Chapter 15 - The Child Who Knew Matteo’s Name
Rome should have been the end.
Instead, it became another beginning.
Two weeks after Meridian, Matteo, Elena, Sofia, and Gabriel arrived in Italy under federal coordination.
Isabella remained in the United States giving testimony.
Thomas was recovering.
Celeste had entered protective custody.
David disappeared again, leaving only one message.
DON’T TRUST HELENA’S VERSION.
Lorenzo waited in a federal detention center for charges that could keep him imprisoned for the rest of his life.
Bellini Holdings stabilized.
The Continuity files continued spreading.
Families were reunited.
Others were shattered.
The world had received enough truth to destroy Lorenzo’s empire.
But not enough to explain Adrian.
The Rome trail ended at an abandoned private clinic outside the city.
The building had been empty for three days.
Matteo entered first.
Elena followed.
Sofia remained outside with Gabriel and federal protection.
Inside, they found children’s drawings.
Medical equipment.
Fresh coffee cups.
Someone had left quickly.
Elena opened every room.
“Adrian!”
Nothing.
“Adrian!”
Her voice echoed.
Matteo entered a small bedroom.
A toy airplane sat on the mattress.
Beside it, a photograph.
Sofia.
Taken at Bellini House.
Matteo picked it up.
“Elena.”
She came in.
Saw the photograph.
Her face tightened.
“He knows about her.”
On the back, handwriting.
SHE DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT ME YET.
Elena’s hand shook.
“He wrote this?”
“Possibly.”
They found another room.
A wall covered with photographs of Matteo.
Some recent.
Some from childhood.
Elena stared.
“Why would Adrian have these?”
Matteo approached slowly.
One photograph showed Matteo at age five.
Another boy stood behind him.
Older.
Maybe eight.
Matteo had never seen him before.
On the back:
M + H.
Elena looked at Matteo.
“H?”
“I don’t know.”
A sound came from upstairs.
They froze.
Footsteps.
Small.
Matteo drew his weapon.
Elena grabbed his arm.
“If it’s Adrian—”
“I know.”
They climbed.
At the top was a long corridor.
One open door.
Light inside.
Matteo moved first.
A child stood near the window.
Seven years old.
Dark hair.
Brown eyes.
The boy from the photograph.
Elena stopped breathing.
“Adrian?”
The child turned.
Elena’s face collapsed.
“My baby.”
She stepped forward.
The boy backed away.
“Don’t.”
Elena stopped immediately.
“I’m Elena.”
“I know.”
Her tears fell.
“I’m your mother.”
The boy’s expression did not change.
“No.”
Elena broke.
Matteo lowered his weapon.
“Who told you that?”
The boy looked at him.
For the first time, fear appeared.
Not fear of Matteo.
Recognition.
“You came.”
Matteo frowned.
“You know me?”
The boy nodded.
“How?”
The boy reached beneath his shirt.
A black-and-gold pendant.
Same symbol.
Matteo stepped closer.
“Where is Helena?”
The boy looked toward the empty corridor.
“Gone.”
“Where?”
“She said you’d ask.”
“What did she tell you to say?”
The child studied Matteo.
Then spoke one sentence.
“Ask Isabella what happened to the first Matteo.”
Elena stared.
Matteo went completely still.
“The first what?”
The boy looked confused.
“The first Matteo Bellini.”
Silence filled the room.
Matteo slowly lowered the gun completely.
“What are you talking about?”
Adrian reached under the mattress.
He removed a sealed envelope.
On the front was Matteo’s name.
MATTEO ADRIAN BELLINI.
Inside was an old photograph.
Isabella.
Lorenzo.
A five-year-old boy.
Matteo stared at the child in the photograph.
Same dark hair.
Same eyes.
Same birthmark beneath the left ear.
His birthmark.
But the date written on the bottom of the photograph was eleven months before Matteo had been born.
Elena whispered, “That’s impossible.”
Behind them, Gabriel’s voice came through the radio.
“Matteo, we have movement outside.”
Matteo didn’t answer.
He turned the photograph over.
There was one sentence.
THE BOY WHO DIED WAS NOT THE BOY WHO CAME HOME.
Matteo felt every lie of his childhood open beneath him.
“Elena.”
She looked at him.
“What?”
He handed her the photograph.
“I think Lorenzo wasn’t protecting an heir.”
A vehicle door slammed outside.
Gabriel shouted through the radio.
“Multiple cars! We need to move!”
Adrian walked toward Matteo.
“Helena said they would come when you saw the picture.”
“Who?”
The boy looked through the window.
Black cars were stopping outside the clinic.
But these were not Argent vehicles.
Each door carried a silver emblem.
A crown divided by a black sun.
Matteo had never seen it.
Adrian had.
His face went pale.
“Elena?”
She moved protectively toward him.
“It’s okay.”
“No.”
Adrian shook his head.
“They found us.”
Matteo looked at the vehicles.
“Who are they?”
Adrian whispered something that made Elena stop breathing.
“The family that owned Bellini before Lorenzo stole the name.”
Matteo stared at him.
“What family?”
Outside, men began surrounding the clinic.
Then Adrian looked directly at Matteo.
May you like
And said the name Isabella had spent thirty-eight years making sure he never heard.
The front door exploded inward.
