Chapter 6 - Nobody moved.The phone kept ringing.
Mom.
Mom.
Mom.
Adrian stared at it as if it were a bomb.
Luca whispered, “Don't answer.”
Adrian picked it up.
“Why?”
“Because if your mother is dead, someone wants you to believe she isn't.”
Adrian pressed accept.
“Hello?”
Static.
Then breathing.
A woman whispered:
“Little lion.”
Adrian's face collapsed.
He sat down.
“Mom?”
Silence.
Then Eleanor said:
“You shouldn't have found the drive.”
I stepped closer.
Adrian's voice trembled.
“You're alive.”
“I was.”
The line went quiet.
“What does that mean?”
“I don't have much time.”
Adrian looked at Luca.
“Where are you?”
“I can't tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because someone is listening.”
The apartment lights flickered.
Luca immediately checked the room.
Adrian asked:
“Who?”
Eleanor whispered.
“The man who raised you.”
Adrian froze.
“My father?”
“No.”
She took a breath.
“Not Vittorio.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
“Then who?”
A metallic sound came through the phone.
Eleanor whispered:
“Peter.”
The line went dead.
Adrian looked at me.
“She's alive.”
I nodded.
“And Peter knows where she is.”
Luca opened a drawer and pulled out old Moretti maps.
“There's one place Peter used when he wanted people hidden.”
“Where?”
“Baton Rouge.”
“Too obvious.”
“Then what?”
Luca looked toward the river.
“An island.”
Three hours later, we crossed by boat.
The island was abandoned.
An old warehouse stood at the center.
Inside, we found dozens of shipping containers.
One contained medical equipment.
Another contained weapons.
The third contained furniture.
The fourth contained old family photographs.
Then we found a room behind a false wall.
There was a bed.
A camera.
Food.
Medicine.
And a wall covered in dates.
I stared.
“Someone lived here.”
Adrian touched the bed.
“She was here.”
A note lay beneath the pillow.
His name was written on it.
ADRIAN.
He opened it.
Three words.
Forgive your brother.
Adrian looked at me.
“What brother?”
Then a gunshot came from behind us.
Luca turned.
A bullet struck the wall.
We dropped.
A figure ran between the containers.
Adrian chased him.
I followed.
The figure disappeared into darkness.
Then a voice came from behind me.
“Clara.”
I turned.
A man stood thirty feet away.
Late thirties.
Dark hair.
Same eyes as Adrian.
He held no weapon.
“Alexander?”
He smiled faintly.
“You should not have come here.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Are you my brother?”
Alexander looked at him.
For the first time, emotion broke across his face.
“I'm afraid I am.”
Adrian lowered his gun.
“Where is our mother?”
Alexander didn't answer.
“Where is Eleanor?”
“She never wanted you to find her.”
“Why?”
Alexander's eyes moved toward me.
“Because she knew what you would become.”
Adrian's face hardened.
“What does that mean?”
Alexander stepped closer.
“She knew you'd become exactly what our father created.”
Then every light in the warehouse exploded.
Darkness swallowed us.
A voice came from the speakers.
“Welcome home, little lion.”
Adrian looked upward.
The voice wasn't Eleanor.
It was Vittorio Moretti.
May you like
His dead father.
And he was laughing.
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