Chapter 6 - WHO VICTORIA’S FATHER WAS
Peter Bellamy agreed to DNA testing only after Victoria asked him directly.
Not Callum.
Not police.
His daughter.
He refused the first time.
She said:
“Then I will assume you already know the answer.”
He agreed.
The result took three days.
Peter Bellamy was not Victoria’s biological father.
Probability excluded.
Victoria called me from her hotel.
Not Callum.
We had known each other forty-eight hours and somehow I had become the least complicated person available.
“I don’t know what to do with this.”
I sat at my kitchen table.
“You don’t have to do anything tonight.”
“I have called him Dad for twenty-eight years.”
“He raised you.”
“He lied to me.”
“Both.”
She laughed bitterly.
“Is that the only word anyone has?”
Both.
Maybe.
“Did he know?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“He admitted.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did he say?”
Peter had known from before birth that Anna was pregnant by another man.
They married anyway.
He wanted to raise the child.
At first that sounded almost noble.
Then:
He used the pregnancy to pressure Anna into staying.
He told her no one else would accept a child tied to Russo.
Who was the biological father?
Peter would not say.
He claimed Anna never told him.
Victoria did not believe.
Neither did I.
Then Detective Chen found the clue in the missing page’s carbon impression.
Not V.B.
The letters were:
V / B.
Separated by a slash.
Underneath:
Custody to A.R.
Beneficial line: B.
Do not disclose P.B.
P.B.
Peter Bellamy?
Do not disclose to Peter.
Beneficial line B.
Whose line?
Callum’s family had several branches.
Romano had one brother.
Benedict Russo.
Dead twenty-two years.
No children publicly.
Except perhaps.
Callum looked at the note and went pale.
“My uncle Benedict.”
“Was he with Anna?”
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel did.
His silence gave him away.
Callum turned.
“You know.”
Gabriel closed eyes.
“My father knew.”
Gabriel Moretti’s father had been Romano’s security chief.
“Tell me.”
“Benedict and Anna were not siblings.”
I frowned.
Callum stared.
“What?”
Romano and Anna shared a mother.
Benedict was Romano’s half-brother through their father.
So Benedict and Anna were not biologically related.
But raised as siblings?
No. That's ethically messy. Let's clarify: Benedict was not Russo family by blood? Maybe adopted cousin? Need avoid pseudo-incest. Better: Benedict Bellandi? Wait note B line could refer Bruno Russo, a business partner, not uncle. Let's restructure before too late in generated file? We can continue with B = Brennan family. Need not make sibling. We said "Callum’s family had several branches. Romano had one brother. Benedict Russo." Better to avoid Anna with uncle. We can say Benedict wasn't candidate; clue misread. Gabriel says B doesn't mean Benedict. Good.
Gabriel said:
“B is not Benedict.”
Everyone looked.
“What then?”
“Bruno Barone.”
Callum’s face changed.
There.
Bruno Barone.
Romano Russo’s oldest friend.
Co-founder of Russo Logistics.
Killed in 2001 in an unsolved shooting.
No family? He had a wife, no known children.
“Anna and Bruno?”
Gabriel nodded.
“My father believed so.”
“Believed?”
“He drove Anna to a clinic appointment once.”
There.
Victoria’s biological father could be Bruno Barone.
Why hide?
Because Barone and Russo business interests were tied.
Because Peter believed child was his socially.
Because Romano wanted to protect Anna’s choice.
Because Bruno was murdered when Victoria was three.
Now the line:
Beneficial line: B.
The Roman assets may not have belonged to Anna alone.
They may have included Bruno’s share.
Callum stared at red ledger.
The ledger had Barone entries.
A lot.
Thirty percent of early logistics profits routed into “Roman art reserves.”
If Bruno had beneficial interest, Victoria could inherit.
This was not twenty million.
This was potentially hundreds.
Now motive expanded.
Who loses if Victoria’s identity is proven?
Russo Holdings.
Callum personally?
Maybe.
Peter Bellamy?
Maybe not.
Who else?
Gabriel began internal ownership review.
One man stood out.
Harlan Webb.
Current chairman of Russo Holdings.
Romano’s old accountant.
He had personally administered Barone’s estate after the shooting.
He had certified Bruno died without issue.
That certification allowed Barone’s retained interests to revert to Russo-controlled entities.
If Victoria was Bruno’s daughter, Harlan’s old filing was false.
Maybe knowingly.
And Harlan had been pushing Callum to sell Russo Fine Holdings for months.
Why?
Clean up historical exposure before provenance review found it.
I felt sick.
“Evan reported to Harlan?”
Callum’s face hardened.
Russo internal audit showed Evan and Harlan exchanged encrypted company messages.
Nothing explicit.
But timing.
Harlan had approved Evan’s promotion.
Harlan knew my contract.
Harlan knew my mother’s care invoices through finance oversight.
The real target might not have been Victoria initially.
It might have been evidence that she existed as Barone’s heir.
The provenance page connected:
Anna Russo.
Bruno Barone.
Evelyn Miller.
The old Roman asset compartment.
And a child.
Victoria.
“Why attack me instead of Victoria?” I asked.
Callum answered:
“Because you found the page before she did.”
There.
I had become dangerous accidentally.
The same way my mother had.
Museum people are supposed to document custody.
That is all.
But custody is power when everyone else survives by ambiguity.
Detective Chen questioned Harlan.
He denied everything.
Denied knowing Victoria.
Denied directing Evan.
Denied old Barone filing was false because he claimed Romano told him Bruno had no child.
Then Chen showed him a 1998 email recovered from the vault.
Harlan to Romano:
If A’s pregnancy is Barone’s, we need a plan before Peter files paternity.
There.
He knew possibility.
Not proof.
Enough to destroy his “never heard” claim.
Then another email.
Romano to Harlan:
No plan. Anna decides. The child is not a balance-sheet problem.
I stared at that line.
Romano Russo.
The Roman.
Feared.
Compromised.
Still capable of saying one right thing.
Harlan replied:
If Barone dies without acknowledged issue, his interest returns to the company. That is not emotion. That is structure.
He had reduced a child to structure.
Twenty-eight years later, he was still chairman.
Callum looked physically ill.
“My father kept him.”
“Yes,” Gabriel said.
“Why?”
“No idea.”
Maybe Romano chose stability.
Maybe he thought he could control Harlan.
Maybe he never discovered everything.
Again.
The board placed Harlan on immediate leave pending investigation.
He called Callum.
Callum answered with counsel present.
“You are making a mistake.”
“Maybe.”
“If you validate that girl, you hand away assets your father spent his life building.”
Callum’s face went still.
“Her name is Victoria.”
Silence.
Then Harlan said:
“Blood does not make ownership.”
“Correct.”
That surprised him.
Callum continued:
“Evidence does.”
Harlan hung up.
Good.
DNA comparison with preserved Bruno Barone medical sample? Plausibility—maybe there is an adult sibling/relative. Better: Bruno had surviving brother, Dominic Barone, age 70, willing to test. Avuncular DNA supported biological relationship strongly but not absolute. Combined Anna letters and records made case.
Victoria sat through results.
Then said:
“So Peter is still my father.”
I looked at her.
She meant emotionally.
“Yes.”
“Even if he lied?”
“That’s yours to decide.”
Good.
Callum did not claim cousinhood like ownership.
He said:
“If you want family relationship with me, I’m here.”
Victoria nodded.
Not answer yet.
Then she looked at me.
“What happens to the drawing?”
The question almost made me laugh.
After everything, art.
I said:
“We finish provenance.”
Because that was my job.
And for the first time, everyone agreed to let the researcher do it without telling her which answer would be convenient.
Peter Bellamy’s admission did not come all at once.
Victoria met him with her attorney present.
She later allowed me to read a short summary.
He said Anna had told him the biological father was “someone close to Romano.”
He assumed a Russo relative.
Anna refused the name.
Peter married her anyway because he loved her and because, by his own admission, he believed marriage would make leaving harder.
Victoria stopped him there.
“You knew that sounded like control when you said it?”
Peter cried.
“Yes.”
Good.
No romanticizing.
He said he wanted to raise Victoria.
He also wanted Anna dependent on him.
Both.
When Anna fled, he used the courts to regain custody once Victoria had been left with Evelyn temporarily.
Legally successful.
Emotionally complicated.
Then he lied about Anna dying because he feared Victoria would search for her and reopen the Russo connection.
That lie lasted sixteen years.
Victoria asked:
“Did you ever think I had a right to decide whether knowing her was worth the risk?”
Peter answered:
“No.”
At least honest.
She left without hugging him.
Weeks later, she called him.
Not forgiveness.
A beginning.
I learned about it because she told me:
“I’m tired of people deciding reconciliation for me too.”
Good.
No one in this story was required to reunite because another person apologized.
Choice had to remain all the way through.
Victoria asked Peter one last question before leaving that meeting.
“If Anna had come back when I was ten, would you have let me see her?”
Peter took too long.
“No.”
Victoria nodded.
That pause told her more than the answer.
He loved her.
He also would have chosen for her again.
May you like
Knowing that did not erase childhood.
It changed how she understood it.
