Chapter 8 - TWO GIRLS, ONE TERRIBLE CHOICE
The message contained two photographs.
In the first, Sophie sat beside a window, her teddy bear clutched in both hands.
In the second, another little girl stood in a garden.
She had Sophie's dark hair, Elena's eyes, and the same crescent-shaped birthmark beneath her left ear.
Lily Vescari.
Luca stared at the photographs until the edges blurred.
He had spent his life believing that protecting his family meant controlling every danger around it. Now someone had forced him into a choice no father should ever face.
Rachel paced beside the server rack.
“Your father created this situation. He made people disappear, falsified records, and built a system that treated children like property.”
Luca looked at the second photograph.
“Then we destroy the system.”
“And risk both girls?”
“We're not choosing between them.”
His security chief shook his head.
“The message gives us one hour.”
“Then we need to be faster.”
Rachel enlarged the second photograph.
A stone fountain stood behind Lily. Beyond it was a brick wall with a distinctive clock mounted above a gate.
“I know that place,” she said. “It's the old Vescari estate outside Boston.”
Luca grabbed his coat.
“Get the cars.”
Emma caught his arm.
“You can't go in there without knowing who has the girls.”
Luca looked at her.
“Do you have a better idea?”
Emma swallowed.
“Yes. The teddy bears.”
He stared at her.
“What about them?”
“Both bears were made by the same company. Elena told me once that she had them specially altered. If there was a hidden pocket in the first one, there might be something in the second.”
Luca remembered Rachel's warning.
Someone had removed what Elena hid inside the second bear.
But what if they had overlooked something else?
He examined the surviving bear under a desk lamp.
Beneath the ribbon, he found a tiny metal disk stitched into the lining.
Rachel extracted it carefully.
“It's a storage chip.”
They connected it to an isolated laptop.
A recording began.
Elena appeared on the screen, sitting in a hospital room. Her face was bruised, but her eyes were clear.
“If you're watching this, Salvatore's plan has failed.”
She took a breath.
“Luca, I need you to understand something. The black ledger was never meant to be used as leverage. It contains evidence that could free dozens of children and expose the people who helped your father.”
She looked away briefly.
“I tried to tell you, but I was afraid you would protect him because you couldn't accept what he'd done.”
Luca closed his eyes.
Elena continued.
“Sophie is your daughter. Lily is Isabella's. But the records were switched after the accident. Someone wanted the girls to grow up believing they were someone else.”
Rachel gasped.
“Switched?”
Elena nodded as though she could hear her.
“The girl who was buried in my place was Lily's biological mother. Isabella survived the crash. I survived too. But the people who controlled the hospital needed everyone to believe we were dead.”
Luca stared at the screen.
“Then whose body did I bury?”
Elena's expression broke.
“Your mother.”
The room fell silent.
Luca's mother had supposedly died when he was a child. Salvatore had told him she had succumbed to an illness and that her body had been cremated.
But Elena's recording showed a different truth.
“Your father used her death to protect his operation,” Elena said. “When she discovered what he was doing, he arranged for her to be moved under a false identity. The accident was supposed to kill me and Isabella, but your mother was already in the car.”
Luca's hands shook.
His father had lied about his mother, his brother, and the woman he had buried.
Every foundation of his life had been built on deception.
Elena leaned toward the camera.
“There's one more thing. The person controlling the network is not Vanessa. She's only a frightened accomplice.”
A noise sounded outside the room.
Elena looked toward the door.
“If you want the girls back, find the man who inherited Salvatore's private accounts.”
The recording stopped.
Rachel opened the account records.
A name appeared.
ANTHONY MORETTI.
Luca's younger cousin.
The man who had served as his second-in-command for years.
The man who had organized the security searches after the wedding.
The man who had insisted that Sophie be moved to the supposedly secure apartment.
Luca felt a cold rage spread through him.
Anthony had known every movement of his security team.
He had access to the family accounts, the private medical records, and the estate's surveillance system.
He had also been the last person to see Sophie before she disappeared.
Luca called him.
Anthony answered immediately.
“Luca. Any news about the girls?”
Luca forced his voice to remain steady.
“I'm close.”
“Good. Bring me the ledger, and I'll help you finish this.”
Luca looked at Rachel.
She silently mouthed, Don't.
He ignored her.
“Where should I meet you?”
Anthony gave him an address.
Then he added casually, “Come alone.”
The call ended.
Luca stared at the phone.
“Prepare the team,” he told his security chief. “But nobody follows me until I give the signal.”
Rachel looked alarmed.
“You can't trust him.”
“I don't.”
He took the teddy bear and slipped the storage chip into his pocket.
“That's why I'm going to let him think he has already won.”
An hour later, Luca entered the old Vescari estate.
Anthony waited in the garden beside the fountain.
Behind him stood two armed men.
And beside the gate, wearing a pale blue dress, stood Vanessa Sterling.
She held a small girl's hand.
Lily.
Anthony smiled.
“Welcome home, cousin.”
Then he raised a pistol and pointed it at Luca's chest.
May you like
“Now tell me where you hid the ledger.”
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