Chapter 2 - The Woman I Had Mourned Was Alive, but Someone Had Spent Twenty Years Making Sure I Never Found HerI refused to leave Sofia's apartment until the doctor arrived.
Emma sat beside her mother.
She colored quietly.
I couldn't stop staring at them.
At the life I had missed.
Birthdays.
First words.
First steps.
School.
Every moment.
Twenty years.
Gone.
“You should have told me.”
Sofia looked at me.
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Many times.”
“How?”
“Letters.”
“I never received them.”
“Because your father intercepted them.”
“My father?”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“My father died fifteen years ago.”
“He didn't.”
“Then who did?”
“I don't know.”
She closed her eyes.
“Daniel, you were never meant to inherit the empire.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Your father planned to give it to someone else.”
“Who?”
“Your cousin.”
“Michael?”
She nodded.
Michael Moretti had died in a car explosion twelve years ago.
Or so everyone said.
I remembered standing beside his coffin.
Then I remembered the funeral had been closed.
No body.
Again.
“Michael was alive.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
She looked terrified.
“But I know this.”
“Someone has been using your family name to control everything.”
I sat beside her.
“Why didn't you come back?”
“Because the last time I tried, they found me.”
“Who?”
“Your father's men.”
“My father was already dead.”
She shook her head.
“Your uncle.”
I froze.
“Which uncle?”
“Anthony.”
Anthony Moretti.
My father's younger brother.
He had disappeared twenty years ago.
The family said he had died overseas.
“No.”
Sofia nodded.
“Yes.”
“Anthony is alive?”
“Yes.”
“And he's been controlling my empire?”
“Not openly.”
I looked at Emma.
“What does he want?”
“You.”
“Why?”
“Because your father hid something.”
“What?”
“The original Moretti trust.”
I frowned.
“I know the family has trusts.”
“This one is different.”
“How?”
“It contains evidence.”
“Of what?”
“Everything.”
She looked toward the window.
“Everything your family did.”
My blood went cold.
Murders.
Smuggling.
Corruption.
Political manipulation.
All of it.
If such evidence existed, it could destroy the Moretti empire.
Maybe that's why my father had hidden it.
“Where is it?”
Sofia shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“Then why am I the one they want?”
“Because the trust can only be opened by your blood.”
I stared.
“Mine?”
“Yes.”
Then she looked at Emma.
“Now hers too.”
Emma stopped coloring.
“What trust?”
I looked at her.
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
She smiled.
“Okay.”
Children trusted too easily.
Adults learned not to.
The doctor arrived.
Sofia had pneumonia.
She needed hospitalization.
I arranged a private room.
Sofia protested.
“I don't want your money.”
“This isn't your choice.”
She smiled weakly.
“Still arrogant.”
“You're still stubborn.”
“I missed you.”
That sentence hit me harder than anything.
I looked away.
“I spent years hating you.”
“I know.”
“I thought you betrayed me.”
“I never did.”
“I believed you chose someone else.”
“I chose survival.”
I looked back.
“Why didn't you tell me Emma existed?”
“Because if you knew, they would know.”
“Who?”
“Your family.”
I swallowed.
“I'm going to protect you now.”
She smiled.
“You've always been a little late.”
I laughed.
“Apparently.”
Outside the hospital room, Vincent waited.
My oldest lieutenant.
The man who had been beside me for fifteen years.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found something.”
He handed me a photograph.
My father.
Anthony.
And a woman.
The woman was Sofia.
But the photograph had been taken three years ago.
I looked at the date.
Three years ago.
I stared.
“Where?”
“Boston.”
“Who took it?”
“Unknown.”
“Find them.”
Vincent nodded.
Then he said:
“There's more.”
“What?”
“The woman in the photograph was carrying a child.”
Emma.
I looked toward the room.
My daughter sat beside Sofia.
Suddenly every year made sense.
They had been close.
Close enough to watch me.
Close enough to know what I did.
Close enough to wait.
“Why come now?”
Vincent looked serious.
“Because something happened seven days ago.”
“What?”
“Someone planted a bomb beneath your Bentley.”
I already knew.
“Why now?”
Vincent handed me another file.
The bomb wasn't designed to kill me.
It was designed to scare me.
The trigger was linked to a message.
THE HEIR HAS RETURNED.
I stared.
“The heir.”
Emma.
Someone knew.
Someone wanted her.
The hospital lights flickered.
I turned.
The security monitor went black.
Gunfire erupted outside.
Vincent drew his gun.
“Stay here.”
I opened the door.
“Daniel?”
Sofia shouted.
The hospital entered lockdown.
Three armed men came through the corridor.
My security team engaged them.
The first fell.
The second disappeared.
The third ran toward Sofia's room.
I chased.
He opened the door.
Emma stood frozen.
The man grabbed her.
I shot him.
He dropped.
Emma screamed.
I ran to her.
She grabbed my shirt.
“Daddy!”
I froze.
She had never called me that before.
I held her.
“I've got you.”
Sofia cried.
“Now you understand.”
I looked at her.
“This isn't about me.”
“No.”
May you like
She closed her eyes.
“It's about her.”
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