HE LEFT HER AT THE ALTAR FOR HER SISTER—UNAWARE SHE WAS THE DON’S ONLY BIOLOGICAL DAUGHTER
Chapter 7
Daniel looked exhausted.
His face was bruised.
His hands were tied.
Robert stood behind him with a gun pressed against his neck.
Elena took one step forward.
“Daniel.”
Robert smiled.
“Touching.”
Victor raised his weapon.
“Let him go.”
Robert laughed.
“You still think you’re in control.”
Victor’s expression remained cold.
“You’ve lost.”
“No.”
Robert looked at Elena.
“You haven’t told her.”
“Told me what?” Elena asked.
Robert smiled.
“Ask your father why your mother died.”
Elena looked at Victor.
Victor said nothing.
Robert continued.
“Ask him what happened the night you were born.”
Elena’s voice shook.
“Tell me.”
Victor finally spoke.
“I went to the hospital.”
Robert smiled.
“You were there?”
Victor nodded.
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I was too late.”
Robert laughed.
“That’s not what happened.”
Elena looked between them.
Robert said:
“Your father wasn’t too late.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“He was there.”
Robert looked at Elena.
“He gave the order.”
Silence.
Elena stared at Victor.
“No.”
Robert laughed.
“Your mother was going to expose him.”
Victor stepped forward.
“Don’t listen to him.”
Robert pointed the gun at Daniel.
“Then tell her the truth.”
Victor looked at Elena.
He finally admitted that Isabella had discovered Victor’s criminal organization was involved in illegal activities.
She wanted out.
She threatened to go to the authorities.
Victor tried to stop her.
Not by killing her.
But by preventing her from leaving.
Isabella panicked.
She ran.
Robert found her first.
Robert wanted the information she possessed.
She refused.
He kidnapped her.
But before he could get the records, Victor arrived.
A confrontation followed.
Isabella escaped.
She disappeared.
Everyone assumed she had been killed.
But Victor never found her.
Elena stared.
“Then how did she die?”
Victor looked down.
“She died years later.”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“How?”
“Cancer.”
The room went silent.
Robert laughed.
“She blamed Victor until the end.”
Elena looked at her father.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I wanted you to remember her as your mother, not as someone caught between criminals.”
Robert suddenly fired.
Victor moved.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
Chaos erupted.
Guards returned fire.
Elena grabbed Daniel.
They ran behind a stone wall.
Sofia followed.
Robert disappeared through the rear entrance.
Victor remained standing.
Blood soaked his jacket.
Elena rushed toward him.
“Dad!”
Victor waved her away.
“I’m fine.”
“You’ve been shot.”
“I’ve had worse.”
Daniel looked at Elena.
“Your father saved me.”
Victor turned.
Daniel continued.
“He could have killed Robert earlier.”
“Why didn’t he?”
“Because he wanted you to know the truth.”
Elena looked at Victor.
For the first time, she understood.
He wasn’t trying to control her.
He was trying to give her the choice he had never been able to give Isabella.
The choice to know everything.
Even the ugly parts.
Then Thomas arrived.
“We found Robert’s vehicle.”
Victor asked:
“Where?”
“The old Rossi house.”
Elena froze.
Her mother’s childhood home had been abandoned for twenty years.
Why would Robert go there?
Thomas answered.
“Because there’s something hidden there.”
Elena looked at Victor.
“What?”
Victor’s expression changed.
“The records.”
“What records?”
“The ones your mother was trying to protect.”
They drove through the night.
When they arrived, the house was dark.
The front door was open.
Inside, dust covered everything.
Elena walked toward the old fireplace.
She remembered her mother sitting there when she was a child.
Thomas searched the walls.
Then he found a loose brick.
Behind it was a metal box.
Inside was a handwritten diary.
Elena opened it.
Her mother’s final entry was dated three days before her death.
I finally know who betrayed Victor.
Elena read the next line.
Her heart stopped.
It was someone I trusted more than anyone.
Then the final sentence:
If anything happens to me, my daughter must never trust the man who calls himself her protector.
Elena slowly looked at Thomas.
Victor noticed.
Everyone became silent.
Because Thomas had been calling himself her protector since the day they met.
