Chapter 9 - Isabella's Last Game
Dante ordered every available security unit to the estate.
But the video ended before anyone could determine where it had been recorded.
He called Matteo's room.
No answer.
Elena ran toward the staircase.
"Matteo!"
Two guards tried to stop her.
Dante caught up and grabbed her hand.
"Stay behind me."
They reached the second floor.
The bedroom door was open.
The bed was empty.
Matteo's favorite teddy bear lay on the carpet.
Elena screamed.
"MY SON!"
Dante's face became terrifyingly still.
He examined the room, noticing a small piece of black fabric caught beneath the balcony door.
A guard approached.
"Boss, the west camera went offline eleven minutes ago."
"Find the breach."
Another guard rushed in carrying a tablet.
"We have a vehicle leaving the property. It's registered to one of our employees."
Dante took the tablet.
The driver's name was Thomas Reed.
His personal security coordinator.
The man had worked for the Moretti family for eight years.
"Find him," Dante ordered.
Within twenty minutes, the tracking team located the vehicle outside an abandoned warehouse near the harbor.
Dante and Elena arrived with an armed convoy.
He ordered Elena to remain inside the armored SUV.
She refused.
"That's my child."
Dante looked at her.
"And that's why I need you alive."
They entered through separate doors.
Inside, the warehouse smelled of dust and gasoline.
A single light illuminated the center of the room.
Matteo sat on a wooden chair, his hands tied loosely in front of him.
"Mama!"
Elena ran toward him.
A gunshot shattered the silence.
Dante pulled her behind a concrete pillar.
"Stay down!"
Thomas Reed emerged from behind a stack of shipping containers.
He held a pistol against Matteo's head.
"Put the weapons down, Moretti!"
Dante slowly lowered his gun.
"Let the boy go."
Thomas laughed.
"You've spent your entire life believing you could control everyone. But your sister's death proved otherwise."
Dante's eyes darkened.
"You worked for me."
"I worked for your father before I worked for you."
Elena froze.
Thomas continued.
"Your father ordered Sofia's baby removed from the hospital. He didn't want another heir complicating the family succession."
Dante's face turned pale.
"My father died fifteen years ago."
"Yes. And he left behind instructions."
Thomas revealed that Sofia had discovered a hidden financial network connecting several powerful families. Her baby was taken because the child was the only legal heir capable of exposing the theft of the Moretti inheritance.
Thomas had been protecting that secret ever since.
"Where is Isabella?" Dante demanded.
Thomas smiled.
"She's waiting for the real family reunion."
A metallic door opened behind them.
Isabella appeared, wearing a black coat and carrying a small medical case.
She looked older, thinner, but her eyes still burned with hatred.
"Hello, Dante."
Dante's voice was ice.
"You should have stayed in prison."
Isabella laughed.
"Prison? Darling, I was released six months ago. Your little friends in the system were very generous."
She looked at Elena.
"And you. Still playing the devoted wife?"
Elena stepped forward.
"Where is the other child?"
Isabella's smile vanished.
For the first time, she looked surprised.
Elena had noticed the second name written in the hospital file.
A second baby had been delivered that night.
A girl.
Isabella slowly lifted her chin.
"Your husband has spent fifteen years searching for one missing child."
She opened the medical case.
"But he never knew there were two."
Then she pulled out a photograph.
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It showed a young woman with dark curls.
And she looked exactly like Sofia Moretti.
