Chapter 5 - The underground room went dark.Eleanor heard the lock click again.
Then footsteps.
Someone was outside.
Luca pulled a gun.
“Stay behind me.”
Charles looked strangely calm.
Eleanor noticed.
“Why aren't you surprised?”
Charles didn't answer.
She understood immediately.
“You knew about this room.”
“Yes.”
“You knew someone might lock us inside.”
“Yes.”
“Then you knew tonight was going to happen.”
Charles looked at her.
“I knew someone would come for you.”
Luca's eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
Charles glanced at Eleanor.
“Your mother.”
Eleanor froze.
“My mother is dead.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“She isn't.”
Richard's warning returned to her.
The video.
Her mother's face.
Alive six years ago.
Eleanor looked at the journal.
“She staged the accident.”
Charles nodded.
“To disappear.”
“Why?”
“To escape the people hunting her.”
“Then why leave me here?”
Charles looked away.
“Because you were the only person they couldn't kill without exposing themselves.”
Eleanor stared.
“So she used me as bait?”
“No.”
Charles's voice cracked.
“She believed you were safer with me.”
Eleanor laughed bitterly.
“You treated me like garbage.”
“I treated you like someone I had to protect without letting anyone know why.”
“You erased me.”
“I made people believe you didn't matter.”
Eleanor's eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“Because powerful people don't watch what they consider worthless.”
The door suddenly opened.
A masked man entered.
Luca fired.
The man dropped.
Two more appeared behind him.
Luca pushed Eleanor down.
Charles moved to a hidden switch.
The lights came on.
The attackers stopped.
Because the room was now surrounded by armed men.
Luca's security team had reached the tunnel.
Within seconds, the attackers were disarmed.
One tried to bite a capsule.
Luca stopped him.
“Who sent you?”
The man smiled.
“You don't understand.”
“Try me.”
“You're already too late.”
He laughed.
“She's here.”
Eleanor's blood froze.
“Who?”
The man looked directly at her.
“Your mother.”
Then he bit down.
Luca grabbed him, but it was too late.
The man's body went limp.
Samuel appeared from behind the security team.
“We need to leave.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“Not until I know where she is.”
Samuel handed her a phone.
One message was displayed.
COME ALONE.
Beneath it was an address.
An abandoned train station.
Eleanor stared.
Luca reached for the phone.
She pulled it back.
“No.”
“It's a trap.”
“Probably.”
“You're not going.”
“I am.”
Luca looked at Charles.
“Tell her.”
Charles shook his head.
“She'll go.”
Luca stared.
“You know what will happen?”
“Yes.”
“And you're letting her?”
Charles's eyes hardened.
“Because she deserves to know.”
Luca looked back at Eleanor.
“I'll come with you.”
“No.”
“Not a request.”
Eleanor met his gaze.
“You don't trust me.”
“I don't trust the people waiting for you.”
She paused.
Then nodded.
They drove to the station.
The city disappeared behind them.
Rain covered the windows.
The old station had been abandoned for fifteen years.
No lights.
No guards.
No cars.
Eleanor stepped onto the platform.
“Hello?”
Her voice echoed.
Then a woman's voice answered.
“Eleanor.”
Eleanor turned.
Her mother stood beneath the broken station clock.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
Eleanor couldn't move.
Her mother began crying.
“I wanted to come home.”
Eleanor whispered:
“Then why didn't you?”
Her mother stepped closer.
“Because Charles wasn't the man I was afraid of.”
Eleanor frowned.
“Then who?”
Her mother looked past her.
Straight at Luca.
Luca's expression changed.
Her mother whispered:
“Your father.”
Luca went completely still.
Eleanor stared at him.
“What did you say?”
Her mother didn't answer.
Instead, she said something that made the entire world collapse around Eleanor.
“Adrian Vale wasn't your biological father.”
Eleanor's heart stopped.
Her mother looked at Luca.
“He was his brother.”
Luca's face drained of color.
His mother had never spoken about an older brother.
May you like
Because, according to every record he had ever seen,
Adrian Vale had never existed.
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