Chapter 7 - THE DEAD WOMAN'S VOICE
Lorenzo did not lower his weapon.
"Prove it."
Daniel reached into his jacket slowly and removed a phone.
Adrian took a step forward.
"Don't do this."
Lorenzo turned his gun toward him.
"Stay where you are."
Daniel unlocked the phone and played a recording.
A woman's voice filled the warehouse.
"Lorenzo must never know what happened that night. If he finds out, he'll destroy everything."
Lorenzo recognized the voice immediately.
Isabella.
The recording continued.
"Take Sophia to the Chatsworth. Leave her somewhere she'll be found, but not by the police. Someone will come for her."
The recording ended.
Lorenzo stared at the phone.
"That's not enough," he said, though his voice had lost its certainty. "Anyone could have edited that."
Daniel nodded.
"That's what I expected you to say."
He opened another file.
This time, the recording contained a date and a location.
A private medical clinic in Manhattan.
The voice was clearer.
"Tell him the truth if I don't return. Tell him I never stopped loving him."
Lorenzo lowered the weapon slightly.
"What truth?"
Daniel looked toward Adrian.
"Ask your brother."
Lorenzo turned.
Adrian's face had gone pale.
"Explain."
Adrian swallowed.
"Isabella discovered something about the company. Something our father did years ago."
"What?"
"She found financial records connecting our family to a series of illegal shipments. She planned to give them to the authorities."
Lorenzo's expression darkened.
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"She tried."
Adrian's voice cracked.
"You wouldn't listen. You thought she was threatening the family."
Lorenzo remembered the argument.
Isabella had confronted him in his office three weeks before the accident. She had accused him of protecting people who had harmed innocent families. He had told her that she didn't understand the world he lived in.
She had walked out.
He had never apologized.
"Did you help her?" Lorenzo asked.
Adrian looked down.
"I tried."
"Did you help her fake her death?"
"No."
Daniel laughed bitterly.
"That's where you're wrong."
He stepped closer.
"Isabella survived the crash. She was taken to a private clinic under another name. I helped arrange it."
Lorenzo's face drained of color.
"Why?"
"Because she believed someone was trying to kill her. She thought disappearing was the only way to keep Sophia safe."
"Then why abandon Sophia in a dumpster?"
Daniel's expression changed.
"I never abandoned her. I was supposed to deliver her to someone who would take her somewhere safe. The plan changed."
"Who changed it?"
Daniel looked at Adrian.
Adrian shook his head violently.
"Not me."
Lorenzo grabbed Daniel by the collar.
"Who?"
Daniel struggled to speak.
"Vivian."
The name hung in the air.
"She called me after I left the car. She said the meeting was canceled. She told me to leave the baby in the dumpster because someone would find her."
Lorenzo's grip tightened.
"Why would she do that?"
"Because she wanted you desperate. Distracted. Angry enough to make mistakes."
Adrian stepped forward.
"She's been moving money through the company for years. I discovered it three months ago."
Lorenzo looked at his brother.
"You knew?"
"I suspected. I didn't have proof."
"And you said nothing?"
"I was trying to find out how far it went."
Lorenzo's voice became cold.
"By helping the man who took my daughter?"
Adrian's eyes filled with shame.
"I was trying to find Isabella."
Silence followed.
Then Daniel spoke again.
"There's something else."
He handed Lorenzo a folded document.
It was a medical report from the clinic where Isabella had supposedly died.
The name on the report was different.
The date was six months after her alleged death.
And the final line contained a phrase that made Lorenzo's hands tremble.
Patient: Isabella Moretti. Pregnancy confirmed.
Lorenzo stared at the page.
"She's pregnant?"
Daniel nodded.
"She was when I last saw her."
Lorenzo's mind raced.
Sophia had been born before Isabella's death. The report was dated after it.
If the document was genuine, Isabella had survived the crash.
But the pregnancy meant something else.
"How far along was she?"
Daniel hesitated.
"Almost three months."
Lorenzo looked at Adrian.
"Did you know?"
Adrian shook his head.
"No."
Lorenzo turned back to Daniel.
"Where is she now?"
Daniel's expression changed.
"I don't know."
"You're lying."
"I'm not. I haven't seen her in months."
"Then why did you say she called you yesterday?"
Daniel looked at the phone.
"Because she did."
He played the final recording.
Isabella's voice was faint, strained, and unmistakably frightened.
"If anything happens to me, find Elena Vance. She doesn't know who she is yet. But she's the only person I trust to protect my children."
Lorenzo went completely still.
Elena.
His daughter had been found by a woman Isabella somehow knew.
And Isabella had called her children plural.
Before Lorenzo could ask another question, gunshots erupted outside.
Victor shouted for everyone to get down.
The warehouse windows shattered.
Daniel fell to the floor.
Adrian dragged Lorenzo behind a concrete pillar as bullets tore through the room.
When the shooting stopped, Daniel was gone.
Only his phone remained.
And on the screen was a new message from an unknown number.
May you like
STOP LOOKING FOR ISABELLA. YOUR DAUGHTER IS NOT THE ONLY CHILD IN DANGER.
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