Chapter 12 - THE COFFINVittorio stared at the coffin.

The metal lid was scratched.

Old.

But there was fresh blood on the handle.

Someone had opened it recently.

He looked at Elena.

“What is inside?”

She shook her head.

“I've never seen it.”

Vittorio opened the lid.

Inside lay hundreds of documents.

Photos.

Passport copies.

Bank records.

And one red folder.

He opened it.

The first page contained his father's signature.

The second contained Isabella's.

The third contained Vittorio's.

He felt sick.

Then he saw the date.

The documents had been created twelve years before Lucy was born.

The final page was a list of children.

Names.

Ages.

Locations.

Status.

Some were marked:

TRANSFERRED.

Some:

DEAD.

Some:

RECOVERED.

Then one name appeared.

LUCY CLARK.

Vittorio froze.

Emma stepped closer.

“That's my daughter.”

Beside her name was a code.

PROTECTED BY ISABELLA.

Another line appeared.

CURRENT LOCATION: UNKNOWN.

Emma began crying.

“My daughter…”

Vittorio turned.

“This ledger proves Isabella saved her.”

Elena nodded.

Then Vittorio found another document.

It was a birth certificate.

For a girl named Isabella Bellini.

The mother was listed as Isabella Bellini.

The father was…

Blank.

Beneath it was a handwritten note.

HER FATHER IS VITTORIO.

His hands trembled.

Impossible.

He had fathered his own daughter.

Yet he had never known.

His father had hidden her.

His mother had protected her.

Bianca had planted Lucy.

And Marcus had hunted them all.

Vittorio looked toward Isabella.

“How?”

She stared at the document.

“Grandma told me you were my father.”

“But the timing…”

“Your father manipulated the records.”

Vittorio remembered one night from twelve years ago.

A woman.

A hospital.

A baby.

A signature.

He had forgotten.

Someone had drugged him.

And his father had erased the evidence.

Suddenly a sound came from the vault entrance.

Applause.

Slow.

Marcus appeared.

He was holding a gun.

“Beautiful.”

Vittorio turned.

“How did you get in?”

Marcus smiled.

“Because your father was never the mastermind.”

Vittorio looked toward the stairs.

His father was standing there.

Marcus looked at him.

“Wasn't that right?”

His father said nothing.

Marcus laughed.

“You're both idiots.”

Vittorio raised his weapon.

Marcus continued.

“The Black Ledger isn't the real prize.”

“What is?”

Marcus smiled.

“You.”

Vittorio frowned.

“Me?”

“Yes.”

Marcus tossed a folder onto the floor.

Inside was a medical report.

Vittorio read it.

Then his hands began shaking.

PATIENT: VITTORIO BELLINI

DIAGNOSIS: POST-TRAUMATIC MEMORY SUPPRESSION

ESTIMATED RECOVERY: IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT STIMULANT

He looked up.

“You've been controlling my memory.”

Marcus nodded.

“For twelve years.”

Vittorio felt dizzy.

“How?”

“Medication.”

“Every time?”

“Every day.”

He looked at the medication bottles in his office.

The supplements Bianca had encouraged him to take.

The pills his doctor had prescribed.

All of them.

“You drugged me.”

Marcus smiled.

“Bianca helped.”

Vittorio turned toward Bianca.

She looked devastated.

“I didn't know.”

Marcus laughed.

“She knew enough.”

Then a second figure appeared behind Marcus.

A woman.

Vittorio recognized her.

She had been missing for years.

His father's former secretary.

She smiled.

And said:

“Hello, Vittorio.”

He whispered her name.

“Catherine…”

She raised a gun.

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“You finally remembered me.”

Then she shot Elena.