Chapter 6 - The Missing HeirNolan was alive.
Barely.
Salvatore's men dragged him behind cover while Emilia searched the windows.
Adelaide didn't move.
Her eyes remained fixed on Nolan.
"You knew."
Nolan coughed.
Blood stained his lips.
"I knew enough."
Salvatore grabbed his collar.
"Who is the missing heir?"
Nolan smiled weakly.
"Ask your mother."
Salvatore looked at Adelaide.
"Mom."
She turned away.
"Not now."
He followed her.
"Now."
"You don't understand what you're asking."
"I've spent my entire life not understanding."
Adelaide stopped.
Then she whispered:
"Your brother's name was Matteo."
Salvatore stared.
"I had a brother named Matteo?"
"Yes."
"How old was he?"
"Six."
"When he died?"
"He didn't."
Silence.
"He was taken."
Adelaide's hands trembled.
"By whom?"
"We never knew."
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
"Then why erase him from the family?"
"Because someone threatened to kill you."
Salvatore's voice dropped.
"Who?"
Adelaide looked toward Emilia.
"Ask her."
Emilia turned away.
"I wasn't there."
Adelaide whispered.
"You were."
"I came later."
"You knew."
Emilia's eyes hardened.
"I knew pieces."
Salvatore looked between them.
"Both of you have been lying to me for thirty years."
Neither woman answered.
Suddenly Ella's rabbit began making a sound.
A tiny electronic beep.
Salvatore looked at it.
The camera had activated again.
A recorded message appeared on his phone.
NOT MATTEO.
THINK BLOOD, NOT NAME.
Then another line appeared.
HE IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK.
Salvatore's skin prickled.
He looked around the room.
Every member of his security team was visible.
Every servant.
Every family member.
Except one.
"Nolan."
Nolan was gone.
Salvatore rushed outside.
Two men lay unconscious near the gate.
The front security booth had been emptied.
Nolan's car was already gone.
Salvatore shouted into his phone.
"Track him."
His man answered.
"GPS disabled."
Salvatore stared toward the road.
Then he noticed something.
The rear door of the estate.
Open.
There were muddy footprints.
Small ones.
A child's.
Ella.
He turned.
She was gone.
"Find Ella!"
Panic swept through the estate.
Every room was searched.
Every hallway.
Every bathroom.
Every closet.
Nothing.
Then Adelaide saw something on the floor.
The stuffed rabbit.
She picked it up.
Her face went white.
"She left this intentionally."
Salvatore took it from her.
Inside the rabbit was another recording.
This one was not old.
It had been made minutes ago.
Ella's tiny voice whispered.
"Uncle Salvatore."
He pressed play.
"I didn't go with the bad man."
A pause.
"I went with Mommy."
Salvatore froze.
"Mommy?"
Ella continued.
"Mommy said she was hiding because they would hurt her."
Adelaide dropped into a chair.
Salvatore looked at her.
"Your daughter is alive?"
Nolan's wife had supposedly died three years earlier.
Adelaide nodded.
"Yes."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Ella's voice continued.
"She said Grandma knows the room."
Salvatore's eyes narrowed.
"What room?"
The recording crackled.
Then Ella whispered:
"The room where dead people aren't dead."
The file ended.
Nobody spoke.
Salvatore stared at his mother.
"What does that mean?"
Adelaide covered her face.
Emilia whispered:
"The clinic."
Salvatore turned.
"What clinic?"
"The private clinic where your father spent his final days."
"But it closed twenty years ago."
"No."
Emilia shook her head.
"It still operates."
"For whom?"
She looked at him.
"For people who officially don't exist."
Salvatore grabbed his coat.
"Then we're going."
Adelaide stood.
"Salvatore..."
"No more secrets."
She hesitated.
Then finally nodded.
As they rushed toward the cars, Salvatore noticed something beneath the dining table.
A black envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
He recognized the building immediately.
The same clinic.
But the photograph was recent.
And standing outside the clinic was a man wearing a black suit.
Salvatore's father.
May you like
Luciano Moretti.
Alive.
