Chapter 11 - Anthony's Hidden SonThe room went silent.
Matteo stared at Elena's mother.
“You're lying.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Victor looked at Matteo.
“My father…”
“Had an affair with Teresa,” Daniel said quietly.
Matteo's face twisted.
“Then why did Carlo raise me?”
“Because Carlo couldn't have children.”
Matteo closed his eyes.
Everything about his childhood suddenly changed.
Every accusation.
Every punishment.
Every time Carlo had told him:
You owe this family everything.
Matteo opened his eyes.
“He knew?”
Daniel nodded.
“He always knew.”
Victor looked toward Teresa's body.
“She protected him.”
“Sometimes,” Daniel said. “And sometimes she hated him.”
Matteo's breathing became uneven.
Victor placed a hand on his shoulder.
“There's still a way out.”
Matteo looked at him.
“You don't understand.”
“What?”
“Carlo knows where the real ledger is.”
Victor froze.
“You know too?”
Matteo nodded.
“Mother told me.”
“Where?”
Matteo pointed toward the river.
“Below the old Russo docks.”
They moved before sunrise.
The docks were abandoned.
Rusting cranes stood against the gray sky.
Water slammed against the pilings.
Daniel found the entrance.
A steel hatch beneath the pier.
Victor opened it.
A ladder descended into darkness.
The tunnel below was flooded to the ankles.
They followed the passage until they reached a huge stone chamber.
At the center was a vault.
Victor examined the lock.
Three slots.
One key.
One code.
One fingerprint.
Matteo stared.
“It's blood-controlled.”
Victor frowned.
“Whose?”
Matteo's eyes moved toward him.
“Yours.”
Victor cut his palm.
Pressed it to the scanner.
The lock clicked.
The vault opened.
Inside was the real ledger.
Thousands of pages.
Names.
Payments.
Murder orders.
Photographs.
But one file stood apart.
PROJECT VICTOR.
Victor opened it.
The first page contained a photograph of him as a six-year-old.
The second showed him with his father.
The third showed him beside Carlo.
The fourth was a medical report.
Victor stared.
“What is this?”
Daniel took it.
His expression changed.
“They were tracking his bloodline.”
Matteo looked at the document.
“Why?”
Daniel's face went pale.
“Because Anthony's firstborn inherited a trust.”
Victor stared.
“I’m not the firstborn.”
Everyone froze.
Victor's mother had always told him he was.
The document said otherwise.
Child: Female.
Status: Alive.
Victor's breath stopped.
“I had a sister?”
Daniel nodded slowly.
“Your father had another child.”
Victor flipped the page.
A photograph.
A baby.
Then an adult woman.
The file contained a recent address.
Chicago.
Not far from the mansion.
Elena stepped closer.
“Who is she?”
Victor looked at the name.
He whispered:
“Lucia Russo.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
Victor looked at him.
“What?”
Daniel stared at the photograph.
“That woman isn't Lucia.”
He turned the page.
At the bottom was a fingerprint comparison.
Daniel's hands started shaking.
“She is your mother's daughter.”
Victor frowned.
“My mother only had me.”
Daniel looked at Elena.
“No.”
“She had two children.”
“And Carlo has been keeping one of them hidden.”
A noise echoed through the chamber.
Footsteps.
Victor reached for his gun.
A man's voice came from the tunnel.
“Put the weapons down.”
Carlo.
Victor turned.
Carlo emerged with six armed men.
He smiled.
“You found the ledger.”
Victor raised his gun.
“You killed my father.”
Carlo's expression hardened.
“Your father chose his side.”
“You killed him.”
“I finished a war he started.”
Victor stepped forward.
“And my sister?”
Carlo smiled.
“You're finally asking the right question.”
May you like
Then he pointed at Elena.
“Because she's your sister.”
