Chapter 10 - Matteo’s Real Mother
“No.”
Matteo looked at Teresa.
“You’re lying.”
“I raised you for nine months inside me.”
He laughed bitterly.
“My mother was Catherine DeLuca.”
“Catherine adopted you at birth.”
Anthony looked furious.
“Enough.”
Teresa ignored him.
Matteo was genetically Anthony and Helena’s child too.
My full biological brother.
Victor’s half-brother.
Helena had never known Teresa carried the third embryo.
Anthony didn’t either.
Gabriel chose Teresa because she hated her brother.
She agreed.
Then gave the baby to Catherine, Anthony’s wife, who raised Matteo as her own.
Suddenly so much made sense.
Anthony’s distrust of Matteo.
Why he always considered him “different.”
Maybe he suspected.
But never knew.
Matteo stared at me.
My uncle.
Not uncle.
Brother.
My godfather.
The man who raised me from six.
Family had become a maze designed by people who thought blood justified everything.
Teresa looked at Anthony.
“You built your dynasty from stolen choices.”
He sneered.
“And you think hiding Matteo was moral?”
“No.”
She accepted that.
“I think it was survival.”
Matteo turned toward me.
“I didn’t know.”
“I know.”
For once, I believed someone immediately.
Then Anthony laughed.
“You’re all sentimental fools.”
He pointed at my stomach.
“That child still inherits.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll dissolve the trust.”
“You can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because it no longer belongs to you.”
I stared.
The trust succession had already activated.
When?
The moment my pregnancy reached twenty-four weeks.
Viability.
The trust automatically designated the fetus as contingent heir.
That was why Anthony ordered Helena not to kill me before viability.
Now, if I died—
the unborn child’s guardian would control the trust until adulthood.
Who was guardian?
I expected Victor.
Wrong.
Anthony.
He had named himself through an old clause.
So he needed me alive until viability.
Then disposable.
I felt cold everywhere.
Matteo stepped toward him.
“It ends tonight.”
Anthony smiled.
“No.”
He pressed a remote.
Warehouse screens activated.
Documents.
Bank accounts.
Corporate structures.
If Anthony died or disappeared without succession confirmation, assets would scatter across shell companies controlled by criminal partners.
He had built a dead-man system.
Kill him, lose everything.
Arrest him, trigger emergency transfers.
He believed that made him untouchable.
Then Teresa smiled.
Anthony frowned.
“What?”
“You still think the trust is real.”
Silence.
She looked at me.
“Lucia changed it.”
My mother stared.
“What?”
Teresa explained.
Before the crash, Lucia signed an amendment.
Not dissolution.
Redirection.
All controlling shares transferred into a charitable foundation upon the birth of the next direct heir.
No private control.
No family dynasty.
Hospitals.
Domestic violence shelters.
Legal aid.
Child protection programs.
Anthony’s empire would lose its legitimate leverage the moment my baby was born.
That was why Helena had spent decades trying to undo Lucia’s signatures.
Why she kept her alive.
Why Anthony needed a new heir.
They thought another descendant could supersede the amendment.
But Teresa had found the original.
Certified.
Irrevocable.
Anthony’s face changed.
“You’re lying.”
She handed Matteo the document.
He read.
Then looked at me.
“She’s not.”
For the first time, Anthony looked old.
Really old.
Then federal agents entered.
He had been stalling.
So had we.
The warehouse was surrounded.
Anthony was arrested.
Not because of the trust.
Because Nora’s recordings, Helena’s files, Gabriel’s evidence and Teresa’s documents finally connected decades of fraud, kidnapping, coercion and financial crimes.
As they led him away, Anthony looked at my stomach.
“You think charity will protect that child?”
I answered:
“No.”
Then looked at Matteo.
“My family will.”
Anthony smiled strangely.
“That’s what Lucia thought.”
Then he said one final sentence before the agents took him.
“You still haven’t asked who sent the fake paternity report.”
Everyone froze.
Because Anthony claimed—
it wasn’t him.
It wasn’t Helena.
And whoever sent it had deliberately pushed Victor toward violence.
May you like
Someone wanted this entire family exposed.
Someone we still hadn’t found.
