Chapter 5 - The Blue Room)
Nolan stepped in front of Serafina.
It was the first protective thing he had done without being told in years.
Victor almost looked offended by it.
“Move, son.”
“No.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“I know you have a gun pointed at my wife.”
Victor lowered the weapon slightly.
“I’m protecting this family.”
Serafina laughed softly.
Victor’s eyes moved to her.
“You find that amusing?”
“Every coward says that right before explaining why everyone else had to suffer.”
His jaw tightened.
“You know nothing about what happened.”
“Then tell me.”
Victor looked toward the photograph in her hand.
His expression changed.
Not softened.
But cracked.
For a moment, Serafina saw an old man looking at a life he had lost.
“She kept that.”
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“You knew this room existed.”
“I built it for her.”
“Why under the Bellandi house?”
Victor hesitated.
“Because she lived here.”
Nolan turned.
“What?”
“Before I married your mother.”
The words landed heavily.
Victor stepped inside.
He still held the gun, but his attention remained on the photograph.
“Alessandra and I met when we were twenty-three. Lorenzo had just started buying properties in Brooklyn. I handled construction. She kept his books.”
“My father?”
“Lorenzo wasn’t your father.”
Serafina’s face remained still.
Victor continued.
“He was my closest friend.”
Nolan stared.
“You and Lorenzo Caradonna were friends?”
“Brothers, once.”
“What happened?”
Victor looked at Serafina.
“Alessandra.”
Serafina’s grip tightened around the photograph.
“She chose you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did she marry Lorenzo?”
Victor’s bitterness appeared instantly.
“Because he offered her something I couldn’t.”
“What?”
“Safety.”
Serafina looked around the hidden room.
“From you?”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“From the life I was becoming.”
The irony would have been laughable if children were not sleeping above them.
“So she left you for Lorenzo.”
“Yes.”
“While pregnant with me?”
“No.”
The answer came sharply.
Serafina waited.
Victor looked again at the photograph.
“You were three months old when she left this house.”
“Then you are my father.”
Victor took a breath.
“I believed I was.”
“Believed?”
“Alessandra was already married to Lorenzo when she discovered the pregnancy.”
Serafina felt the floor shift under the conversation.
“So nobody knew.”
“Not for certain.”
“Did you ever take a test?”
“It was 1989.”
“That is not an answer.”
“No.”
Nolan looked from one to the other.
“Then why would Lorenzo raise Serafina?”
Victor smiled without humor.
“Pride.”
Serafina thought of the cold, disciplined man who had taught her to ride horses, read contracts, and never show fear.
“You’re saying he knew I might be yours.”
“He knew.”
“And he still kept me.”
“He considered you his.”
“That sounds more like love than pride.”
Victor’s face darkened.
“You always defended him.”
“He raised me.”
“He stole you.”
Serafina looked at the gun.
“And now you threaten my children.”
Victor’s expression flickered.
“I never intended to hurt them.”
“Ethan’s wrist.”
Victor said nothing.
“Lily’s school.”
Nothing.
“The threat that Ethan could have an accident.”
Nolan turned toward his father.
“You did that?”
Victor looked irritated rather than ashamed.
“The girl needed motivation.”
Nolan moved so fast Serafina almost missed it.
He slammed his father against the wall.
The gun fell.
Serafina kicked it beneath the desk.
Nolan’s forearm pressed against Victor’s throat.
“You threatened my son?”
Victor shoved him away.
“You weak little fool. Everything I did was to preserve what belongs to you.”
“I don’t want it.”
“You say that because you’ve never earned anything.”
Nolan swung.
Victor stumbled into a filing cabinet.
Serafina stepped between them.
“Enough.”
Both men looked at her.
She pointed toward the hallway.
“Nolan, go check Lily and Ethan.”
“I’m not leaving you here.”
“That was not a request.”
He hesitated.
Then he obeyed.
Victor laughed.
“Still giving orders.”
Serafina waited until Nolan’s footsteps disappeared upstairs.
Then she closed the hidden door.
Victor watched her.
“You wanted privacy?”
“No.”
She opened the first filing cabinet.
Inside were old bank statements, property deeds, photographs, and letters.
“I wanted time.”
“For what?”
“To find out which secret scares you most.”
She began reading labels.
Caradonna Properties.
Bellandi Holdings.
Alessandra.
Lorenzo.
Trusts.
Victor crossed the room.
“Those are private records.”
Serafina opened the Alessandra drawer.
It was empty.
Victor stopped.
Serafina looked at him.
“Someone got here first.”
For the first time that night, Victor appeared genuinely confused.
“Who?”
“You tell me.”
“I haven’t opened that drawer in years.”
Serafina believed him.
Someone else knew about the blue room.
She examined the desk.
One drawer had been forced.
Inside lay torn pieces of an envelope.
She assembled them.
Most of the writing was missing.
Only one phrase remained legible.
If Victor discovers the children are not his grandchildren...
Serafina stared at the fragment.
Victor read over her shoulder.
His face went white.
“What does that mean?”
Serafina turned.
“You tell me.”
“I don’t know.”
“It was in your room.”
“This was Alessandra’s desk.”
Victor took the fragment from her.
His hands began trembling.
Serafina watched him carefully.
A man could fake shock.
Victor could fake almost anything.
But the tremor looked real.
“What children?” he whispered.
Serafina thought immediately of Lily and Ethan.
Then another possibility surfaced.
“Nolan.”
Victor looked at her.
“What?”
Serafina stepped closer.
“My mother wrote children. Not child.”
Victor’s breath shortened.
“You have Nolan and a daughter.”
Victor’s expression transformed.
“My daughter died.”
“Did she?”
His eyes snapped toward her.
Serafina remembered the story.
Nolan had once had an older sister.
Isabella Bellandi.
She died at six months old, years before Nolan was born.
Or so the family said.
Victor stared at the torn message.
Then he turned toward a small cabinet in the corner.
He pulled open the doors.
Empty.
“What was there?”
Serafina asked.
Victor did not answer.
“What was there?”
“A box.”
“What box?”
“Isabella’s things.”
“When did you last see it?”
He looked toward the disturbed dust inside the cabinet.
“Yesterday.”
Someone had entered the hidden room within twenty-four hours.
Someone who knew Victor’s oldest secrets.
A loud crash came from upstairs.
Serafina ran.
Nolan was shouting.
She reached the foyer.
The front door stood open.
Nolan held Ethan in his arms.
May you like
Lily was gone.
On the marble floor lay one white gardenia.
