Chapter 5 - Matteo lowered his gun.Isabella watched him carefully.
“So this is what he looks like.”
Matteo studied her face.
There was something disturbingly familiar about her.
Not just the eyes.
The expression.
The way she stood.
The way her fingers rested against the pistol.
It was as if he were looking at a version of himself built from twenty-seven years of anger.
“Where is Elena?”
Isabella smiled faintly.
“You didn't ask if I'm really your daughter.”
“I already know.”
“Do you?”
She raised her gun.
“DNA can be forged.”
Matteo's expression hardened.
“My DNA can't.”
“Everything can be forged.”
A click sounded behind him.
Matteo's men froze.
Red laser dots appeared across their chests.
Snipers.
Multiple.
Isabella walked toward him.
“My sister is alive.”
“How do you know?”
“She told me.”
“Where is she?”
“Closer than you think.”
Matteo clenched his jaw.
“Everybody keeps saying that.”
“Because nobody wants you to understand yet.”
“Understand what?”
Isabella's expression changed.
Fear.
Real fear.
“She wasn't kidnapped.”
Matteo stared.
“What?”
“She came with them.”
“Why?”
“Because she finally remembered.”
Matteo's heart sank.
“Remembered what?”
Isabella looked at him.
“That she was there the night Marco disappeared.”
The house went silent.
Matteo shook his head.
“Elena was a newborn.”
“Exactly.”
“You're saying a baby remembers?”
“No.”
Isabella stepped closer.
“I'm saying someone implanted the memory later.”
Matteo stared.
Isabella continued.
“She has spent years having nightmares she thought were dreams.”
Matteo remembered Elena telling him once that she often dreamed of a burning car.
He had dismissed it as anxiety.
He should have known.
“What happened that night?”
Isabella's voice became quieter.
“Marco didn't betray you.”
Matteo's jaw tightened.
“Then who did?”
Isabella looked toward the dark hallway.
“Your father.”
Matteo closed his eyes.
The old man had controlled everything.
Business.
Police.
Judges.
Politicians.
Family.
Even memory.
But why?
“What did he want?”
Isabella answered immediately.
“Both of us.”
“Why?”
“Because one of us was supposed to inherit your empire.”
Matteo looked confused.
“My father wanted no daughter.”
“He didn't want a daughter.”
Isabella smiled bitterly.
“He wanted a weapon.”
Before Matteo could ask anything else, an explosion rocked the estate.
Glass shattered.
Fire erupted downstairs.
Isabella grabbed Matteo's arm.
“Move!”
They ran through the smoke.
Matteo's men returned fire toward the windows.
Someone outside shouted.
“Take Isabella alive!”
Matteo heard it.
Not kill her.
Take her alive.
He realized something.
“She is valuable.”
Isabella looked at him.
“Now you're thinking.”
They escaped through a hidden tunnel beneath the wine cellar.
At the end of the passage was an underground garage.
A black sedan waited.
Inside was Sofia.
Elena sat beside her.
Matteo stopped.
“Elena.”
She looked at him.
Tears filled her eyes.
“Dad.”
He moved toward her.
Sofia blocked him.
“You can't touch her.”
“Move.”
“She doesn't know whether you're safe.”
“I am her father.”
Sofia's voice broke.
“That's the problem.”
Elena looked at Matteo.
“I remember the fire.”
Matteo went still.
“What fire?”
“The car.”
She pressed her temples.
“I was there.”
“You were a baby.”
“I know.”
“I remember someone carrying me.”
“Who?”
Elena looked toward Marco.
He stood in the darkness behind Sofia.
“Your father.”
Matteo stared.
“Marco?”
Elena nodded.
“He carried me away from the burning car.”
Matteo looked at Marco.
“You saved her.”
Marco didn't answer.
Sofia whispered.
“You were supposed to die that night.”
Matteo's breathing slowed.
“Who?”
She looked at him.
“You.”
Matteo stared.
“You were the one inside the car.”
Silence.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Then whose body did I bury?”
Sofia shook her head.
“A stranger.”
Matteo felt the entire foundation of his life disappear.
The man buried as Marco.
The explosion.
His memory.
His father's voice.
The second child.
Everything was connected.
Then Marco finally spoke.
“Matteo.”
His voice was quiet.
“Your father staged your death.”
Matteo looked at him.
“Why?”
Marco looked toward Elena and Isabella.
“Because you discovered what he was doing to your daughters.”
“What was he doing?”
Marco's answer was almost a whisper.
“He was preparing one daughter to become the next head of the De Luca empire…”
He looked at Isabella.
“…and raising the other to destroy it.”
Elena stared at her sister.
Isabella lowered her gun.
Then Matteo heard footsteps behind them.
A familiar voice entered the tunnel.
“Neither plan worked.”
Matteo turned.
An old man stood at the tunnel entrance.
His father.
May you like
Dead for twelve years.
Smiling.
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