Chapter 14 - The Last LieAdrian stared at Clara.
“Tell me.”
She said nothing.
“Tell me the truth.”
Mia was standing beside Sofia.
Clara looked at her daughter.
Then at Adrian.
“I didn't know how to tell you.”
“Try.”
Clara closed her eyes.
“I wasn't sent to protect Mia.”
Adrian's stomach tightened.
“I was sent to watch you.”
“By whom?”
“My father.”
Adrian froze.
“Volkov?”
Clara nodded.
“He wanted to know whether you had the mutation.”
“And when you discovered I did?”
“He wanted Mia.”
Adrian's face hardened.
“You were going to give her to him?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“I changed my mind.”
“When?”
“The day she was born.”
Clara began crying.
“I held her, and I couldn't do it.”
Adrian stared.
“So you ran.”
“Yes.”
“And the whole time you were pretending she was ordinary.”
“Yes.”
“Why did you stay with me?”
“Because I loved you.”
Adrian looked away.
That word hurt.
Love had become the most dangerous thing in his life.
Everyone who loved him had lied.
Everyone who protected him had manipulated him.
And everyone who wanted him dead knew exactly which strings to pull.
Marcus approached.
“We don't have time.”
Adrian turned.
“What now?”
“Lucian escaped.”
“And?”
“He'll go after the archive.”
Sofia shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Lucian isn't after the archive.”
She held up a small metal device.
“He has the original research.”
Adrian frowned.
“Where?”
Sofia looked toward Mia.
“Inside Mr. Buttons.”
Adrian froze.
The teddy bear.
The torn one from the safe house.
He grabbed it.
Inside the second seam was a tiny metallic capsule.
Clara stared.
“I thought the ledger was the only thing inside.”
Sofia shook her head.
“It was never the ledger.”
Adrian opened the capsule.
A small memory drive fell into his hand.
Elena connected it to a computer.
The screen filled with files.
Video.
Genetic data.
Financial transactions.
And one final recording.
Lucian appeared.
He looked directly at the camera.
“This is my insurance policy.”
Adrian stared.
Lucian continued.
“If you're seeing this, I've lost control of the operation.”
He smiled.
“But I've already won.”
The recording changed.
A map appeared.
Hundreds of locations.
Hospitals.
Research centers.
Government facilities.
Private laboratories.
Lucian had spread the program across the country.
Adrian whispered:
“How many?”
Elena stared at the numbers.
“Thirty-seven.”
Marcus shook his head.
“He built thirty-seven sites.”
Sofia corrected him.
“No.”
She pointed to the map.
“Thirty-eight.”
One location wasn't marked.
Adrian recognized it immediately.
New York.
His daughter's school.
Adrian's face went white.
“He planted something there.”
They rushed back.
The school was empty.
But beneath the building, a hidden laboratory was already active.
Mia's drawings covered the walls.
Hundreds.
Each one showed the same faceless man.
And beneath every drawing were the same three words.
HE IS COMING HOME.
Adrian looked at Mia.
“What did you see?”
She pointed to the hallway.
“He was here.”
Adrian's chest tightened.
“Who?”
She whispered:
“Grandpa.”
Adrian turned.
Sofia looked confused.
“My father?”
Mia nodded.
“He talked to me yesterday.”
Everyone froze.
Matteo had been at the school.
Alive.
Watching.
And suddenly Adrian understood.
The diagnosis.
The shootings.
The kidnappings.
The research.
Lucian.
None of it had begun with Lucian.
It had begun with Matteo.
Adrian picked up his gun.
He finally knew who he had to find.
His father.
The man who had spent his entire life turning blood into currency.
The man who had taught Adrian that family was weakness.
The man who had just put his granddaughter at the center of a war.
Adrian's phone rang.
He answered.
Matteo spoke.
“You finally understand.”
Adrian's voice was ice.
“Where are you?”
A pause.
“At home.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Which home?”
Matteo laughed.
“The one you were born in.”
The line ended.
Adrian looked at Mia.
Then at Marcus.
Then at Sofia.
His family had spent decades hiding from the past.
May you like
Now the past was waiting for them.
And Adrian Moretti was going back to where it all began.
