Chapter 10 - The Siege at Lake Waramaug
Gunfire cracked outside.
Luca pushed me toward the basement stairs.
“Go.”
“What about you?”
“Go.”
Sofia took my daughter.
I followed Alessandra downstairs.
A steel door waited behind the wine cellar.
Alessandra entered a code.
Inside was a reinforced safe room.
Security monitors covered one wall.
Luca remained upstairs.
I watched him on-screen.
Cold.
Controlled.
Terrifying.
The man who had gently asked whether my baby was cold now moved through the house like someone born for violence.
But he did not fire recklessly.
He directed security.
Blocked entry points.
Protected staff.
Within minutes sirens approached.
The attackers retreated.
One vehicle remained trapped near the gate.
Police pulled a wounded man from the driver’s seat.
Luca entered the safe room fifteen minutes later.
Blood marked his sleeve.
I stood.
“You’re hurt.”
“Not mine.”
I hated how relieved I felt.
Then I remembered the revelation.
My daughter.
His daughter.
I looked at him.
He did not approach.
“Say something.”
“What could I possibly say?”
“You had no idea.”
“No.”
“Neither did I.”
“I know.”
He looked toward the baby.
His eyes changed.
I had never seen a man look both terrified and awed at the same time.
“What is her name?”
I realized he had never asked.
“Grace.”
His lips parted.
“Grace.”
He said it as if committing the sound to memory.
“She has your eyes,” Sofia whispered.
I looked sharply at her.
“Sofia.”
Luca’s warning came too late.
She covered her mouth.
“You suspected.”
Sofia lowered her eyes.
“I suspected after seeing her.”
“You knew Luca as a baby?”
“I raised him.”
My stomach twisted.
Everything suddenly made sense.
Her tears.
The nursery.
Her reaction.
I looked at Luca.
“Did you suspect?”
“Not until today.”
“Why did you arrange genetic testing?”
His silence answered.
“You did.”
“I ordered comparison testing after Derek’s records came back.”
“You tested my daughter without asking?”
His expression tightened.
“I used records already taken during standard screening.”
“That isn’t better.”
“No.”
He accepted it.
“I was wrong.”
The admission stopped me.
Men like Derek never admitted anything without adding an excuse.
Luca did not.
“I was afraid someone else would reach the answer first.”
He looked at Grace.
“And they did.”
A police captain entered.
“Mr. Moretti.”
He handed Luca a phone recovered from one attacker.
The latest message displayed one sentence.
TAKE THE CHILD ALIVE.
Below it was a photograph.
Grace leaving the hospital.
Taken before Luca signed anything.
They had been watching from the beginning.
Alessandra read the message.
Then looked at me.
“You need to understand something.”
“What?”
“Carlo no longer needs Derek.”
My heart raced.
“Why?”
“Because Grace combines both bloodlines already.”
She pointed toward me.
“Yours.”
Then toward Luca.
“And his.”
May you like
Luca’s face went cold.
Alessandra whispered, “That child is the strongest legal blood claimant the Moretti family has produced in two generations.”
