Family was Ch 10

Every time they stopped, his heart seized. 

Every time they shook their heads, another piece of his hope shattered. 

At dawn, a rescuer emerged from a ravine in the distance. 

He was holding a scorched metal box. 

“Mr. Falcieri,” he said, approaching Caius. “We found this.” 

It was a titanium jewelry case. 

Caius recognized it. 

He had given it to Alessia to hold her most precious design sketches. 

He took the case with a trembling hand. 

He opened the lid. 

It was empty. 

Except for a small inscription that gleamed on the inside of the lid: 

“Reborn from the Ashes.” 

He the cold case, sinking to his knees in the desolate mountains, and wept, his eyes raw. “Alessia, where are you? Please, come back. I’ll spend your birthday with you. We were supposed to build a family. I promised I’d protect you, I promised…” 

But it didn’t matter what he had once promised. He had never kept his word, and I could no longer hear him. 

It was evening by the time he returned to the estate. 

Caius went straight to what was once Alessia’s studio. 

The empty room was filled with nothing but dust. 

2/3 

“Caius, you’re back.” The Madre walked in. “Livia was so worried about you…” 

“Get out.” 

“What?” 

“I said, get 

Caius spun to face her, his eyes glaring. “No one is welcome here!” 

The Madre left, 

incensed. 

Caius sat in the empty room for a long time. 

Then he went to the bedroom he had shared with Alessia. 

He needed a trace of her. 

Anything to prove she had been real. 

He tore off the mattress, searching for anything she might have left behind. 

His fingers brushed against a piece of paper. 

Caius pulled it out. 

It was a single sheet of paper. A DNA report, torn to shreds and then painstakingly taped back together, the cheap tape yellowed with age. 

Two names on the report made his blood run cold: Livia Falcieri and Silas Romano. 

And below their names, a single line that stopped his heart: Probability of Paternity: 99.7%.