.
“What?”
But she was already walking away.
That night, I searched through my father’s old files.
My father, Antonio Rossi, had built the empire before me.
A ruthless man.
A brilliant man.
A man who believed power mattered more than kindness.
I opened old documents.
Business records.
Private accounts.
Hidden contracts.
Then I found something.
A file I had never seen before.
The title made my hands freeze.
ROSSI BLOODLINE SUCCESSION PLAN
Inside were documents about inheritance.
Control.
Ownership.
And one name repeated over and over.
Leo.
My son.
But there was something else.
A clause.
A hidden clause.
If Leo died before reaching a certain age…
control of the Rossi fortune would transfer to another heir.
An heir I had never heard of.
I kept reading.
Then I saw the name.
Matteo Rossi.
My father’s secret son.
My half-brother.
A man nobody in the family talked about.
A man who had disappeared years ago.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A man’s voice spoke.
“You found the file.”
I froze.
“Who is this?”
A laugh.
“You really don’t remember me, Lorenzo?”
My grip tightened.
“Matteo?”
Silence.
Then:
“Your son has something that belongs to me.”
My heart stopped.
“What do you want?”
His answer was simple.
“Your empire.”
The call ended.
And at that exact moment…
May you like
the nursery alarm went off.
Again.
