Chapter 4 - The man on the security monitor stopped beneath the garden lights.He looked directly into the camera.
Then he smiled.
My blood turned cold.
I knew his face.
Not personally.
From photographs.
From an old family album my mother kept locked in her bedroom.
His name was Samuel Voss.
My father's business partner.
The man everyone said had died in Europe two decades earlier.
“What is he doing here?” I whispered.
Nico was already checking databases.
“He shouldn't exist.”
The security system suddenly shut down.
Every screen went black.
Dominic immediately moved toward me.
“Get behind me.”
“Who is he?”
“Someone who knows our systems.”
The lights flickered.
A metallic crash sounded from the west wing.
Matteo grabbed a weapon from the security cabinet.
Luca pulled out his phone.
Gabriel closed his laptop.
Nico disappeared into the corridor.
Then the house speakers activated.
A man's voice filled the estate.
“Hello, Elena.”
I froze.
Samuel.
“You've grown into your mother's eyes.”
Dominic looked toward the ceiling speakers.
“Where are you?”
A quiet laugh.
“Still protecting your little sister, Dominic?”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“You should have stayed dead.”
“I tried.”
The speakers went silent.
Then the main doors opened.
No one stood outside.
A white envelope had been placed on the marble steps.
Nico returned with it.
He opened it carefully.
Inside was a single photograph.
My father.
Victor Cole.
And Samuel Voss.
All three standing around a conference table.
On the back was a handwritten sentence.
THE WOMAN IN THE MIDDLE KNEW EVERYTHING.
I turned the photograph over.
There was another detail.
At the edge of the picture stood a young girl.
Six years old.
Me.
I felt dizzy.
“Why was I there?”
My mother went pale.
She whispered,
“That was the last day before your father changed his will.”
“What will?”
She stared at the floor.
“The one that made you the sole beneficiary.”
My brothers exchanged looks.
Gabriel spoke first.
“You never told us that.”
“I had no choice.”
I looked at my mother.
“What happened that day?”
She hesitated.
Then the front door slammed shut behind us.
The entire house locked itself.
Every window alarm activated.
Nico cursed.
“We've lost control of the system.”
Dominic turned to him.
“How?”
“Someone injected a remote access code.”
“From where?”
Nico looked at the central server.
“Inside.”
My stomach tightened.
“Someone in the house?”
Nico nodded.
Before anyone could move, a woman's voice came from the hallway.
“Looking for me?”
Vanessa.
She stepped into the room.
No tears.
No shaking.
No fear.
She had somehow escaped the Cole estate and followed us.
Dominic moved instantly.
Two security men blocked her.
Vanessa raised both hands.
“I don't want to fight.”
I stared at her.
“How did you get here?”
“Your husband brought me.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He knew his father had been hiding something.”
Adrian.
Vanessa continued,
“He told me the Moretti family was the key to everything.”
“To what?”
She looked at me.
“The money.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“What money?”
“The money your father stole.”
I laughed.
“My father didn't steal anything.”
Vanessa's expression softened.
“You really don't know.”
“What?”
“Your father didn't build that fortune.”
She paused.
“He took it.”
My mother shouted,
“Enough!”
Vanessa looked at her.
“You know I'm right.”
Silence.
I stared at my mother.
“Mom?”
She closed her eyes.
“Your father transferred the money.”
“How much?”
“Thirty-eight million.”
Gabriel looked stunned.
“To the E.M. account.”
My heart stopped.
“The account with my initials.”
My mother nodded.
“That money was yours.”
“Why?”
“Because your father discovered someone was planning to destroy both families.”
“Who?”
She whispered,
“Victor Cole.”
I turned to Vanessa.
“Then why did your family want Adrian to marry me?”
She smiled sadly.
“They didn't.”
I felt a chill.
“Who did?”
“Samuel Voss.”
The room went silent.
“He wanted the trust restored to his control.”
“But Samuel disappeared.”
“He didn't disappear.”
Vanessa looked toward the darkened hallway.
“He built another identity.”
My mind raced.
“Whose?”
Vanessa didn't answer.
Instead, she reached into her bag.
Pulled out a second photograph.
And handed it to me.
I looked at it.
A young Victor Cole.
Standing beside Samuel.
And between them...
A baby.
I looked at Vanessa.
“Who is that?”
She whispered,
“Adrian.”
Everything stopped.
My husband wasn't simply a Cole heir.
He had been at the center of the Moretti-Coles conflict since the beginning.
Then Vanessa said the words that shattered whatever remained of my certainty.
“Adrian isn't Victor Cole's biological son.”
I stared at her.
“Whose son is he?”
She looked toward the ceiling.
Then whispered,
“Samuel Voss.”
At that exact moment, every light in the house went out.
And someone whispered from directly behind me,
“Now you know.”
May you like
I turned.
Samuel stood in the doorway.
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