Chapter 2 - The Bloodline of Silence
The realization hit me like a physical blow.
I backed away from the desk until my shoulders slammed against the locked office door. The air left my lungs in a cold rush. Mia—my quiet, three-year-old Mia, who slept wrapped in my worn coat in laundry carts—carried the blood of the most dangerous crime family in New York.
"No," I breathed, shaking my head repeatedly. "No, that's impossible. I met a man named Julian in Chicago. He was kind, soft-spoken... he said he was an artist—"
"Julian was Julianna's twin brother," Isabella interrupted coldly. "Lorenzo’s younger brother. He was killed four years ago in the same turf war that drove Julianna into hiding. Julianna must have used his name when she fled."
"Julianna..." I whispered, the memory of that snowy night in Chicago flashing before my eyes. The stranger who had held me in the dark, weeping without explanation, leaving before sunrise and leaving only a silver anchor behind.
"Julianna died three years ago in a public hospital in Brooklyn," Elena added softly, her nurse's eyes filled with pity. "She died giving birth to a baby girl. The hospital record said the mother listed no next of kin, and the baby was placed in temporary foster care before being adopted."
"I adopted Mia when she was three months old," I sobbed, tears spilling over my lashes. "I didn't give birth to her... I adopted her through the city agency! I never knew who her birth mother was!"
Isabella stood up slowly, stepping around the desk until she was standing directly in front of me.
"Lorenzo spent four years burning down half of North America looking for his sister's child," Isabella said, her voice dropping into a solemn register. "His enemies knew it. That car accident three weeks ago wasn't an accident, Clara. Lorenzo's vehicle was rammed off the road because he finally found a lead on Julianna's missing daughter."
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"My God," I whispered, clutching my apron over my heart. "The people who tried to kill him..."
"If they find out Mia is here," Isabella warned, her eyes narrowing into slits of pure steel, "they will not just kill Lorenzo. They will execute your daughter to erase the Moretti line forever."
