Chapter 11 - THE SON NO ONE KNEW ABOUTAlejandro thought he had already reached the edge of the impossible.
He hadn't.
The address on Stefano's drive led to a private boarding school outside Boston.
Records showed a boy named Daniel Carter.
Age six.
Father unknown.
Mother deceased.
Alejandro stared at the photograph.
The boy had his eyes.
His jaw.
His expression.
It was unmistakable.
“How?”
Victor answered carefully.
“Someone hid him.”
Alejandro walked through the school gates.
The principal looked terrified when he saw him.
“I need to see Daniel.”
“Mr. Moretti…”
“You know who I am.”
“Yes.”
“Then you know why I'm here.”
The principal hesitated.
“He was removed last night.”
Alejandro went still.
“By whom?”
“A woman.”
“Name?”
“Valentina Moretti.”
Alejandro's heart dropped.
He called her.
No answer.
He called again.
Nothing.
Then his phone received a message.
A photograph.
Daniel sitting in a car.
Emma in another.
Both children alive.
Under the photo:
ONE CHILD HOLDS THE KEY. THE OTHER HOLDS THE DOOR.
Alejandro stared.
A second message appeared.
CHOOSE WHICH ONE YOU SAVE.
He closed his eyes.
This was the choice the enemy wanted.
Fear or calculation.
Power or blood.
Alejandro called Victor.
“Find Daniel.”
“We're trying.”
“Don't.”
Victor paused.
“What?”
“Find the person who sent the message.”
Victor understood.
“You think they want us divided.”
“They already have been.”
Alejandro looked at the photograph.
There was something strange in Daniel's hand.
A small red toy car.
Emma had drawn the same car in one of her notebooks.
Alejandro realized something.
The children had met before.
Maybe they knew each other.
Maybe they had been prepared for this.
He remembered Emma saying:
“He talks to me at night.”
Maybe Daniel had been hearing someone too.
Alejandro returned to the estate.
Emma was sitting in the kitchen.
He knelt beside her.
“Emma.”
She looked up.
“Where is Daniel?”
Emma frowned.
“Who?”
“Daniel.”
She looked away.
“Mommy said not to tell.”
“Please.”
Emma hesitated.
Then she whispered:
“He lives inside the house.”
Alejandro felt the hair rise on his arms.
“What house?”
“Our house.”
She pointed upward.
“To the room behind the wall.”
Alejandro immediately ran upstairs.
The hidden passage.
The secret surveillance room.
Behind another panel was a second chamber.
A child's room.
Two beds.
Two toothbrushes.
Two sets of clothes.
A camera.
And dozens of drawings.
Emma.
Daniel.
Alejandro.
Clara.
And another man.
The same man appeared in every drawing.
A tall figure with black eyes.
Under one picture, Emma had written in childish handwriting:
GRANDPA
Alejandro stared.
He suddenly understood.
The children hadn't been kidnapped recently.
They had been raised inside his house.
Someone had been moving them through hidden rooms.
Watching them.
Teaching them.
Waiting.
A noise came from behind him.
A door creaked.
Alejandro turned.
Daniel stood there.
A frightened six-year-old boy.
He looked exactly like him.
“Dad?”
Alejandro couldn't speak.
Daniel stepped closer.
Then he whispered:
“Grandpa said you would come too late.”
Behind Daniel, a shadow moved.
A man grabbed the boy.
Alejandro fired.
The shadow disappeared.
Daniel remained.
May you like
But in his hand was a small black key.
A key shaped like the Moretti family crest.
