Chapter 2 - THE UNINVITED FATHER
Ryan’s clothes smelled of alcohol and rain.
His eyes were bloodshot.
A guard followed him into the room with blood running from his eyebrow.
Another guard stood behind him with a pistol raised.
“Drop the knife,” the guard ordered.
Ryan grabbed Sophia by the wrist.
Emma screamed.
Alessandro moved before anyone else.
He crossed the room and struck Ryan’s knife hand against the edge of the table.
The blade fell.
Ryan tried to swing at him.
Alessandro caught his arm and twisted it behind his back.
Ryan collapsed to his knees.
The entire fight lasted less than three seconds.
Emma clung to Sophia’s leg.
Alessandro looked down at Ryan.
“You entered my home.”
Ryan spat on the floor.
“She belongs to me.”
Sophia recoiled.
“I do not belong to you.”
“You’re still my wife.”
“The divorce was finalized eight months ago.”
Ryan laughed bitterly.
“Not according to the papers I filed.”
Sophia stared at him.
“What papers?”
Ryan looked pleased by her confusion.
Alessandro tightened his grip.
“Answer her.”
Ryan winced.
“I appealed.”
“You can’t appeal a divorce without notifying me.”
“I sent notice to your old address.”
“You knew I had moved.”
“Not my problem.”
Emma began to cry.
Sophia lifted her into her arms.
Ryan looked at the child.
“Come to Daddy.”
Emma buried her face against Sophia’s neck.
Ryan’s expression darkened.
“You’ve been poisoning her against me.”
“You terrified her.”
“I disciplined her.”
“You locked her in a closet.”
Ryan glanced at Alessandro.
“She exaggerates.”
Emma whispered against Sophia’s shoulder.
“It was dark.”
Alessandro’s face changed.
The softness Emma had briefly drawn from him disappeared.
He looked at the guards.
“Take him downstairs.”
Ryan struggled.
“You can’t hold me.”
Alessandro released him only so the guards could drag him away.
Ryan shouted over his shoulder.
“Ask her why she changed the kid’s name!”
Sophia froze.
Alessandro slowly turned toward her.
Ryan laughed.
“That’s right.”
“She isn’t Emma Bennett.”
Sophia’s face drained of color.
“Stop talking.”
“She was born Emma Moretti.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Isabella’s eyes widened.
Vincent gripped the back of a chair.
Alessandro stared at Sophia.
“What did he say?”
Ryan grinned despite the guard holding him.
“Ask your little maid who signed the original birth certificate.”
Sophia’s breathing became shallow.
“Ryan is lying.”
“Then show him the certificate.”
“Take him away,” Sophia pleaded.
Alessandro raised one hand.
The guards stopped.
Ryan’s smile grew.
“Three and a half years ago, my wife worked at Saint Catherine’s Hospital.”
Alessandro’s expression turned dangerous.
Sophia closed her eyes.
Ryan continued.
“She wasn’t a maid then.”
“She was a private nurse.”
Isabella looked at Sophia as though seeing her for the first time.
Ryan nodded toward Alessandro.
“Ask him where he was the night of the Moretti warehouse bombing.”
Alessandro’s hand curled into a fist.
Saint Catherine’s Hospital.
Three and a half years ago.
The night someone had tried to kill him.
He remembered waking in a private room.
He remembered pain.
He remembered a woman’s voice telling him to stay conscious.
He had never seen her face clearly.
He had been drugged.
Half-blind from blood loss.
Then his father’s men had moved him before sunrise.
The hospital records had later disappeared.
Alessandro looked at Sophia.
“You were there.”
Sophia said nothing.
“You treated me.”
Still nothing.
Ryan laughed.
“She did more than treat you.”
Alessandro moved toward him.
“What does that mean?”
Sophia stepped between them.
“Don’t listen to him.”
“Then tell me the truth.”
“It isn’t his business,” Ryan said.
“It’s mine.”
Alessandro’s stare could have frozen fire.
Ryan finally looked uncertain.
Sophia lowered Emma to the floor and asked Vincent to take her into the next room.
Emma resisted.
“Mama.”
“I’ll be right here.”
Vincent gently carried her away.
The moment the door closed, Sophia turned to Alessandro.
“There was no affair.”
Isabella’s voice was sharp.
“No one mentioned an affair.”
Sophia realized her mistake.
Ryan smiled.
Alessandro did not.
“Continue,” he said.
Sophia took a shaking breath.
“You were brought into Saint Catherine’s after midnight.”
“You had lost a great deal of blood.”
“No one knew your identity at first.”
“I was assigned to monitor you.”
“What happened?”
“You became disoriented.”
“You thought people were coming to kill you.”
“They were.”
“I know.”
Sophia looked down.
“You grabbed my hand.”
Alessandro remembered.
A soft voice.
A woman promising that he would survive.
Warm fingers in his.
“Why did the records disappear?”
“Your father ordered them destroyed.”
“Why?”
Sophia looked at Isabella.
The older woman’s face was suddenly unreadable.
“I don’t know.”
Ryan laughed again.
“She knows.”
Sophia turned on him.
“You said you would never use this.”
“You left me.”
“You hurt our daughter.”
“She is not my daughter!”
Silence fell.
Sophia flinched.
Ryan seemed to realize what he had admitted.
Alessandro stepped forward.
“Whose daughter is she?”
Sophia did not answer.
Isabella did.
“My son’s.”
Everyone looked at her.
Alessandro’s face became completely still.
“What did you say?”
Isabella met his eyes.
“I knew the moment I saw the child.”
Sophia backed away.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You had no right.”
“I had every right.”
Alessandro looked from his mother to Sophia.
“Someone will explain this now.”
Sophia’s voice broke.
“I was drugged.”
Alessandro’s expression changed.
“At the hospital?”
“No.”
“Months later.”
She pressed a hand over her mouth.
Ryan stared at the floor.
Sophia pointed at him.
“He wanted a child.”
“When we discovered he was infertile, he refused to accept it.”
“He found a doctor willing to use stored genetic material without consent.”
Alessandro’s eyes became lethal.
“What genetic material?”
Sophia looked at him through gathering tears.
“Yours.”
Alessandro said nothing.
The room no longer felt real.
Sophia continued.
“The hospital illegally stored samples taken during your surgery.”
“Ryan paid someone to steal them.”
“I didn’t learn the truth until Emma was almost a year old.”
Ryan shouted.
“She was supposed to be mine!”
“You bought a child!”
“I gave you a family!”
“You stole from both of us.”
Alessandro turned toward the guards.
“Take him below.”
This time, no one stopped them.
Ryan twisted against their grip.
“You think you’re better than me?”
“She hid your child for three years!”
Alessandro looked at Sophia.
Ryan saw the hesitation.
He smiled viciously.
“She never planned to tell you.”
The guards dragged him from the room.
His laughter echoed down the hallway.
Alessandro and Sophia faced each other.
Neither spoke for a long time.
Finally, he asked the only question that mattered.
“Is Emma my daughter?”
Sophia’s shoulders trembled.
“Yes.”
Behind them, Isabella quietly reached for her phone.
And sent a message to someone saved under the name Carlo.
The message contained only five words.
May you like
The missing heir has returned.
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