Chapter 13 - The Woman Who Saved a Duca
Catherine Bell lived in a quiet blue house overlooking Narragansett Bay.
Roman arrived with six armored vehicles.
Catherine greeted him with tea.
She was a tiny woman with silver hair, a wool cardigan, and absolutely no fear.
“You look like Sofia,” she told Roman.
Roman froze.
Nobody said that.
Everyone said he looked like his father.
Catherine waved them into her sitting room.
“You may leave the soldiers outside. If I intended to kill you, Mr. Duca, I would have poisoned the tea.”
Marcus stared suspiciously at his cup.
Catherine smiled.
“That was a joke.”
Marcus did not drink.
Clara liked her immediately.
Roman remained standing.
“Adrian.”
Catherine’s smile vanished.
“So you finally learned.”
“He was real.”
“Oh, yes.”
“My brother?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
Catherine looked toward the bay.
“I don’t know.”
Roman’s restraint cracked.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Sit down.”
“I have buried men for less than—”
“Roman.”
Clara touched his hand.
He stopped.
Catherine studied Clara.
“Sofia would have liked you.”
That silenced him more effectively than any threat.
Catherine opened an old wooden cabinet.
From inside, she removed a bundle wrapped in white linen.
A baby blanket.
Blue stitching formed the initials A.S.D.
Adrian Sofia Duca.
Roman touched the fabric as though it might disappear.
“Why?”
Catherine sat down.
“Because your father was planning a war.”
She told them everything.
Salvatore Marcone had learned about Sofia’s second pregnancy.
Roman’s father, Antonio, feared Marcone would use the baby as leverage.
So Sofia secretly delivered Adrian at a private clinic.
Only four people knew.
Sofia.
Elias Vane.
Catherine.
And Antonio.
“The official plan was to hide Adrian temporarily,” Catherine explained. “But after the delivery, Sofia changed her mind.”
Roman looked up.
“Why?”
“Because she discovered what Antonio had done to Elias.”
The room went quiet.
Catherine’s hands trembled.
“Elias found financial records showing Antonio had been paying corrupt officials to allow weapons through the docks. Weapons that later killed innocent people during the war.”
Clara felt sick.
“Elias threatened to expose him.”
“Antonio had him arrested by men on his payroll. Elias escaped. Sofia helped him.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“My father said Elias stole from us.”
“Your father lied.”
Catherine continued.
Sofia feared Roman would become Antonio’s heir.
She feared Adrian would become another weapon.
So she arranged to have the newborn placed under another identity.
Roman stared at her.
“My mother gave my brother away?”
“She saved him.”
Catherine’s voice cracked.
“And perhaps she saved you too.”
Roman looked away.
For several moments, he could not speak.
Clara watched the boy he had once been appear behind the face of the man he had become.
“What happened to my mother?” he asked finally.
Catherine’s expression changed.
“She did not die from illness.”
Marcus slowly set his cup down.
Roman turned back.
“What did you say?”
Catherine’s eyes filled with tears.
“Sofia was poisoned.”
Silence.
“By whom?”
“I never knew.”
Roman’s hands curled into fists.
“My father?”
“No. Whatever his sins, Antonio loved her obsessively. Her death destroyed him.”
Catherine walked to an old desk.
She removed a sealed envelope.
“She left this with me three days before she died. She made me promise I would give it to Adrian if he ever came looking.”
Roman stared at it.
“Open it.”
“It isn’t yours.”
“He’s my brother.”
“It belongs to him.”
Roman’s voice hardened.
“Mrs. Bell—”
A gunshot shattered the front window.
Roman moved before the glass hit the floor.
He dragged Catherine down.
Marcus threw Clara behind a stone fireplace as more rounds punched through the walls.
“Sniper!” someone shouted outside.
Roman drew his weapon.
The security detail returned fire.
A vehicle engine roared from the road.
Then silence.
Marcus touched his earpiece.
“Shooter moving east.”
Roman looked down.
Catherine was bleeding.
Clara crawled toward her.
“No.”
Catherine touched her side.
The bullet had grazed her ribs but missed anything vital.
Roman lifted her carefully.
“Medic!”
As his men rushed inside, Catherine grabbed Roman’s coat.
“The letter.”
He leaned down.
“What about it?”
“You need Adrian.”
“Why?”
Her pale eyes locked onto his.
“Because Sofia named both sons.”
Roman frowned.
“Named us in what?”
Catherine whispered the answer.
“In the deed to the Duca empire.”
May you like
Roman stared at her.
And outside, somewhere beyond the bay, the person hunting his family had just discovered that Catherine Bell was still alive.
