Chapter 4 - Elena Was Alive After All, and She Told Me Why She Had Vanished Twelve Years Earlier and Why Lena Was Really My GoddaughterElena looked older.
But her eyes were the same.
I couldn't move.
“Adrian.”
“Are you real?”
She laughed through tears.
“Yes.”
I crossed the room.
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I had to.”
“You disappeared.”
“To protect you.”
“You could have told me.”
“If I had, the Black Circle would have killed you.”
I couldn't speak.
She touched my face.
“I watched you from afar.”
“Why?”
“Because Gabriel asked me to.”
“Why didn't you come back?”
“Because you were being watched.”
She looked toward Lena.
“And she was the reason we couldn't risk it.”
I stared.
“Lena?”
Elena nodded.
“She isn't Gabriel's biological daughter.”
I froze.
“What?”
“She was born to another woman.”
“Who?”
Elena hesitated.
“Your sister.”
I stepped backward.
“My sister died.”
“No.”
I couldn't breathe.
“My sister was killed.”
“She survived.”
My mind exploded.
My sister, Sofia, had disappeared twenty years earlier.
The family had said she died.
Elena revealed she had lived.
She had a daughter.
Lena.
Gabriel had raised her.
Protected her.
The locket belonged to Sofia.
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
“Because Sofia was hiding from the Black Circle.”
“And Gabriel?”
“He was her protector.”
I looked at Lena.
My niece.
Not Gabriel's biological child.
She was my sister's daughter.
My family.
Elena continued:
“Sofia was murdered last year.”
My jaw tightened.
“Who?”
“Anton.”
That name again.
He had been killing my family for years.
Sofia.
Gabriel.
Potentially others.
He wanted the last blood heir.
Lena.
Because the Duca family inheritance included control over an old financial network.
Lena's bloodline gave her access.
But Elena said the locket contained something more.
A final trust.
A legal document.
Sofia had planned to expose the Black Circle.
The evidence was in Lena's custody.
I looked at the locket.
“She carries the proof.”
“Yes.”
Suddenly, everything made sense.
The attackers.
The locket.
Gabriel's message.
Anton.
The war wasn't about money.
It was about evidence.
Lena was the only living person who could legally unlock the trust.
May you like
That made her the most dangerous child in the city.
And my most important responsibility.
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