CHAPTER 16
The Brother They Both Found
Luca never answered.
The three men across the street were enough to tell him something was terribly wrong.
"Mr. Lawson?"
Marco's voice still came through the phone.
"Are you there?"
Luca kept his eyes fixed on the black SUV.
"Someone's watching me."
Marco immediately became alert.
"Describe them."
"Three men."
"Black SUV."
"They haven't moved."
"They're waiting."
Marco's expression hardened.
"Listen to me carefully."
"Do not hang up."
"Walk."
"Not fast."
"Don't let them know you've noticed."
The moment Luca stepped away from the harbor...
The SUV's engine started.
It followed at a distance.
Marco was already typing on his laptop.
He traced the phone's GPS signal.
"Maine State Route Seven."
He looked toward Dante.
"They found him before we did."
Dante was already reaching for his jacket.
"Prepare the helicopter."
At the harbor...
Luca turned a corner into a crowded seafood market.
Families wandered between stalls.
Children laughed while chasing pigeons.
He blended into the crowd.
The SUV stopped outside.
The three men separated.
One entered from the east.
One from the west.
One remained near the exit.
They were hunting him.
Marco's voice remained calm.
"Keep moving."
"There's a police station six hundred feet ahead."
"I don't think they're police."
"They're not."
"But they won't attack you inside a station."
Luca nodded instinctively.
Then realized Marco couldn't see him.
"Okay."
One of the men spotted him.
"There."
Luca heard the shout.
People turned.
Confused.
He began walking faster.
Not running.
Not yet.
The second man moved to cut him off.
The third reached inside his coat.
Luca's instincts screamed.
Run.
He ran.
Across the Atlantic coast...
The Rossi helicopter lifted into the sky.
Snow swirled beneath the blades.
Dante sat silently beside the pilot.
Marco updated him every thirty seconds.
"They're closing in."
"Local police?"
"Still three minutes away."
"They won't have three minutes."
Luca sprinted through narrow streets he had known since childhood.
His lungs burned.
His boots slipped on frozen pavement.
Behind him...
Footsteps.
Closer.
One of the men shouted,
"Don't let him reach the station!"
Luca's heart pounded.
Why?
Who were these people?
What did they want?
He turned another corner.
Dead end.
Only an abandoned warehouse faced the harbor.
Luca stopped.
Slowly turned.
The three men approached.
Their expensive suits contrasted sharply with the icy dockyard.
The tallest smiled.
"Mr. Lawson."
"We only want to talk."
Luca laughed bitterly.
"Then why chase me?"
"You were leaving."
"You would've chased anyone."
The smile disappeared.
"Probably."
The second man stepped forward.
"Our employer requests your cooperation."
"I don't know your employer."
"You know the name."
"No."
The man answered quietly.
"Charles Sterling."
Luca frowned.
"I've never heard that name."
"You don't need to."
"You only need to come with us."
"And if I refuse?"
The tallest man's expression turned cold.
"Then we'll make the decision for you."
At that exact moment...
A voice echoed through the warehouse entrance.
"I wouldn't recommend that."
Every head turned.
Dante Rossi stood alone in the doorway.
Snow drifted behind him.
His long black coat moved gently in the wind.
The three men recognized him instantly.
Fear crossed every face.
One whispered,
"...Rossi."
Dante walked forward slowly.
"No weapons."
"No shouting."
"No unnecessary blood."
His voice remained calm.
"I only need one thing."
The tallest man swallowed.
"What?"
"Walk away."
Instead...
The man drew a pistol.
He never finished raising it.
A sharp crack echoed through the warehouse.
The weapon spun across the floor.
The man's hand screamed in pain.
Dante hadn't fired.
Marco had.
From the warehouse roof.
A precision shot.
Straight through the trigger guard.
The remaining two men immediately dropped their weapons.
They understood.
The Rossi family hadn't come to negotiate.
They had come prepared.
Within seconds...
Rossi security emerged from every entrance.
The warehouse was surrounded.
The three attackers surrendered without another word.
Luca stared.
He had never seen anything like it.
Dante approached slowly.
"You all right?"
Luca nodded uncertainly.
"I think so."
"You've had an unusual morning."
A faint smile escaped Luca despite himself.
"That's one way to describe it."
For several seconds...
Neither man spoke.
Then Dante noticed it.
The silver bracelet.
Exactly as Helen had described.
He looked into Luca's eyes.
Gray.
The same unusual gray from the old photograph.
The same gray eyes Aria had inherited.
"You spoke to Marco."
Luca nodded.
"You said..."
"...you knew my family."
"I know someone who's been looking for you."
Luca hesitated.
"I don't have any family."
Dante answered quietly.
"I think you do."
Hours later...
The Rossi helicopter landed back in Boston.
Luca stepped out cautiously.
The estate looked like another world.
Stone walls.
Iron gates.
Snow-covered gardens.
He looked uncomfortable.
"I don't belong here."
Dante smiled slightly.
"Maybe."
"Maybe not."
Inside...
Lucia greeted him warmly.
Rosa offered hot coffee.
The staff treated him like an honored guest.
Luca became increasingly confused.
"Why is everyone looking at me?"
No one answered.
Because everyone noticed the same thing.
His eyes.
His smile.
Even the way he tilted his head.
He reminded them of Aria.
Meanwhile...
Aria sat in the greenhouse completely unaware.
She had spent the afternoon transplanting winter herbs.
The tiny blue sweater remained folded carefully beside her journal.
She whispered softly,
"I hope you're alive."
A gentle breeze stirred the white roses.
Behind her...
Footsteps approached.
Lucia appeared.
"Aria."
She smiled.
"Yes?"
Lucia's eyes shimmered.
"There's someone I'd like you to meet."
Aria followed her into the main hall.
She expected another doctor.
Another investigator.
Another lawyer.
Instead...
She saw a stranger standing near the fireplace.
Tall.
Broad shoulders.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
He turned at the sound of footsteps.
Time stopped.
Neither spoke.
Neither moved.
Something...
Something impossible...
Passed silently between them.
Recognition.
Not of faces.
Of something deeper.
Luca frowned slightly.
"I know you."
Aria shook her head.
"We've never met."
"I know."
He looked confused.
"But..."
"I know your eyes."
Aria felt her heart begin to race.
Without understanding why...
She took one step forward.
Then another.
The silver bracelet caught the firelight.
Her gaze froze.
The engraving.
A & L.
Her breathing stopped.
The tiny blue sweater slipped from her hands onto the floor.
Luca looked down.
His face went pale.
The knitting pattern.
The blue wool.
He had one exactly like it.
Still folded inside his apartment.
Helen's words echoed inside Aria's mind.
"Two babies..."
"One blue sweater..."
"One little boy..."
Tears blurred her vision.
She whispered one trembling word.
"Luca?"
The stranger stared at her.
No one...
Had ever called him that before.
His knees nearly gave way.
"How..."
His voice cracked.
"...do you know that name?"
Silence filled the mansion.
Lucia covered her mouth.
Marco slowly lowered the investigation file in his hands.
Dante said nothing.
Because he knew...
Some moments belonged only to the people whose lives they changed.
Aria took one final step.
A single tear rolled down her cheek.
"I think..."
She whispered.
"...I've been looking for you my whole life."
Luca looked at the bracelet.
Then at the blue sweater.
Then back at the woman standing before him.
For the first time in twenty-three years...
He allowed himself to ask the question he had never dared to believe had an answer.
"Are you..."
"...my sister?"
The entire room held its breath.
No one answered.
Because before anyone could speak...
A single gunshot shattered the silence from somewhere outside the estate.
The bullet struck the front window.
Glass exploded across the marble floor.
May you like
Someone had found the Rossi estate.
And they had come to make sure the reunion ended before it truly began.
