Z

Celeste arrived bleeding.

At 1:07 in the morning, Dominic’s home security alarm sounded.

He reached the ground floor before Luca.

Mara was behind him despite his order to stay upstairs.

“Do not start,” she said.

“I said nothing.”

“You were about to.”

The front camera showed a woman collapsed against the gate.

Blond hair.

Dark coat.

Dominic stared.

“Celeste.”

Luca opened the outer gate remotely.

They found her barely conscious.

A cut ran along her forehead.

Her left wrist was bruised purple.

There were rope marks around both ankles.

Mara knelt first.

“Call an ambulance.”

Celeste grabbed her hand.

“No hospital.”

“You need stitches.”

“No hospital.”

Dominic crouched.

“Who did this?”

Celeste opened her eyes.

For three years he had not seen her face.

She looked thinner.

Harder.

Older.

“Adrian.”

Dominic felt no surprise.

“Your brother.”

Her eyes filled.

“Yes.”

Mara looked at Dominic.

“We’re bringing her inside.”

He did not argue.

They cleaned the wound in the kitchen while Luca called Klein.

Celeste stared at Mara.

“You’re touching me.”

Mara did not look up.

“You were shot protecting me once.”

“I also helped people find you.”

“Yes.”

“You should hate me.”

“I do.”

Celeste blinked.

Mara taped the bandage.

“Hate does not stop bleeding.”

Dominic almost smiled.

Celeste laughed weakly.

“I forgot what you were like.”

“You never knew.”

“No.”

Mara sat opposite her.

“Talk.”

Celeste stared at Dominic.

“Adrian wants the trust.”

“We know.”

Her face tightened.

“Then you know enough to understand he won’t stop.”

“Why disappear?”

“He found my brother.”

“The younger one?”

“Yes.”

“Again?”

“No. This time he didn’t kidnap him.”

“What then?”

“He offered him money.”

Dominic frowned.

“How much?”

“Five million.”

“For?”

“To testify that I forged records during the Marchesi investigation.”

Dominic sat back.

“That would undermine your testimony.”

“And reopen every conviction where my evidence mattered.”

“Adrian wants Marchesi’s network resurrected.”

“No.”

Celeste shook her head.

“He wants its money.”

Dominic understood.

Frozen assets.

Shell companies.

Hidden accounts.

Billions no one had successfully traced.

“Adrian was Marchesi’s accountant?”

“Not exactly.”

“What exactly?”

Celeste looked terrified.

“He built the system.”

Silence.

Mara leaned forward.

“How old was he?”

“Twenty-two when he started.”

“Why would Marchesi trust him?”

“Because Adrian’s father hated the Bellinis.”

Dominic frowned.

“Carlo Bellini?”

“Carlo believed Sofia’s branch stole the family holdings.”

Sofia stood in the doorway.

Nobody had heard her enter.

“That’s a lie.”

Celeste looked at her.

“He believed it.”

Sofia came into the kitchen.

“My father split the holdings equally.”

“On paper.”

“What does that mean?”

Celeste looked at Dominic.

“Carlo sold his shares secretly.”

Sofia’s face changed.

“To whom?”

“Marchesi.”

There it was.

The origin.

Not betrayal by one family.

A sale.

An ambitious cousin.

A hidden child.

Money turning resentment into war.

Sofia sat down slowly.

“My father never knew.”

“No.”

Celeste continued.

“When Carlo died, Adrian learned what happened. He believed Marchesi cheated his father.”

Dominic shook his head.

“So Adrian worked for him?”

“To steal everything back.”

Mara folded her arms.

“And now he wants the Bellini trust too.”

“Yes.”

“Why attack children?”

Celeste’s face tightened.

“I don’t think he ordered the shooting.”

Dominic stared.

“Excuse me?”

“He wants the children alive until the trusteeship hearing.”

“Why?”

“Because he needs samples.”

“DNA?”

Celeste nodded.

“For what?”

“To prove a third claim.”

Everyone went still.

Sofia whispered, “Whose?”

Celeste looked toward the hallway.

“His son.”

Dominic stared.

“Adrian has a child?”

“A daughter.”

“How old?”

“Seven.”

Mara closed her eyes.

“Another child.”

Celeste nodded.

“He wants all three children recognized.”

Dominic did not understand.

“That divides the trust.”

“No.”

Celeste’s voice was quiet.

“It gives Adrian leverage to argue the entire bloodline provision is unworkable.”

“Then what?”

“Liquidation.”

Dominic understood.

Sell everything.

Distribute cash.

Disappear.

“Worth nearly a billion,” Mara said.

“More now.”

“How much?”

“One point four.”

Silence.

Dominic laughed.

“Wonderful.”

Celeste grabbed his wrist.

“Listen to me.”

He looked at her.

“Adrian is dangerous.”

“I gathered that.”

“No.”

Her voice sharpened.

“He isn’t Marchesi.”

“What does that mean?”

“Marchesi wanted control.”

“And Adrian?”

Celeste’s eyes filled.

“He wants everyone who ever made him feel illegitimate to admit he mattered.”

Mara stared.

“That’s worse.”

“Yes.”

A knock came from upstairs.

Small feet.

Matteo appeared in pajamas.

“Why is everybody awake?”

Dominic stood.

“You should be sleeping.”

Matteo saw Celeste.

“Who’s she?”

Nobody answered.

Celeste looked at him.

Tears appeared instantly.

Dominic noticed.

“Celeste?”

She stared at Matteo.

“He looks like you.”

“People say that.”

“No.”

She shook her head.

“Like when you were little.”

Dominic frowned.

“You never knew me when I was little.”

Celeste looked away.

Too late.

Mara saw it.

“So how do you know?”

Celeste closed her eyes.

Dominic’s stomach dropped.

“Celeste.”

She looked at him.

“My mother knew your family.”

“What does that mean?”

“She worked in your house.”

Sofia stood.

“When?”

“Before Dominic was born.”

Sofia stared.

“What was her name?”

“Helena Cross.”

Sofia’s face drained.

“No.”

Dominic looked between them.

“You know her.”

Sofia gripped the table.

“Helena was Matteo’s nurse.”

The room went silent.

Celeste began crying.

Dominic felt the past opening yet again.

“Your mother was there the night my brother supposedly died.”

“Yes.”

“Did she help move him?”

Celeste shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

“Did Adrian know?”

“Yes.”

“Is that how he knew Matteo survived?”

“Yes.”

Dominic leaned close.

“Where are her records?”

Celeste stared at him.

“She left journals.”

“Where?”

“Adrian has them.”

“Why do they matter?”

“Because my mother wrote everything down.”

Sofia whispered.

“Everything?”

Celeste nodded.

“The switch. The nursery. Your father. Marchesi.”

Dominic waited.

Celeste looked at him.

“And the name of the person who ordered Luca Bellini placed in Matteo’s crib.”

Mara’s voice dropped.

“Who?”

Celeste swallowed.

“Your grandmother.”

Sofia staggered backward.

Dominic stared.

“My grandmother was dead before I was born.”

Celeste shook her head.

“No.”

Sofia sat down hard.

Dominic looked at his mother.

She was trembling.

“Mother?”

Sofia whispered the words as though confessing to a ghost.

“Your grandmother died when you were twelve.”

Dominic’s blood turned cold.

“You told me she died before my birth.”

Sofia covered her face.

“Because your father made me.”

“Why?”

She looked up.

“Because she was the one who started all of it.”