Chapter 13 - Skeletons in the Closet
For the next three days, the Bellucci estate felt like a heavily armed fortress.
Damian worked around the clock in his soundproof study, coordinating with his most trusted lieutenants to lock down all European shipping ports. If Lorenzo wanted to bleed the company, Damian was going to sever the arteries first.
I tried to keep things as normal as possible for Lily, but she was deeply perceptive. She noticed the extra men in dark suits standing outside her classroom and the heavy armored SUV that now transported her to school.
On Thursday morning, I was sitting in the conservatory, sipping bitter coffee and reviewing the household accounts, when my phone vibrated violently against the glass table.
It was an unknown number.
I hesitated, a cold knot forming in my stomach, before pressing accept.
"Hello?" I asked cautiously.
"Well, well. You certainly moved up in the world, Ellie."
The voice on the other end of the line hit me like a physical blow to the chest. The coffee cup slipped from my trembling fingers, shattering against the marble floor.
It was Mark. Lily's biological father.
He was a man who had vanished eight years ago, leaving me pregnant, buried in his gambling debts, and entirely alone. I hadn't heard a single word from him since the day I told him I was keeping the baby.
"What do you want, Mark?" I choked out, fighting the sudden urge to vomit.
"I want to see my kid," Mark replied, his voice slurred and laced with a terrifying arrogance. "I heard she's living in a mansion now. Calling some billionaire mafia boss 'Dad.' That doesn't sit right with me, Ellie."
"You lost the right to call her your kid the day you walked out," I whispered fiercely, glancing around the empty conservatory.
Mark let out a harsh, ugly laugh.
"Maybe. But a very wealthy Italian gentleman recently bought out all my debts," Mark sneered. "He told me that if I want a massive payday, all I have to do is petition the courts for a paternity test and demand shared custody."
My vision blurred. Lorenzo had found him. Lorenzo was using my darkest, most painful secret to tear my family apart.
"If you come anywhere near Lily, my husband will destroy you," I threatened, though my voice was shaking.
"Your husband is a businessman," Mark countered smoothly. "And the Italian gentleman told me that Damian Bellucci's empire requires total discretion. A messy public custody battle with a biological father, splashing all over the tabloids? That would ruin him."
"Mark, please," I begged, the fight draining out of me.
"Tell your billionaire husband to hand over the European ports to Lorenzo," Mark demanded, dropping all pretenses. "If he signs the papers, I disappear forever. If he doesn't, I will be at Lily’s school at three o'clock today with a lawyer and a court order."
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The line went dead.
I stood paralyzed among the shattered porcelain and spilled coffee. Lorenzo had found the one weapon Damian could not fight with bullets or bank accounts. He had found a way to legally steal my daughter.
