Chapter 9 - The Daughter's Choice
Antonio sat silently in the back of Lorenzo's car.
For twenty years, he had told himself that keeping Elena alive was enough. He had hidden her identity, changed their names, and moved whenever danger approached. He had never told her the whole story of her birth.
Now Bellini had taken Giovanni and was using Elena to force Antonio out of hiding.
Hannah sat opposite him.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Antonio met her eyes.
“Because the truth would have made you a target.”
“You keep saying that as if it makes everything acceptable.”
“It doesn't.”
“Then why did you do it?”
He took a long breath.
“Because I was afraid. I had already failed your sister once. I thought if I kept her hidden, I could make sure no one ever hurt her again.”
Hannah looked down.
“While I spent six years grieving.”
Antonio had no answer.
Lorenzo interrupted.
“We need to find Elena before Bellini moves her again.”
He spread the recovered records across the seat.
One file contained a series of recent payments to a private rehabilitation center in upstate New York. The center had been acquired by a company linked to Bellini less than a year earlier.
A photograph showed a young woman entering the building.
Elena.
The same woman from the lake photograph.
Lorenzo contacted a trusted former investigator and asked him to verify the location. Within an hour, they had the address and a rough layout of the property.
They arrived after sunset.
The center appeared abandoned from the road, but lights glowed behind several windows. Two vehicles sat near the rear entrance.
Lorenzo's men secured the perimeter while he, Hannah, and Antonio approached the building.
Inside, the corridor smelled of disinfectant.
A nurse stood at the reception desk.
When she saw Antonio, she dropped her clipboard.
“You shouldn't be here.”
“Where is Elena?”
The nurse shook her head.
“They moved her.”
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“Where?”
She looked toward Hannah.
“Your sister asked me to give you something if you ever came.”
The nurse reached beneath the desk and produced a small envelope.
Inside was a paper star.
Hannah recognized the handwriting immediately.
If you found this, I'm sorry. I didn't know how to come home.
Beneath the message was an address in Manhattan.
Lorenzo recognized it as the location of a private apartment building owned by one of Bellini's shell companies.
They left immediately.
The apartment was on the top floor.
Lorenzo's men entered first and cleared the rooms. No one was there, but a phone lay on the kitchen counter beside a half-finished cup of tea.
Hannah picked it up.
The screen lit.
A new message appeared.
I'M IN THE ROOM WHERE WE FIRST MET.
She looked at Antonio.
“Where did you first meet Elena?”
“At the old Sterling estate.”
“Before that.”
Antonio closed his eyes.
Then he remembered.
A children's hospital.
The room where he had found her hiding beneath a bed after the fire.
“St. Agnes,” he whispered.
They returned to the abandoned hospital.
This time, the old children's wing was lit.
A figure stood inside Room Seventeen.
Hannah stopped at the doorway.
The young woman turned.
For a moment, neither sister moved.
Elena looked older than the child in Hannah's memories. Her hair fell to her shoulders, and a thin scar crossed her left eyebrow.
But her eyes were the same.
“Hannah?”
Hannah's face crumpled.
“Elena.”
They ran toward each other.
Hannah wrapped her arms around her sister, holding her so tightly that Elena began to cry.
“I thought you were dead,” Hannah whispered.
“I know.”
“I looked everywhere.”
“I know.”
“Why didn't you come home?”
Elena pulled back.
“Because I thought they'd hurt you.”
Hannah touched her face.
“Who?”
“Vanessa. Bellini. Everyone who knew what happened that night.”
Antonio stood several feet away, unable to approach.
Elena looked at him.
“Dad.”
The word seemed to break something inside him.
He stepped forward slowly.
“I should have told you everything.”
“You should have.”
“I was afraid.”
“So was I.”
He lowered his head.
Elena reached for his hand.
“I don't know how to forgive you yet.”
“You don't have to do it tonight.”
For a moment, the three of them stood together in the room where so many lies had begun.
Then Elena's expression changed.
“Where's Giovanni?”
Lorenzo stepped forward.
“Bellini took him.”
Elena looked at him sharply.
“Then we don't have much time.”
She opened a small bag and removed a flash drive.
“Before they moved me, I copied the last set of records from Bellini's office. It contains the names of everyone involved, including the people who paid to keep the network running.”
Lorenzo took the drive.
“Why didn't you give it to the authorities?”
“Because Bellini told me that if I did, he'd kill my father.”
Antonio stared at her.
“You knew?”
Elena nodded.
“He sent me photographs of you every year. He wanted me to believe that if I ever tried to leave, you'd die.”
Hannah squeezed her sister's hand.
“That's over now.”
Elena looked at her.
“I hope so.”
Lorenzo's phone vibrated.
A video appeared on the screen.
Giovanni sat tied to a chair in a dark room. His face was bruised, but he was conscious.
Bellini stepped into view.
“Midnight,” he said. “Bring the ledger and the flash drive to the old Moretti warehouse. No police. No guards.”
He leaned toward the camera.
“And bring the two sisters.”
The video ended.
Lorenzo looked at the three women and men standing in the abandoned hospital room.
He had spent his life believing the Moretti name could protect everyone under its roof.
Now he understood that the name itself had become a weapon.
“We're going,” he said.
Hannah shook her head.
“We're going to end this.”
She took Elena's hand.
For the first time in six years, neither sister was alone.
And for the first time in twenty years, Antonio was ready to face the man who had destroyed their family.
May you like
But Bellini had one final secret waiting at the warehouse.
A secret that would change everything Lorenzo believed about his father's stroke.
