HE LEFT HER AT THE ALTAR FOR HER SISTER—UNAWARE SHE WAS THE DON’S ONLY BIOLOGICAL DAUGHTER
Chapter 5
Elena drove directly to Victor’s estate.
She found him in his study.
Daniel’s warning had already reached him.
Victor looked strangely calm.
“You shouldn’t have come alone.”
“I didn’t.”
Two security vehicles followed her.
Victor nodded.
“Good.”
Elena shut the door.
“Daniel says Robert threatened him.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“I expected that.”
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I wanted proof.”
Elena placed her phone on the desk.
“Then let’s get proof.”
Victor smiled faintly.
For the first time, Elena understood where his reputation came from.
He was calm because fear had become ordinary to him.
They spent the next two days investigating Robert Hayes.
They discovered hidden accounts.
Offshore companies.
Payments to private investigators.
And one disturbing pattern.
Robert had been paying someone inside Victor’s organization for years.
The identity was hidden.
Then a security report arrived.
Someone had accessed Victor’s private archives.
Only six people had the authorization.
Victor looked at Elena.
“One of them is a traitor.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
Elena studied the list.
Then stopped.
One name stood out.
Thomas.
She looked at Victor.
“Your chief of security?”
Victor nodded.
“He’s been with me for twenty years.”
“Could he be the traitor?”
“He could.”
Elena felt uneasy.
Thomas had been the first person to find her.
He had guided her to Victor.
He had known where she lived.
He knew about her mother.
He knew everything.
But accusing him felt impossible.
That evening, Elena returned to her apartment.
She found the door unlocked.
She froze.
She hadn’t left it that way.
She stepped inside.
Nothing appeared missing.
Then she noticed a photograph on the kitchen table.
It showed her mother.
On the back was written:
You should have stayed away from Victor.
Elena immediately called Victor.
He arrived within minutes.
His expression changed when he saw the photograph.
“This is a warning.”
“To me?”
“To both of us.”
Elena asked:
“Who wants me dead?”
Victor looked at the photograph.
“Someone who believes you’re the key to my downfall.”
“What key?”
Victor didn’t answer.
Instead, he opened an old safe.
Inside was a file labeled:
ROSSI — PROJECT 17
Elena stared.
“What is that?”
“My investigation into your mother’s disappearance.”
He opened it.
Inside were photographs of Isabella.
Hospital records.
A map.
And a document dated three days before Elena was born.
Victor read aloud:
“Subject: unborn female child. Potential successor. Eliminate if necessary.”
Elena felt sick.
“Who wrote that?”
Victor turned the page.
A signature appeared.
Robert Hayes.
Elena’s hands began shaking.
“He planned to kill me before I was born.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he knew you were my only biological heir.”
Elena stared at the file.
“So he knew.”
“Yes.”
“Then Daniel knew?”
Victor looked at her.
“We don’t know.”
Elena remembered the altar.
The humiliation.
Her sister standing beside Daniel.
She had assumed they had betrayed her.
But what if there had been another reason?
Victor closed the file.
“You need to leave the city.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“I spent my entire life being told what to do.”
She looked at him.
“My mother hid me.”
“You were a child.”
“Now I’m not.”
Victor studied her.
Then smiled.
“You really are my daughter.”
Elena almost laughed.
“I don’t know whether that’s a compliment.”
“It is.”
Suddenly the lights went out.
Security alarms screamed.
Gunshots erupted outside.
Victor grabbed Elena and pulled her behind a wall.
“Stay down.”
Glass shattered.
Guards rushed through the hallway.
Victor drew a weapon.
Elena stared at him.
The man she had just discovered was her father was no longer the distant figure from photographs.
He was standing between her and danger.
Protecting her.
Then Thomas ran into the room.
“Sir!”
Victor pointed his weapon.
“Stop.”
Thomas froze.
Victor’s voice was cold.
“Where were you?”
“Checking the east gate.”
“Why?”
“There was an intruder.”
Victor stared at him.
Elena noticed something.
Thomas was holding a gun.
But his hand was bleeding.
Not from the attack.
From a knife wound.
Someone had tried to stop him.
Victor lowered his weapon.
“Find the shooter.”
Thomas nodded.
But before he left, Elena noticed something in his pocket.
A photograph.
Her mother.
The same photograph from the warning.
And suddenly Elena realized Thomas had been lying.
