Chapter 6 - THE INTERROGATOR'S TRUTH
We relocated to a penthouse fortress in the heart of the city, an asset hidden under a shell company Matteo didn't know existed. It was time to go on the offensive. Defending myself wasn't enough; I needed leverage to turn the family captains against Matteo.
Carlo brought me a gift. During the warehouse raid, his men had managed to capture one of the mercenaries. Better yet, they had intercepted Dr. Sterling, the physician who had delivered Leo, as he tried to flee the country at the airport.
They were tied to chairs in the soundproof basement of the penthouse.
I walked into the room, my tailored suit immaculate, a stark contrast to the bloody, terrified men before me. I didn't yell. I didn't threaten. I simply laid the St. Helena medical files on the table in front of Dr. Sterling.
"You have five minutes to tell me everything," I said quietly, pouring myself a glass of scotch. "If you do, I let you live. If you don't, Carlo will ensure you experience a level of pain your medical textbooks never described."
Sterling broke instantly. He was a coward, motivated only by greed. Sweating profusely, he babbled the entire plot.
"It was your wife... I mean, Isabella," the doctor stammered. "She couldn't bear children after her miscarriage twelve years ago. When you married the real Valentina, Isabella had her killed and took her place. But when she—as Valentina—pretended to be pregnant, they needed a real baby to fake a miscarriage later, to ensure you'd never have an heir. But you came back from your business trip early. She had to use a surrogate... but then she realized if you had a living son, Matteo could never inherit. So they paid us to swap the babies. To throw your real son away and hand you a dead infant from the morgue."
The sheer evil of it chilled me to the bone. "And the second bracelet? In the bag?"
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"A mistake," the doctor wept. "The nurse who packed the trash bag... she panicked. She accidentally knocked Isabella's old archive bracelet into the medical waste. I swear, Mr. Moretti, I just took the money! I didn't want to hurt the child!"
I looked at Carlo. "Process his written confession. Film it. Send the mercenary back to Matteo in a box. Let my brother know I'm coming for him."
