Chapter 5 - Her Mother Had Left One Final Message
Rosa finally told the truth.
Sharise had not been abandoned.
She had been hidden.
Her parents had discovered an illegal network operating through the city's port.
The network involved politicians, shipping companies, judges, and several criminal organizations.
Elena had copied evidence.
Matteo had agreed to expose it.
But before they could, someone betrayed them.
The house was burned.
Elena disappeared.
Sharise survived.
Rosa took her.
"Who betrayed them?" Ramona asked.
Rosa looked at him.
"Your uncle."
Ramona went still.
His uncle had supposedly died years earlier.
"Impossible."
Rosa shook her head.
"He didn't die."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
Ramona's expression darkened.
"His name?"
"Gabriel."
The name shook him.
Gabriel Cassell had been his father's closest adviser.
Everyone believed he died in an accident.
If he was alive, everything changed.
Ramona searched old records.
A trail appeared.
Gabriel had built a second identity.
He was now called Victor Crane.
And Victor Crane controlled half the port.
Sharise understood.
"He caused all of this."
"Maybe."
"Then why does he need me?"
Rosa answered.
"Because your mother hid the final evidence inside you."
Sharise stared.
"What?"
"When you were six, Elena taught you a song."
"A lullaby."
"Yes."
"It wasn't a lullaby."
Sharise remembered.
The melody.
The strange sequence of notes.
Rosa nodded.
"The notes are a code."
Ramona looked at her.
"Do you remember it?"
Sharise began humming.
Ramona's expression changed.
"That's a location."
The code led them to an old theater.
Behind a brick wall they found a small safe.
Inside was a drive.
On it was the entire network.
Names.
Accounts.
Recordings.
Photographs.
And one final video.
Elena.
Sharise sat before the screen.
Her mother looked straight into the camera.
"If you're seeing this, my daughter survived."
Sharise began crying.
Elena continued.
"Sharise, I am sorry."
The recording described everything.
She had hidden the truth because the people hunting them would never stop.
She had trusted Matteo.
She trusted Rosa.
And she trusted Ramona.
Then she said:
"There is one person you must never trust."
The screen went black.
Sharise whispered:
"Who?"
A second clip appeared.
Victor Crane.
Ramona stared.
His uncle was alive.
And he was speaking to Elena.
The recording revealed a shocking truth.
Gabriel had not started the conspiracy.
He had been trying to stop it.
The true architect was someone else.
Someone much closer.
The man standing beside Victor in the video was Sharise's ex-boyfriend.
Greg.
Sharise's face turned white.
"Greg?"
Ramona stared at the screen.
"He used you."
"He knew I had the number."
"He sent you to me."
Sharise remembered.
The napkin.
The number.
The timing.
She had never received Greg's new number directly.
He had given it to her.
Ramona looked at her.
"The wrong digit wasn't an accident."
Sharise felt sick.
"Then Greg planned it."
"Yes."
"And he knew who you were."
"Yes."
She looked at him.
"Why?"
Ramona's answer was cold.
"Because you're the last person carrying the key to your mother's evidence."
Sharise stepped back.
Someone had manipulated her entire life.
Her loneliness.
Her relationship.
Even the text that brought her to Ramona.
She began to shake.
Ramona stepped closer.
"I've got you."
She looked up.
"Do you?"
"Yes."
"You promise?"
May you like
He didn't hesitate.
"I promise."
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