Part 2: THE BILLIONAIRE’S HIDDEN HEIR

“That’s a lie!”

The scream tore from my throat before I could stop it. Ava buried her face in my shoulder, terrified by the sudden volume of my voice.

“Liam was a good man!” I sobbed, struggling to stand. My knees were bruised, my hands shaking. “He was a mechanic! He worked sixty hours a week! He didn't even know Mom!”

Julian stood there, looking like a man facing a firing squad. “Sophia, please—”

“Liam died in a car crash three months before Ava was born!” I yelled, the grief of losing him rushing back with the force of a tidal wave. “He lost control on the icy bridge. It was an accident!”

“It wasn't an accident,” Richard said.

The entire ballroom seemed to hold its breath.

I turned to my father. He was staring at the tear-shaped diamond in his hand, his thumb gently rubbing the stone. He looked ancient in that moment, a man carrying the weight of a hundred buried sins.

“What did you say?” I whispered.

Richard finally looked up. The tears were gone, replaced by a cold, hollow sorrow.

“The bridge wasn't icy that night, Sophia. It was dry. The brake lines on his truck had been severed.”

I couldn't breathe. The room tilted dangerously. The man I loved, the father of my child, the man who had promised to build us a tiny house with a porch swing... murdered?

“You knew?” I choked out, staring at my father. “You knew he was murdered?”

“Answer the question, Dad,” Julian challenged, his voice dripping with bitterness. “Tell her why you knew.”

Richard reached into the inner pocket of his tuxedo jacket. His hand was trembling again. Slowly, he pulled out a small, tarnished object attached to a broken chain.

He held it out to me.

It was a silver pocket watch.

The glass face was completely shattered, the hands frozen at 11:42—the exact time the police said Liam’s truck went over the bridge railing.

I reached out and touched the cool metal. It was Liam’s. He had bought it at a pawn shop because he thought it made him look distinguished.

“They found this in the wreckage,” Richard said quietly.

“Why do you have it?” I asked, my voice barely audible.

“Because I gave it to him,” Richard said.

I jerked my hand back as if the silver had burned me. “You... you gave it to him?”

“Three days before he died,” Richard confessed, his eyes begging for my understanding. “I tracked him down at his garage. I offered him a hundred thousand dollars to leave you. He refused.”

My heart swelled with a tragic pride. Oh, Liam.

“So I gave him my father’s pocket watch,” Richard continued, his voice cracking. “I told him that if he was going to marry a Moretti, he needed to carry himself like one. I gave him my blessing, Sophia.”

Julian stared at him, shock radiating off his face. “That’s impossible. You hated him. You said he was a nobody.”

“I was angry when she left,” Richard admitted. “But when I saw how he looked at her... I knew he loved her. I was going to bring you both home.”

Richard looked at Julian, his eyes hardening. “But before I could, Liam was killed. And you disappeared again, Sophia.”

Julian was shaking his head violently. “No. No, that doesn’t make sense. Mom died a week after Liam’s crash. The police said she was driving behind him. That she witnessed the crash and had a heart attack at the wheel!”

“She did,” Richard said softly. “But Liam didn't cause her heart attack, Julian.”

Answer one: Richard didn't kill Liam. He had accepted him.

Open two: Then who cut the brakes? And why did Julian think Liam killed their mother?

Vanessa, who had been completely silent, suddenly let out a sharp, arrogant sigh.

“Oh, this is pathetic,” she sneered, adjusting the strap of her red gown. “A family of sentimental fools. Richard, you’re getting soft in your old age. The watch was smashed on the left side because it hit the steering column. It’s just garbage now.”

Silence dropped over the group like a suffocating blanket.

Richard slowly turned his head toward Vanessa.

“What did you just say?”

Vanessa rolled her eyes. “I said it’s garbage. It’s broken.”

“No,” Richard said, taking a slow, predatory step toward her. The mafia boss Chicago used to fear was suddenly awake in his eyes. “You said it was smashed on the left side because it hit the steering column.”

Vanessa blinked, realizing her mistake. “I... I just assumed—”

“The police report never mentioned the watch,” Richard said, his voice dropping to a lethal whisper. “The only people who knew where that watch was found inside the cab of the truck... were the paramedics.”