Chapter 14 - The Brother Who Was StolenThe door opened three inches before the security chain caught.
A man’s eye appeared in the gap.
He was older, with silver hair and a scar across his chin. Not one of Victor’s men. Not police. Not a stranger who had come to the wrong apartment.
He smiled as if we had an appointment.
“Miss Delaney.”
I backed away, phone still in hand.
Adriana was already shouting for me to run.
The man lifted something through the gap.
A hospital bracelet.
Old. Yellowed. Tiny.
The name printed on it made my knees weaken.
LEONARDO BELLANTI.
“Your brother was taken from us,” the man said. “We would like him returned.”
I grabbed the nearest weapon available.
A ceramic mug.
The man looked unimpressed.
“I am not here to hurt you.”
“People who pick locks lose the right to say that.”
He smiled wider.
“Fair.”
Behind me, my bedroom window rattled.
Fire escape.
I turned.
A second man appeared outside the glass.
My heart slammed into my ribs.
Then the hallway erupted.
A blur of black.
The man at my door vanished backward with a grunt. The chain snapped as the door flew open, and Dante stepped inside with two guards.
The man on the fire escape raised his hands immediately.
“Romano security,” he said, disgusted. “Of course.”
Dante looked at me. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He spoke into his sleeve. “She’s secure.”
I wanted to be angry that Victor had clearly kept protection on me after promising distance.
Instead, I was alive.
Complicated feelings could wait.
The silver-haired man wiped blood from his mouth and laughed from the hallway floor.
“Tell Victor Romano that blood always comes home.”
Dante crouched beside him.
“Tell Serafina Bellanti that breaking into Mrs. Romano’s apartment was unwise.”
“I’m not Mrs. Romano.”
Everyone looked at me.
Including the bleeding intruder.
His smile turned curious.
“No? That will disappoint him.”
Dante’s face remained blank, but I saw his discomfort.
Adriana arrived before the police could be invented, wearing sunglasses despite it being evening.
She swept into my apartment, assessed the broken chain, the captured men, and me holding a mug like a maniac.
“Well,” she said, “you downgraded from bullets to ceramics. Progress.”
“Why are there guards outside my apartment?”
“Because my brother lies in stupid ways.”
I glared at Dante.
He found the wall fascinating.
Adriana dismissed everyone but him, then placed a folder on my kitchen table.
Inside were copies from the ledger.
Hospital records. Signatures. Payments. A photograph of a newborn with dark hair and a red birthmark near his collarbone.
Caleb had the same mark.
My hands trembled.
“My parents bought him?”
“No,” Adriana said gently. “Your parents adopted him through what they believed was a private emergency placement. They paid legal fees. They did not know he was stolen.”
Relief and horror collided.
“They loved him.”
“I believe that.”
“Does Caleb know?”
“Not from me.”
I looked at the hospital bracelet.
“He’s too fragile.”
“He’s also an adult,” Adriana said. “And Serafina knows.”
The name made my stomach twist.
“What does she want?”
“The Bellanti family lost its male heir when Matteo died. If Caleb is Leonardo, he becomes symbol, blood claim, rallying point. Serafina can use him to rebuild.”
“He is sick.”
“That may make him more useful. A stolen, suffering Bellanti rescued from Romano corruption? Men have gone to war over less poetic stories.”
I pressed both hands to my face.
“I want out of this world.”
“I know.”
“Then why does it keep following me?”
Adriana’s voice softened.
“Because your brother was born inside it.”
That night, I went to Caleb.
Victor was already there.
Of course he was.
He stood at the foot of Caleb’s hospital bed while Caleb read the file with shaking hands.
“You told him?” I asked.
Victor turned.
His face was pale with anger, but not at me.
“At his request,” he said.
Caleb looked up.
“You knew?”
“Ten minutes before you did.”
I looked at Victor.
He held my gaze.
“I came to protect him. Not claim him.”
Caleb laughed weakly.
“Lucky me. Everybody wants not to claim me.”
I went to his side.
“Caleb—”
“Is that even my name?”
The question shattered me.
“Yes,” I said immediately. “Because Mom gave it to you. Because I screamed it when you stole my Halloween candy. Because it’s the name on every birthday card I made badly. Biology doesn’t get to erase that.”
His eyes filled.
Victor looked away.
Caleb touched the old bracelet.
“What happens now?”
Before anyone could answer, his room phone rang.
Private line.
Victor answered before I could.
Serafina’s voice came through, sweet as poison.
“Hello, little brother.”
Caleb’s face went white.
Serafina laughed softly.
“Come home, Leonardo. Or I’ll start mailing Mara back to you in pieces.”
Victor’s eyes turned murderous.
Caleb looked at me.
And for the first time in years, my brother looked less sick than dangerous.
“No,” he said into the phone.
May you like
Then he smiled faintly.
“You come to me.”
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