Chapter 5 - The Truth About My Parents
I wanted to run.
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I stood under a streetlight listening to a stranger who looked like my dead mother accuse the woman who had given me life.
“My mother wanted my father dead?”
Lucia shook her head.
“No.”
“Then why did you say that?”
“Because the ledger says she did.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“What does the ledger actually say?”
Lucia looked exhausted.
“Come with me.”
We followed her into an abandoned warehouse.
She opened a metal box.
Inside were documents.
Photographs.
Letters.
A second ledger.
“This is the original,” she said.
Adrian took it.
The pages contained names.
Judges.
Police officers.
Businessmen.
Politicians.
And beside some names were initials.
R.M.
V.M.
B.H.
Adrian stopped.
“Blake.”
Lucia nodded.
“He worked for both sides.”
“What sides?”
“The Romano organization and the Moretti organization.”
Adrian's face changed.
“So he played everyone.”
“Yes.”
“And my father?”
Lucia turned to me.
“Daniel found out.”
“Then why was he killed?”
“Because Blake convinced Victor that Daniel had stolen the ledger.”
“He hadn't?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Lucia looked at Adrian.
“I did.”
Adrian stared.
“Why?”
“To expose them.”
“You put all of us in danger.”
“I know.”
“Why didn't you come to me?”
“Because I was afraid you'd kill me.”
The silence between them was heavy.
I asked,
“What happened to my mother?”
Lucia closed her eyes.
“She knew Daniel was being targeted. She asked me to help them escape.”
“Did you?”
“I tried.”
“But?”
“Blake found us.”
My mother died shortly afterward.
Lucia disappeared.
And Gabriel raised me away from the family.
Everything connected.
My childhood.
My uncle.
The ledger.
The mark.
Adrian.
I sat down.
“I don't know who I am anymore.”
Lucia sat beside me.
“You are still Isabella.”
“That isn't enough.”
“It has to be.”
Adrian approached.
“Why did Gabriel work with you?”
“To protect Isabella.”
“Then why involve her now?”
Lucia looked at him.
“Because Blake knows where the ledger is.”
Adrian stiffened.
“The original?”
“No.”
“The copy.”
She nodded.
I frowned.
“There are two?”
“Yes.”
“Where is the second one?”
Lucia looked at me.
“Your nursing school locker.”
I laughed nervously.
“That locker hasn't been opened in years.”
“Then we need to open it.”
The next morning, Adrian and I went to the old school.
The locker was still there.
The number matched my mother's note.
I opened it.
Inside was a nursing textbook.
Underneath it was a small envelope.
Inside were photographs of people.
One was Blake.
Another was Victor.
Another was a young Adrian.
And beside Adrian stood a woman I recognized.
My mother.
“What?”
Adrian took the photo.
“They knew each other.”
“My mother knew you?”
“No.”
“Look at the date.”
Twenty-two years earlier.
Adrian was eighteen.
My mother was twenty-five.
My mother had apparently been working as an assistant for one of the Moretti family's companies.
She had met Adrian during negotiations.
But she had also met Lucia.
The three of them had once been allies.
Until Blake destroyed their trust.
We returned to the estate.
Adrian seemed distant.
“What are you thinking?”
“That I've spent fifteen years blaming Lucia.”
“You weren't wrong to be angry.”
“I was wrong about why.”
I touched his arm.
“You were protecting yourself.”
He looked at me.
“And now you're protecting me.”
“Yes.”
“You don't have to.”
“I know.”
His hand covered mine.
“I want to.”
Our relationship had become something neither of us named.
Something between trust and love.
But every time we got close, danger returned.
That evening, an explosion destroyed one of Adrian's warehouses.
No one was hurt.
A message arrived afterward.
HAND OVER THE GIRL.
Adrian's response was immediate.
“No.”
“You don't even know what they want.”
“They want you.”
“No.”
“They want what you carry.”
I remembered the mark on my shoulder.
“Then maybe I should leave.”
Adrian's expression changed.
“Don't say that.”
“You can't protect me forever.”
“I can try.”
“And if you fail?”
He stepped closer.
“Then I fail fighting.”
I stared at him.
He lowered his voice.
“I'm not letting them take you.”
“Why?”
He looked at me for several seconds.
“Because somewhere between protecting you and fearing for you, I stopped thinking of you as Gabriel's niece.”
My breath caught.
“What do you think of me?”
His hand touched my cheek.
“As the woman I can't lose.”
I should have stepped away.
Instead, I kissed him.
It was brief.
Careful.
Terrifying.
And completely real.
When we separated, neither of us spoke.
Then a gunshot cracked from outside.
Adrian pushed me down.
Glass exploded behind us.
His security team rushed in.
Another shot.
Then silence.
A man had left something on the balcony.
A silver ring.
Blake's ring.
Adrian picked it up.
May you like
His eyes were cold.
“It's time to end this.”
