Chapter 4 - Matteo picked up the ring.It was warm.
Someone had been holding it moments ago.
Luca entered the archive with two armed men.
“We lost her.”
Matteo looked at him.
“You didn't lose her.”
“What?”
“She was never trying to escape.”
Matteo stared at the ring.
“She wanted me to find this.”
Luca looked at the ring.
“Marco?”
Matteo nodded.
“He was here.”
“Why would he leave his ring?”
“Because he knows I remember something.”
Matteo put the ring inside a plastic evidence bag.
Then he looked at the cassette.
“Find me a player.”
Twenty minutes later, the old tape began to spin.
Static.
Then Matteo's younger voice.
“This is Matteo.”
Sofia spoke after him.
“She's asleep.”
“Where is Marco?”
Silence.
Then Matteo heard himself say something that made his stomach turn.
“If he comes back, kill him.”
The tape stopped.
Matteo stared at the machine.
“No.”
Luca looked at him.
“You said it.”
“I don't remember.”
The tape continued.
Sofia's voice was barely audible.
“You can't do this.”
Matteo's younger voice answered.
“I have no choice.”
Then another voice entered.
An older man.
Matteo's father.
“Good.”
Matteo stepped away from the machine.
His father's voice continued.
“The boy will be blamed.”
Sofia replied.
“And the girls?”
A pause.
“Separate them.”
Matteo's eyes widened.
“What girls?”
The tape crackled.
Then his father's voice said:
“Isabella stays with us.”
Matteo stopped breathing.
Sofia whispered:
“And Elena?”
“Let Sofia have her.”
Then silence.
The tape ended.
Luca stared at Matteo.
“Two children.”
Matteo nodded.
“Separated.”
“Why?”
Matteo looked at the sealed files.
“Because my father wanted one.”
“And the other?”
Matteo didn't answer.
His phone rang.
This time, there was no distorted voice.
Marco spoke.
“You heard the tape.”
Matteo clenched his jaw.
“Where is Elena?”
“Alive.”
“Where?”
“You've been asking the wrong question.”
“Then ask the right one.”
Marco paused.
“Who is Isabella?”
Silence.
Matteo looked around the archive.
Marco continued.
“That's the question you should have asked twenty-seven years ago.”
Matteo felt rage rising.
“You are not going to lecture me.”
“No.”
Marco sounded tired.
“I am going to give you one chance.”
“For what?”
“To save both your daughters.”
The call ended.
Matteo immediately ordered every available vehicle toward the old De Luca estate.
It had been abandoned since his father's death.
If Isabella had been raised under the De Luca name, that was the place to look.
The estate stood at the edge of a forest.
Dust covered the windows.
The front gate hung open.
Matteo entered with four men.
They found no one.
Then Elena's voice echoed through the house.
“Dad?”
Matteo froze.
He ran upstairs.
A bedroom door stood open.
Inside was a young girl's room.
Pink curtains.
An old wooden bed.
A faded ballerina music box.
On the wall were dozens of photographs.
Elena at age three.
Elena at six.
Elena at ten.
But none of the photographs had been taken by Sofia.
Someone had been watching her.
Matteo picked up one photograph.
Elena standing outside school.
Behind her, barely visible in the distance, stood a teenage girl.
Same eyes.
Same mouth.
Same dark hair.
Matteo felt his blood turn cold.
There was a small handwritten note beneath it.
YOU HAVE BEEN WATCHING ONE DAUGHTER FOR TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS.
He turned the photograph over.
Another sentence.
NOW WATCH THE OTHER.
A door slammed downstairs.
Matteo drew his weapon.
His men rushed toward the staircase.
A woman walked into the foyer.
Young.
Twenty-six, perhaps.
Dark hair.
Pale skin.
She wore a black coat.
She looked directly at Matteo.
“Hello, Dad.”
Matteo stopped.
Every sound disappeared.
The woman smiled.
“My name is Isabella.”
Then she raised a gun toward the ceiling.
A single shot.
A hidden speaker activated.
Sofia's voice filled the house.
“Matteo, don't shoot her.”
Matteo's eyes never left Isabella.
Sofia continued.
“Because if you kill Isabella…”
May you like
A pause.
“…Elena dies.”
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