Chapter 4 - The Woman Dante Thought Was Dead Came Back With a Terrifying Warning
Sofia had only seconds to explain.
“There is a second exit through the attic.”
Elena followed her.
Dante stayed behind to fight.
Gunshots echoed below.
Sofia moved faster than Elena expected.
At the top of the staircase, she opened a hidden panel.
A narrow passage appeared.
“You knew this place.”
“I built it with your father.”
Elena stared.
“You loved him.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you leave me?”
Sofia's eyes filled with tears.
“I never left you.”
“You weren't there.”
“I was watching.”
“That isn't the same.”
“I know.”
Elena's voice broke.
“You missed everything.”
“I know.”
“My first day of school.”
“I know.”
“My graduation.”
“I know.”
“My first heartbreak.”
Sofia cried.
“I know.”
“How?”
“Because I was always there.”
Elena stopped.
“What?”
“I was the woman sitting at the back of your school auditorium.”
“The woman in the gray coat?”
“Yes.”
“My God.”
Sofia reached for her.
“I couldn't approach you.”
“Why?”
“Because they were watching.”
“Who?”
“The Vale Group.”
They reached the attic.
Sofia opened another panel.
A ladder descended behind the wall.
“We need to go.”
Dante appeared.
Blood stained his sleeve.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
He looked at Sofia.
Then Elena.
“Everyone out.”
They escaped through the woods.
By sunrise, they were in a safehouse.
Sofia sat at the kitchen table.
Dante stood opposite her.
“Tell me everything.”
Sofia looked at him.
“Your father was not the mastermind.”
“I know.”
“The betrayal came from inside.”
“Who?”
Sofia shook her head.
“I never learned.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because Luca found a ledger.”
“The box.”
“Yes.”
“But it was stolen.”
Sofia's expression changed.
“What box?”
Elena explained.
Sofia looked terrified.
“That box should not exist.”
“Why?”
“Because the original ledger was destroyed.”
“Then what was in the box?”
“A copy.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
Dante stepped closer.
“What everything?”
Sofia whispered:
“Every payment made by the Vale Group.”
Dante went silent.
“Politicians.”
“Judges.”
“Police.”
“International banks.”
“And the Moretti and Vitali families.”
Sofia nodded.
“Which means someone can destroy both families with it.”
Elena looked at her mother.
“Who has it now?”
“We don't know.”
Dante's phone rang.
He answered.
“Yes?”
Marco spoke.
“Boss, we have a problem.”
“What?”
“Bianca is gone.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“She left the estate?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She had help.”
Dante understood.
“The inside traitor.”
Marco continued.
“We found surveillance footage.”
“Show me.”
Marco sent the image.
Bianca was walking through a security corridor.
Beside her was Dante’s head of security.
Adrian Cole.
Dante stared.
“Adrian.”
Elena looked at the screen.
The man had worked at Villa Moretti for 12 years.
He had stood beside Dante through wars.
He had protected the estate.
And he had just helped Bianca escape.
Dante's voice became cold.
“Find him.”
Marco nodded.
“There is one more thing.”
“What?”
“Bianca left a message.”
“What message?”
“She said she didn't push Elena to kill her.”
Dante frowned.
“I never said she did.”
Marco’s voice became quieter.
“She said Elena knows the location of the original ledger.”
Sofia looked at Elena.
“Elena doesn't know.”
Dante stared at his phone.
“That's the problem.”
Sofia stood.
“She may.”
Elena looked at her.
“What?”
Sofia walked closer.
“When you were little, your father taught you numbers.”
Elena remembered.
“Numbers?”
“He called it a game.”
“Yes.”
“You memorized them.”
“Yes.”
“They weren't numbers.”
“What were they?”
Coordinates.
Bank accounts.
Passwords.
Names.
Elena sat down.
Her father had turned childhood into a vault.
She had carried secrets for 20 years without knowing.
Sofia touched her cheek.
“You are the key.”
Dante looked at Elena.
Suddenly, every attack made sense.
They didn't want her dead.
They wanted what she remembered.
The door burst open.
Marco entered.
“We found Adrian.”
“Where?”
“He's at the old Moretti cemetery.”
Dante stood.
“Let's go.”
The cemetery was surrounded by armed men.
Adrian stood beside a mausoleum.
Bianca was with him.
She held the metal box.
Dante walked forward.
“Bianca.”
She raised the weapon.
“Stay back.”
“Put it down.”
“You don't understand.”
“I understand enough.”
She looked at Elena.
“I never wanted to hurt you.”
Elena stared.
“You pushed me into a lake.”
“I wanted you to disappear.”
“That is hurting me.”
Bianca cried.
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That you would replace me.”
Dante shook his head.
“You were already losing me.”
Bianca flinched.
Adrian stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Dante aimed at him.
“You betrayed me.”
“I protected the family.”
“You sold the family.”
Adrian laughed.
“The family was sold 20 years ago.”
He opened the box.
“There’s something you need to see.”
He removed a photograph.
A younger Dante's father.
Standing beside a third man.
Elena recognized him.
“Victor Vale.”
Dante went still.
Victor Vale had supposedly died 18 years ago.
Adrian smiled.
“He never died.”
Sofia gasped.
The old warlord behind the Vale Group had been alive all along.
And he had been controlling everything.
Bianca looked at Elena.
“You're the only person who can expose him.”
Elena stared.
“Then let's do it.”
Adrian laughed.
“You think you can?”
Elena looked at Dante.
He stepped beside her.
“Yes.”
Dante raised his weapon.
“We can.”
May you like
And for the first time, the people hunting Elena realized their biggest mistake.
They had forced the woman they thought was powerless to stop hiding.
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