Chapter 10 - The Real TargetHands grabbed me.
I fought desperately.
Someone dragged me through the church basement.
I heard Adrian shouting my name.
“Cara!”
I kicked the attacker.
He lost his grip.
I ran.
A door burst open ahead.
Night air hit my face.
A black SUV waited.
I turned back.
Adrian emerged from the church.
His face was streaked with blood.
He saw me.
“Run!”
The SUV accelerated.
I barely escaped.
Adrian caught my wrist.
He pulled me behind a stone pillar as bullets struck the pavement.
Daniel appeared beside us.
“They’ll keep coming.”
“Who?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Everyone who wants Black Ledger.”
“But I don’t have it.”
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“You do.”
I touched the locket.
He nodded.
“The original records were hidden inside something connected to your childhood.”
“What?”
“The thing your mother knew you would never throw away.”
I thought of my old apartment.
My childhood box.
Photographs.
A stuffed rabbit.
A small red music box.
We rushed back.
My apartment had already been searched.
Drawers overturned.
Mattress cut open.
Walls damaged.
But the music box remained on the shelf.
I picked it up.
There was a hidden compartment.
Inside sat a microSD card.
Adrian stared.
“This is it.”
“What’s on it?”
“Everything.”
We inserted it into a secured laptop.
Files appeared.
Names.
Payments.
Judges.
Police officers.
Hospital directors.
Corporate executives.
Then one folder appeared.
CARAD-01
I opened it.
There was one video.
My mother appeared on screen.
I stopped breathing.
“Cara, if you are watching this, I failed to keep you safe.”
Her voice trembled.
“I need you to know something.”
She looked directly into the camera.
“You are not my biological daughter.”
I froze.
Adrian turned toward me.
The video continued.
“You were adopted from the Duca family.”
My entire world shattered.
May you like
Then my mother spoke the sentence that changed everything.
“The man you call Adrian is your brother.”
