Chapter 7 - The lights in the vault flickered.Elena turned toward Dante.
“Why did my mother say that?”
“I don't know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it's true.”
“Then explain the photograph.”
“I can't.”
Julian suddenly laughed.
Both looked at him.
“What?”
“You still don't see it.”
“See what?”
“The woman in the photograph.”
Elena held it tighter.
“What about her?”
Julian stared at Dante.
“She wasn't Claire's second daughter.”
Elena frowned.
Julian continued.
“She was Dante's.”
Silence.
Dante's expression hardened.
“Stop.”
“You knew eventually she'd find out.”
“Julian.”
“Tell her.”
Elena turned to Dante.
“Tell me.”
He didn't move.
“Dante.”
He finally spoke.
“I had a daughter.”
Elena's chest tightened.
“When?”
“Eleven years ago.”
“With my mother?”
“No.”
“Then with who?”
“A woman named Sofia.”
“What happened?”
“She died.”
“And the child?”
“Taken.”
“By who?”
Dante looked at Julian.
“Harold Mercer.”
Julian's face went pale.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“My father took her?”
“He believed Sofia had access to Claire's archive.”
Elena's mind raced.
“Why would he take your daughter?”
“Because Claire knew where she was.”
“And my mother refused to tell him.”
“Yes.”
Elena looked at the photograph again.
The girl wasn't her sister.
She was Dante's daughter.
Then what was the connection to Elena?
Dante reached for the photograph.
“This was taken two months before Sofia disappeared.”
Elena noticed something in the background.
A sign.
SAINT VINCENT WOMEN'S CLINIC.
She remembered it.
Her mother had volunteered there.
She looked at the photo's date.
The same month Elena was born.
Her heart stopped.
“Dante.”
He looked at her.
“This wasn't eleven years ago.”
“What?”
“The photograph is dated after my birth.”
Dante took it.
His face changed.
“Elena…”
“What?”
“The date is wrong.”
Julian stepped closer.
“Or the story is.”
A loud metallic crash echoed outside the vault.
Someone was forcing open the upper door.
Dante grabbed Elena.
“We have to go.”
“Not until you tell me everything.”
“We'll die down here if we stay.”
He pulled her toward a second corridor.
Julian followed.
They ran through the underground structure.
At the end was a narrow staircase leading outside.
Rain hammered the construction site.
Police sirens approached in the distance.
Dante stopped.
“Listen.”
They heard vehicles.
Not police.
Black SUVs.
Multiple.
Julian whispered:
“They found us.”
Men in tactical clothing poured from the vehicles.
Dante pulled Elena behind a concrete barrier.
Gunfire erupted.
One attacker shouted:
“Take the girl alive!”
Elena froze.
“The girl?”
Dante looked at her.
“They're after you.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Julian grabbed a dropped rifle.
“Because the archive isn't in the vault.”
Elena looked at him.
“Where is it?”
Julian stared toward the unfinished tower.
“Inside Elena.”
Her expression changed.
“What?”
Julian pointed.
“The archive was never documents.”
Dante suddenly understood.
“It's memory.”
Elena stared.
“My mother encoded the evidence into something only I could access.”
Julian nodded.
“Your architectural training.”
Dante's face darkened.
“She hid coordinates inside Elena's original designs.”
Suddenly a shot rang out.
Julian collapsed.
Elena screamed.
Dante dragged him behind cover.
Blood spread across his shoulder.
Julian grabbed Elena's hand.
“Don't trust…”
He coughed.
“Don't trust the person who calls you daughter.”
“What does that mean?”
He pointed toward the black SUVs.
A woman stepped from one of them.
Long dark hair.
Black coat.
Calm expression.
She looked exactly like the woman from the photograph.
Elena's supposed sister.
The woman smiled.
“Hello, Elena.”
Dante whispered:
“Sofia.”
The woman replied,
“No.”
She raised her eyes toward Elena.
“My name is Isabella.”
May you like
Then she smiled wider.
“And I've been waiting for you.”
Related Stories
