Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW HIS MOTHERVittorio spent the next ten minutes asking the same question in different ways.
“Who killed my mother?”
Elena gave him the same answer every time.
“You're asking the wrong question.”
“Then what should I ask?”
“Why did they need her dead?”
Lucy sat on the sofa wrapped in a blanket.
Emma stayed beside her.
The house felt like a fortress surrounded by invisible enemies.
Vittorio hated not knowing.
He had built his entire life around control.
His businesses.
His family.
His security network.
Yet one woman named Bianca had walked into his home and turned his daughter into a prisoner under his own roof.
And now a stranger who looked like his dead mother was telling him that Isabella Bellini had been murdered.
Vittorio placed the old photograph on the table.
“Tell me everything.”
Elena sat opposite him.
“My sister discovered something.”
“What?”
“A financial network.”
Vittorio frowned.
“Money laundering?”
“Worse.”
She leaned closer.
“She discovered people were buying children.”
Lucy looked up.
Elena immediately stopped.
Vittorio saw it.
“You know something about my daughter.”
Elena's eyes softened.
“Lucy was born into something she was never supposed to survive.”
Vittorio stood.
“Explain.”
Elena hesitated.
“She isn't the biological daughter of Bianca's family.”
“I know.”
“No.”
Elena looked at him carefully.
“You don't know what Lucy is.”
Vittorio's blood chilled.
“What does that mean?”
Before Elena could answer, the lights went out.
Lucy screamed.
A gunshot exploded downstairs.
Glass shattered.
Emma pulled Lucy to the floor.
Vittorio reached beneath his jacket and drew his weapon.
Another shot.
Then footsteps.
Fast.
Vittorio moved toward the hallway.
His security system should have activated automatically.
It didn't.
He checked the control panel.
Dead.
“Someone disabled it,” Emma whispered.
“I know.”
A shadow appeared behind the frosted glass door.
Vittorio aimed.
The door burst open.
A man in black rushed in.
Vittorio fired.
The man dropped.
Silence.
Then footsteps echoed from upstairs.
Another attacker.
Vittorio turned.
Too late.
A masked man grabbed Lucy.
“DADDY!”
Vittorio lunged.
Emma threw herself at the attacker.
Lucy slipped free.
The masked man struck Emma across the face and ran.
Vittorio chased him through the kitchen.
The back door slammed.
By the time he reached the garden, the attacker was gone.
Only a black envelope remained on the stone path.
Vittorio picked it up.
Inside was a single photograph.
His mother.
But she wasn't in a hospital.
She was standing outside a warehouse.
Beside her was Marcus Hale.
Vittorio stared.
On the back of the photograph was handwritten text.
HE WAS THERE THE NIGHT SHE DIED.
Vittorio returned inside.
Marcus had been working for him for seven years.
He had trusted him.
He had given him access to the family.
To the mansion.
To Lucy.
Vittorio looked at Emma.
“Where is Bianca?”
“I don't know.”
“Where is Marcus?”
“I don't know.”
Elena quietly said:
“They're together.”
Vittorio turned.
“How do you know?”
“Because this is exactly what they did six years ago.”
His phone rang.
This time the caller ID was blocked.
He answered.
Bianca spoke.
“Hello, darling.”
Vittorio's expression hardened.
“Where is my daughter?”
“You still have her.”
“For now.”
“Give me what you have.”
“What do you want?”
“A folder.”
“What folder?”
Bianca laughed softly.
“The Black Ledger.”
Vittorio stared at Elena.
She had gone pale.
“You know it,” Bianca said.
Vittorio said nothing.
Bianca continued.
“Your mother hid it before she died.”
“I don't have it.”
“You will.”
“And if I don't?”
A pause.
Then Lucy’s voice came through the phone.
“Daddy…”
Vittorio's heart stopped.
Lucy whispered:
“Don't give them the ledger.”
The call ended.
Vittorio stared at the phone.
“They have Lucy.”
Elena rose.
“No.”
Vittorio looked at her.
“What?”
Elena's expression changed.
“If Bianca has Lucy…”
She looked toward the shattered window.
“Then they've made one mistake.”
“What mistake?”
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Elena whispered:
“They took the wrong girl.”
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