Chapter 11 - The Girl They Needed"ELLA!"
Salvatore lunged.
A man dragged the child through a side door.
Matteo fired.
The bullet struck the wall.
The door slammed shut.
Salvatore ran after them.
The corridor split into three directions.
He stopped.
Then heard Ella crying.
"Uncle!"
He followed the sound.
The hallway ended at a steel elevator.
The doors closed just as he reached them.
He slammed the call button.
Nothing.
Behind him, Adelaide appeared.
"Salvatore."
He turned.
She was holding the memory card.
"Helena gave this to me."
"Where is it?"
"She dropped it."
Salvatore looked around.
Matteo pointed toward Hattie's hand.
She was holding it.
Hattie stared at the card.
"You need to hear this."
She plugged it into a computer.
A video appeared.
Dark room.
Twenty-two years earlier.
Luciano stood in front of a camera.
Beside him was the grandmother.
And a newborn baby.
Salvatore moved closer.
The baby's face was covered.
Luciano spoke.
"If you're watching this, then the family has failed."
The grandmother looked at him.
"You won't stop me."
Luciano continued.
"Matteo is not the heir."
The grandmother frowned.
"He is the first key."
"Then Salvatore is the second."
"Wrong."
Luciano shook his head.
"The true heir will be born from both branches."
Salvatore's eyes widened.
The video showed a young woman.
Ella's mother.
Pregnant.
Adelaide stepped closer.
"No."
Luciano said:
"When the child is born, erase her identity."
The grandmother asked:
"And if someone finds her?"
"Protect her."
The recording ended.
Salvatore stared.
"So Ella has been hidden since birth."
Hattie nodded.
"Yes."
"Who knew?"
"Your father."
"My mother?"
"Yes."
"Emilia?"
"Yes."
He looked at Nolan's missing image.
"And Nolan?"
Hattie lowered her eyes.
"He knew later."
"Who told him?"
Nobody answered.
Then the elevator doors opened.
Ella walked out.
Alone.
Salvatore rushed to her.
She buried herself against his chest.
"Uncle."
"Are you hurt?"
She shook her head.
He looked down the corridor.
"Who brought you back?"
Ella pointed.
A man stood behind her.
Old.
Tall.
Wearing a gray suit.
Salvatore recognized him.
The family's former lawyer.
Mr. Bell.
But Bell had died fifteen years earlier.
Salvatore raised his weapon.
The old man smiled.
"My name is not Bell."
He removed a mask.
Underneath was another face.
One Salvatore had seen in old photographs.
His father's closest friend.
The man officially executed for betraying the family.
The man who had supposedly died the same night as Luciano.
"I owe your father a debt."
He looked toward Adelaide.
"And your mother owes me the truth."
Adelaide shook her head.
"No."
The man smiled.
"You've protected this secret long enough."
He pulled out a small envelope.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Ella Moretti.
Mother: Isabella Moretti.
Father: Nolan Moretti.
But beneath it was handwritten text.
Biological father: Salvatore Moretti.
The room disappeared.
Salvatore stared.
"What?"
Adelaide began to cry.
Hattie looked at the certificate.
Matteo stepped backward.
Salvatore looked at Ella.
The child looked up at him innocently.
He could barely breathe.
"My daughter?"
Adelaide nodded.
"Yes."
Salvatore's world shattered.
Ella was not his niece.
She was his daughter.
Nolan had kidnapped a child he believed belonged to him.
The woman in the third door was not Ella's mother.
She was not his sister.
She was the woman who had carried Salvatore's child.
May you like
And somewhere in the darkness, Nolan now had the one thing Salvatore had never known existed.
His daughter.
