Chapter four

THE BLOOD THAT LIES

“Which father?”

My question hung in the hallway.

I stared at Daniel Pearce, the man who had raised me, while Gio stood beside me, his expression unreadable.

For twenty-four years, I’d believed I knew my family. Apparently, I’d been living inside somebody else’s carefully constructed lie.

“Look at me, Dad.”

He did.

“Did you kill Gio’s father?”

Silence.

Gio stepped forward. “Daniel, she deserves the truth.”

My father laughed bitterly.

“And you think you’re qualified to give it?”

“I’m certainly more qualified than the man who buried his daughter’s childhood beneath eight years of lies.”

My father’s face hardened.

“Amelie, go upstairs.”

I almost laughed.

“You’re still giving orders? My mother is alive, you might have murdered Gio’s father, and now I’m apparently not even your daughter. What exactly do you expect me to do? Make you another cup of coffee?”

His expression briefly softened.

“Everything I did was to protect you.”

“Then why does being your daughter feel like a death sentence?”

Before he could answer, Gio’s phone rang.

He listened for several seconds before ending the call.

“Someone broke into my father’s old residence.”

I immediately turned towards him.

“What were they looking for?”

“Something your mother left behind.”

“I’m coming.”

“No.”

“Try stopping me.”

He studied me before finally nodding.

“Stay close.”

The Locatelli residence stood behind enormous stone walls, surrounded by ancient trees and enough security cameras to monitor an entire neighbourhood.

Unlike my father’s mansion, the place felt less like a home and more like a fortress.

An elderly man named Salvatore met us at the entrance.

“Mr. Locatelli. The intruders searched your father’s study.”

“Anything missing?”

“Not money. They were looking for documents.”

“What documents?”

Salvatore hesitated.

“Records belonging to your late father.”

Gio’s expression darkened.

“Take us there.”

The study was in complete disarray. Drawers had been emptied, papers scattered across the carpet, and a hidden safe stood open behind a displaced bookshelf.

I noticed a photograph beneath a torn envelope.

My mother stood beside Gio’s father, his hand resting on her shoulder.

On the back, someone had written:

The night we agreed to save the children.

“The children?” I whispered.

Gio took the photograph.

His expression changed.

“My father had another son.”

I looked at him.

“What?”

“He was seven when he supposedly died in a fire.”

“Supposedly?”

“I never saw his body.”

A strange feeling settled in my stomach.

“What if he never died?”

Gio stared at the photograph.

For the first time, the devil looked uncertain.

Something vibrated beneath the desk.

Gio immediately reached for his weapon.

I crouched and discovered an old phone taped underneath it.

One message illuminated the screen.

IF YOU ARE READING THIS, DANIEL HAS FAILED TO KEEP HIS PROMISE.

A video file appeared beneath it.

I pressed play.

My mother appeared on the screen, wearing a white blouse. She looked frightened but determined.

“I won’t let you do this to them,” she said.

A man’s voice answered.

“You have no choice.”

“I’ll find a way.”

“You’ll destroy both families.”

“Then perhaps they deserve to be destroyed.”

The man stepped into view.

Daniel.

My father.

“If you take Amelie away, you’ll never see her again.”

My mother’s eyes filled with tears.

“She’s your daughter!”

Daniel’s expression remained cold.

“Then you should have thought about that before betraying me.”

The recording ended.

I couldn’t move.

My father hadn’t simply hidden my mother’s disappearance. He had threatened her with the one thing she loved most.

Me.

“Amelie?”

Gio crouched beside me.

“I need to go home.”

He nodded, but before he could reach for the phone, another message appeared.

DON’T GO HOME. YOUR FATHER KNOWS YOU FOUND THE VIDEO.

A second followed.

HE’S ALREADY SENT SOMEONE TO KILL YOU.

Gunfire exploded through the doorway.

Gio dragged me behind the desk, covering my body with his as bullets shattered the glass cabinet.

When the shooting stopped, he lifted his head.

“Are you hurt?”

I shook mine.

His hand briefly touched my cheek.

For one unguarded moment, the coldness disappeared from his face.

Then he stood.

“Stay behind me.”

Two guards were injured in the corridor. A third man had been captured.

Gio approached him.

“Who sent you?”

The man spat blood onto the marble.

“Go to hell.”

Gio pressed his pistol beneath the man’s jaw.

“Wrong answer.”

The man laughed.

“Your bride knows nothing.”

Gio’s expression became murderous.

“Watch your mouth.”

The man looked directly at me.

“Ask her father why he paid me to kill his own daughter.”

My heart stopped.

“No.”

“Amelie,” Gio warned.

“No! He’s my father!”

The man smiled.

“He said the wedding must happen. He said you’d be worth more alive if the Locatellis believed you were their princess.”

Gio crouched closer.

“Who is your employer?”

The man leaned towards him.

“Your father didn’t die because Amelie’s mother killed him.”

Gio went completely still.

“He died because he discovered which child Daniel Pearce stole from him.”

I felt the blood drain from my face.

The man looked at me.

“You’re the missing Locatelli child.”

A gunshot suddenly rang through the corridor.

The man collapsed.

Gio spun around, pulling me behind him, but whoever had fired was already gone.

I stared at the lifeless body.

“Amelie, listen to me.”

Gio’s voice sounded distant.

“Your father may not be your father. And if that man was telling the truth, my father might have been yours.”

Before I could respond, his phone rang.

He answered.

His expression changed with every passing second.

“What happened?” I whispered.

He lowered the phone.

“They found a body.”

“Whose?”

“My brother’s.”

I stared at him.

“But your brother died years ago.”

Gio looked towards the open window.

“Apparently, someone has been keeping him alive.”

He turned back to me.

“There was a message beside his body.”

My throat tightened.

“What message?”

His eyes locked onto mine.

HE’S WAITED EIGHT YEARS TO MEET HIS SISTER.

I stumbled backwards.

A sister?

My entire life had been built on a lie, and now the man I was supposed to marry might be my half-brother’s brother.

Then Gio’s phone received one final photograph.

A young man stood beside my mother.

He had Gio’s eyes.

But it was the handwritten caption beneath the picture that made my knees weaken.

WELCOME HOME, LITTLE PEARCE. YOUR REAL FAMILY IS WAITING.

I looked at Gio.

For once, neither of us had an answer.

And somewhere in the city, a man everyone believed was dead had just returned to claim me.

END OF CHAPTER FOUR