Chapter 12 - The bloodline in the silver frame
Inside the velvet lining lay two objects: an antique silver locket tarnished with age and an envelope sealed with crimson wax bearing the crest of the Sterling family’s oldest rival, the House of Moretti. Marcus reached out with gloved hands, his face turning to pure marble as he lifted the heavy silver locket and flicked it open.
Grace expected to see Julianna’s portrait. Instead, staring back at them from the faded miniature photograph was an infant swaddled in a pink blanket, bearing a birthmark on the collarbone shaped like an imperfect crescent moon. Grace instinctively reached for her own neck, her fingertips brushing against the exact same birthmark hidden just below her collarbone.
"That is me," Grace whispered, the air leaving her lungs in a sharp gasp. "I grew up in the St. Teresa Orphanage. I never knew who my parents were. Julianna never mentioned having seen my childhood records. How could she possess this?"
Marcus did not answer immediately. His dark eyes scanned the wax seal on the parchment envelope. When he broke the seal and spread the aged paper flat against the table, his knuckles went white. It was not a letter. It was an official hospital birth registry dated twenty-three years ago, stamped by the most exclusive private clinic in northern Italy.
The document listed twins born to the late patriarch of the Moretti syndicate. One twin was Julianna Moretti, who had later abandoned her family to marry Marcus Sterling and forge an uneasy truce between two bloodlines. The second twin, separated at birth to protect the lineage during a violent mafia purge, was listed as Gianna Moretti—transferred secretly overseas and renamed Grace.
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"She wasn't just your predecessor, Marcus," Grace said, tears stinging her eyes as the horrifying realization crashed over her. "Julianna didn't pick me out of pity or random chance. She brought me into this house because she knew I was her twin sister."
Marcus stared at the document, his towering figure vibrating with suppressed fury and disbelief. "Julianna kept this from me to keep you safe from the Moretti syndicate. But if this box was delivered today, it means someone else knows your real identity. And they want the Moretti inheritance back."
