Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Was Supposed to Be Dead
"Sofia..."
Cesare's voice barely escaped his lips.
I had never heard him sound like that.
Not angry.
Not powerful.
Not controlled.
Broken.
The woman standing at the bottom of the staircase looked nothing like a ghost.
She was alive.
She was real.
And she was looking directly at him.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
The entire Bellante mansion was silent except for the sound of my heartbeat.
The woman slowly stepped into the light.
She was older than the woman in the photograph.
Her dark hair was shorter now.
There were faint scars near her eyebrow and along her hand.
But her eyes were the same.
The same eyes staring back at me from the old picture.
The same eyes that had haunted Cesare for years.
"I knew you would find out eventually," she said.
Cesare walked down the stairs slowly.
"How are you alive?"
Sofia looked at him.
"That's the first thing you ask me?"
His expression changed.
A thousand emotions crossed his face.
Anger.
Pain.
Confusion.
But underneath all of them was something I had never seen from him before.
Guilt.
I stood behind him, trying to understand what was happening.
The woman everyone believed was dead had walked into our home.
And Cesare looked like a man seeing the person who destroyed his life and saved it at the same time.
"Sofia," Cesare said again.
She gave a small bitter smile.
"You still say my name like you lost me yesterday."
The words hit him.
I noticed.
Because Cesare Bellante was not a man who let anyone hurt him.
But Sofia did.
Without raising her voice.
Without trying.
I stepped forward.
"Someone needs to explain what is happening."
Both of them looked at me.
For the first time, Sofia seemed to truly notice me.
Her eyes moved to my wedding ring.
Then back to Cesare.
"You married her."
Cesare didn't answer.
Sofia looked almost surprised.
"After everything, you actually did it."
I felt uncomfortable.
Like I was standing in the middle of a conversation that started years before I existed.
"Who are you?" I asked.
Sofia looked at me.
"My name is Sofia Moretti."
I froze.
The name meant something.
Not because I knew her.
Because I knew the family.
The Morettis.
The only family powerful enough to challenge the Bellantes.
The family that had been involved in a war with Cesare's family for years.
I looked at Cesare.
"You told me she disappeared."
"She did."
Sofia laughed quietly.
"That's one way to say it."
My eyes moved between them.
"What really happened?"
Nobody answered.
And once again, the silence told me there was a secret bigger than I imagined.
Cesare looked toward Sofia.
"You shouldn't have come here."
Her expression hardened.
"I had no choice."
"Who followed you?"
That question changed everything.
Sofia's face lost its calm.
"Someone knows."
My stomach tightened.
"Knows what?"
Sofia looked at me.
Not Cesare.
Me.
And that scared me.
"That you are not just his wife."
I frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Cesare immediately stepped between us.
"Enough."
Sofia looked at him.
"You still haven't told her?"
The anger in Cesare's eyes appeared instantly.
"Don't."
"You brought her into this."
"I am protecting her."
"No," Sofia replied.
"You are repeating the same mistake."
The room became quiet.
Cesare's hands tightened.
"What mistake?"
Sofia looked at him.
"Thinking you can keep someone safe by hiding the truth."
I didn't know why, but those words felt directed at me.
Not him.
I looked at Cesare.
"Is that what you've been doing?"
He didn't answer.
And that answer hurt.
Because I already knew.
He had protected me.
But he had also lied.
The next morning, Cesare moved everyone out of the main house.
Security surrounded the property.
Guards stood at every entrance.
Nobody explained anything.
Which somehow made everything worse.
I found Cesare in his office.
The same room where I had discovered the first secret.
He was standing by the window.
Looking at the city.
"You knew someone was watching me."
He didn't turn around.
"Yes."
"You knew my life was in danger."
"Yes."
"And you never told me."
Silence.
I walked closer.
"Why?"
He finally looked at me.
"Because I thought if you knew the truth, you would run."
I stared at him.
"Maybe I would have."
That answer seemed to hurt him.
But I continued.
"Do you understand what it feels like to wake up and realize your entire marriage started with secrets?"
Cesare lowered his eyes.
"I never wanted to hurt you."
"But you did."
The words stayed between us.
For the first time, I saw Cesare without the armor.
Not the mafia boss.
Not the man everyone feared.
Just a man who didn't know how to fix what he had broken.
Then he walked to the desk and opened a drawer.
He pulled out a file.
Not the one with my name.
Another one.
Old.
Worn.
He placed it in front of me.
"This is why I chose you."
I looked at him.
"I thought you chose me because you needed a wife."
"I needed you because of this."
I opened the file.
Inside were documents.
Photos.
Reports.
My name appeared on several pages.
But there was something else.
A photograph.
My mother.
I froze.
I hadn't seen that picture before.
My mother was standing beside a younger Cesare.
And beside them was Sofia.
My hands started shaking.
"What is this?"
Cesare watched my reaction carefully.
"Your mother knew my family."
I looked up.
"My mother?"
"She knew the truth about the Bellantes."
I stared at him.
"My mother died when I was young."
"I know."
"Then how do you know her?"
Cesare didn't answer immediately.
That scared me.
Because I knew whatever he said next would change something.
Finally, he spoke.
"Because your mother was the person who saved my life."
I couldn't breathe.
My entire life suddenly felt like it belonged to someone else.
My mother's memories.
My marriage.
My connection to Cesare.
None of it was random.
"You knew me before we met."
He nodded.
"Not personally."
"Then why did you say I was different?"
His eyes softened.
"Because your mother told me one day I would meet her daughter."
I stared at him.
"What did she say?"
Cesare looked away.
"She said if anything happened to her, I had to protect you."
A cold feeling moved through me.
"My mother asked you to protect me?"
"Yes."
"From who?"
Before he could answer, the office door suddenly opened.
Lucia stood there.
Her face was pale.
"Cesare."
He immediately turned.
"What happened?"
She held a phone in her hand.
"It's from the person who sent Sofia."
Cesare took it.
His expression changed while reading the message.
I watched his face.
And I knew something was wrong.
"What does it say?"
He didn't answer.
"Cesare."
Slowly, he handed me the phone.
The message was short.
Only one sentence.
"Ask Elena why her mother hid the truth about her birth."
My hands went cold.
I looked at Cesare.
He looked like he had seen something impossible.
Because underneath the message was a picture.
A hospital record.
With my name.
And another name written beside it.
A name I had never heard before.
I looked closer.
Then I saw the signature at the bottom.
My mother's signature.
But the date was impossible.
It was taken three years after she died.
I stepped backward.
Cesare reached for me.
"Elena, listen to me."
But I couldn't hear him.
Because someone had just opened the door to a secret I was never supposed to find.
And inside that secret was a name that changed everything.
The phone screen suddenly lit up again.
A new message appeared.
May you like
This time, it only had four words.
"Your real mother is alive."
