PART 2
The ballroom remained frozen.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody even seemed to breathe.
Olivia stared at the photograph lying on the marble floor.
Her mother.
The same warm smile.
The same eyes she saw every morning in the mirror.
And beside her stood a younger Alexander Moretti.
Not as a stranger.
Not as a business associate.
As family.
"What is this?" Olivia whispered.
Her voice shook.
Alexander bent down and slowly picked up the photograph.
His fingers trembled.
A sight nobody in the room had ever witnessed.
Twenty-six years of power had taught Alexander Moretti how to control everything.
Except this.
"Your mother was my sister."
The words struck harder than any scream.
Olivia stepped backward.
"No."
Alexander swallowed.
"Her name was Isabella Moretti."
"My mother's name was Isabella Bennett."
"Because she changed it."
The room erupted into whispers.
Olivia's heart pounded painfully.
"My mother never told me any of this."
Alexander nodded slowly.
"Because she disappeared."
The confession stunned everyone.
Including Ethan.
Alexander looked at the photograph.
"Twenty-six years ago, Isabella vanished with her newborn daughter."
His eyes lifted to Olivia.
"You."
Silence.
"My father hated the man she loved."
Alexander's voice grew rough.
"When she refused to leave him, she ran away."
Olivia struggled to process the truth.
"Then who was my father?"
Alexander hesitated.
The hesitation terrified her.
Because whatever answer was coming next was worse.
Much worse.
"Your father is alive."
The ballroom gasped.
Olivia's knees nearly gave out.
Alive.
Not dead.
Not gone.
May you like
Alive.
And someone had spent twenty-six years hiding that fact from her.
