Chapter 6 - The Girl Who Remembered
The search lasted six hours.
Every Moretti security team was deployed.
Traffic cameras were hacked.
Private investigators searched hospitals.
Police contacts were activated.
But Isabella had vanished.
Clara refused to sit down.
“She wouldn't go willingly.”
Luca stood beside her.
“I know.”
“She trusted me.”
“She trusts you more than anyone.”
Clara looked at him.
“Then whoever took her knew exactly what they were doing.”
At sunrise, Luca received a video.
Isabella sat in a dark room.
Her stuffed rabbit was beside her.
She looked frightened but unharmed.
A man's voice came from behind the camera.
“Tell your father what happened.”
Isabella shook her head.
The man slapped the table.
“Tell him.”
The video ended.
Luca's face became terrifyingly calm.
“Find the location.”
His technology team traced the file.
An abandoned church outside the city.
Luca drove there himself.
Clara followed.
Marco insisted on coming despite his injury.
Inside the church, they found Isabella alone.
She was sitting beneath the altar.
Clara ran to her.
“Isabella!”
The girl threw herself into her arms.
Luca followed.
“Where is he?”
Isabella pointed toward the basement.
“He said he was going to kill Daddy.”
Luca handed Isabella to Marco.
“Stay with her.”
He and Clara descended.
At the bottom was a small room.
No one.
But there was a recording device.
Luca picked it up.
A voice began playing.
Elena's voice.
“Luca, if you're hearing this, I may already be dead.”
Clara covered her mouth.
Luca froze.
“My husband, I need you to understand something. The man you fear is not the man who killed me.”
Luca's eyes widened.
“He was trying to protect me.”
Marco whispered,
“She knew.”
The recording continued.
“The person who killed me is someone you trust because you cannot imagine a life without him.”
Luca closed his eyes.
Then Elena said the name.
“Victor.”
Silence.
Marco looked at Luca.
“I told you.”
But the recording wasn't finished.
“However, Victor did not act alone.”
A second voice appeared.
Male.
Older.
Luca recognized it.
His father.
But his father had been dead for twelve years.
Clara stared at him.
“That's impossible.”
Luca shook his head.
“It is.”
The recording continued.
“You always believed your father died peacefully. He didn't. He built the first version of the network Victor later inherited.”
Luca looked sick.
“Elena knew?”
“Yes,” Marco said quietly.
The recording continued.
“I discovered that Victor was planning to take control of everything. But the real danger is his partner.”
A pause.
Then Elena whispered:
“Your mother.”
Luca stepped backward.
“No.”
Marco looked at him.
“Luca…”
“My mother died.”
“Two years ago.”
Luca stared at the recorder.
The recording continued.
“She has been protecting Victor for years.”
Clara whispered,
“Then who is the woman in the photograph?”
Luca remembered.
The photograph from the hotel.
His mother standing beside Victor.
The truth suddenly became clear.
His mother had not been afraid of Victor.
She had been afraid of someone else.
Someone who had been controlling both of them.
A shadow moved behind Clara.
She turned.
No one.
Then Isabella spoke.
“Mommy said his name once.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What name?” Luca asked.
Isabella squeezed Clara's hand.
“Adrian.”
Luca froze.
Adrian was his mother's attorney.
A harmless old man.
A family friend.
A man who had handled the Moretti estate for decades.
And a man who had been in the house the night Elena died.
Luca whispered,
“Adrian Bell.”
Marco's expression changed.
“He disappeared the day after Elena's funeral.”
Clara looked at Luca.
“Then he's alive.”
May you like
Luca nodded.
“And he's been hiding in plain sight.”
