Chapter 3 - Bloodlines in the Ledger
Dominic broke the wax seal with his thumb. The dry paper creaked as he unfolded it across the kitchen table.
I watched his eyes trace the formal legal Italian script written across the top half. As his gaze drifted down to the bottom margin, the color completely left his face.
The signature at the bottom was bold, dark, and unmistakably genuine: Vincent Moretti.
Beside it was a official notary seal from the State of New York, dated four weeks before Vincent's death three years ago.
"This is an amendment to my father's living trust," Dominic murmured, his voice barely audible over the hum of my refrigerator.
"I didn't know what it was," I confessed quietly. "Your father gave me that sealed envelope during his last week at the hospital. He held my hand and told me that if anything ever happened to my job at the company, I should hand this paper directly to you. Not to Victor. Not to the lawyers. Only to you."
Dominic raised his dark eyes, staring at me with a mixture of shock, reverence, and unspoken understanding.
"Do you know what this document says, Anna?" he asked.
"No," I replied truthfully. "I never opened the seal."
Dominic turned the paper around so it faced me. He pointed a long, steady finger at the middle paragraph.
"It states that my father, Vincent Moretti, legally recognized Anna Carter as his biological daughter from his first marriage in Palermo," Dominic read aloud, his voice steady yet filled with profound weight. "It grants her an equal thirty-five percent voting share in the Moretti Holding Corporation, alongside my thirty-five percent."
My breath hitched. The world seemed to spin on its axis. "What?"
"You're my sister, Anna," Dominic said softly, a subtle, warm light breaking through the cold exterior he usually wore. "You're a Moretti."
Lily looked up from her bunny, her big brown eyes bouncing between us. "Does that mean he's my uncle?"
Dominic looked down at Lily, a genuine, rare smile softening his sharp jawline. "Yes, sweet girl. It does."
He looked back at me, his expression darkening into pure steel as he connected the pieces. "My uncle Victor knew about this. He found out about the trust amendment right before my father died. He couldn't destroy the original document because he didn't know where my father hid it. So he watched you for eight years, keeping you in a low-level position."
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"And when I started asking questions about missing inventory in the south warehouse last week..." I realized, my blood running cold.
"He panicked," Dominic concluded, his dark eyes flashing with lethal intent. "He realized you were getting too close to the financial books. He tried to quietly erase you from the company before I ever found out who you really were."
