Chapter 2 - The Stolen Bloodline
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The grand dining hall fell into an icy, suffocating silence.
Forty powerful guests froze in their seats, staring between the trembling elderly woman and the pale bride.
A crystal wine glass slipped from Donna Bellini’s manicured fingers, shattering violently against the Italian marble floor.
Donna was Vanessa’s elegant, aristocratic mother, sitting directly opposite Luca Moretti.
Her face had lost every trace of color, turning as white as the linens draped over the wedding table.
"What kind of disgusting nonsense is this?" Donna shrieked, though her voice lacked its usual commanding venom.
"Security, throw this filthy vagrant out into the Chicago snow immediately!"
Not a single guard moved an inch.
Luca raised a single, commanding hand, his dark eyes fixed entirely on Donna Bellini.
"Nobody touches her," Luca whispered, his tone far more terrifying than a shout.
"If anyone moves toward that door, they will leave this room in a body bag."
Evelyn Carter did not flinch, even as Donna glared at her with pure, murderous hatred.
The elderly woman gently pressed her scarred palms flat against the polished mahogany table.
"You remember me, don't you, Donna?" Evelyn asked softly, her frail voice carrying across the silent hall.
"You remember St. Jude's Charity Hospital in the winter of 1986."
Donna’s lips trembled violently, but she could not find the words to respond.
"You had just suffered your third miscarriage," Evelyn continued, her tear-filled eyes locked onto the matriarch.
"The doctors told you that you would never give your husband the heir he demanded."
"Shut your mouth!" Donna screamed, lunging forward before two armed Moretti enforcers stepped in front of her.
Frank Moretti slowly stood up from his chair, his tall, weathered frame trembling with rage.
"Let her speak, Donna," Frank commanded, his deep baritone rumbling through the chandeliers.
"I want to hear every word she has to say."
Evelyn took a shuddering breath, turning her gaze toward Vanessa, who stood frozen in her designer wedding dress.
"Six weeks after pulling Frank from the burning warehouse, I went into labor in a crowded county ward," Evelyn said.
"My hands were bandaged and raw with agonizing burns, and I had no money left to my name."
"A private doctor entered my room in the middle of the night and told me my daughter was stillborn."
"They never let me see her tiny body, and they never gave me a death certificate."
"They simply told me she was buried in a mass grave because I was too poor to afford a plot."
Claire watched from beside Evelyn’s chair as tears streamed down the old woman's deeply wrinkled cheeks.
"Two weeks ago, that doctor died in a hospice care facility in Florida," Evelyn whispered.
"Before he took his final breath, his guilty conscience broke him completely."
"He mailed me a signed confession admitting that the Bellini family paid him fifty thousand dollars in cash."
"They took my living, breathing baby girl straight from the delivery table and carried her into a waiting black limousine."
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Evelyn pointed her bent, scarred finger directly at Vanessa.
"That girl was raised as Vanessa Bellini, but her real blood belongs to the man sitting beside you."
