Chapter 12 - The Last Thing Her Father HidCora couldn't sleep.
Neither could Dante.
The photograph sat between them.
"How did they get this?"
Dante stared at the image.
"They had access to the building."
"Through security?"
"Maybe."
"Elena?"
"Maybe."
Cora looked at him.
"You keep saying maybe."
"Because I don't know."
That frightened her more than certainty.
Dante had always seemed like the kind of man who had answers.
Now he was surrounded by questions.
And every question had a body behind it.
At sunrise, Victor found them at a private warehouse.
He had brought files.
Old ones.
From Cora's father.
"We have to decode everything."
Cora opened the notebook.
"There's something missing."
"What?"
"My father always kept a second ledger."
Dante looked at her.
"How do you know?"
"Because he told me."
"You remember?"
"Not fully."
She closed her eyes.
The memories came in fragments.
A red door.
A clock.
A song.
Her father kneeling.
A silver locket.
And a sentence.
When the clock stops, look beneath the floor.
Cora opened her eyes.
"The house."
They returned to the childhood home.
The basement was partly flooded.
Cora walked to the old furnace.
A clock hung above it.
Stopped at 2:14.
She touched the floor beneath it.
Wood sounded hollow.
Dante pried up the board.
A narrow compartment appeared.
Inside was a black metal case.
Cora's fingers shook.
She opened it.
There were passports.
Bank documents.
Photographs.
And a handwritten list of names.
Dante read them.
His face became hard.
"Judges."
Victor took the pages.
"Police."
Cora looked at the final page.
One name.
Only one.
No position.
No explanation.
Just:
Dante Moretti.
She turned toward him.
"What does this mean?"
His face went pale.
"I don't know."
Victor stepped closer.
"Maybe you were never supposed to inherit the organization."
"What are you saying?"
"Maybe Lucien built everything around one final contingency."
Dante stared at the name.
Cora noticed something.
There was a date beside it.
Her birth date.
03/07/2002.
Cora froze.
"My birth."
Dante looked at her.
"No."
She turned another page.
There was a second date.
Dante's birthday.
And beneath both:
Bloodline confirmation.
Cora's pulse hammered.
"Why are our birthdays together?"
Victor looked at Dante.
"Because your father had something planned."
"What?"
Victor shook his head.
"I'm not sure."
Then Cora saw one final photograph.
A hospital room.
Her mother holding newborn Cora.
Lucien Moretti standing beside her.
And Dante's mother holding another baby.
The babies looked almost identical.
Cora whispered:
"Twins."
Dante's face drained of color.
"My mother only had one child."
Victor stared at the photograph.
"Apparently not."
Cora slowly turned the photo over.
Writing appeared on the back.
One belongs to the Morettis. One belongs to the Davises.
Dante looked at Cora.
"What does that mean?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know."
Then a phone rang.
Cora answered.
It was Elena.
Her voice was faint.
"Don't trust Victor."
Cora stood.
"Where are you?"
"You're running out of time."
"Tell me where you are."
"I can prove everything."
"Where?"
Elena whispered an address.
Then the line went dead.
Dante looked at Cora.
"Trap."
"Probably."
"You are not going."
"Neither are you."
He looked at her.
"Exactly."
Cora grabbed his hand.
"Then we're both going."
They reached the address.
An abandoned maternity hospital.
The place had been sealed for years.
Inside one room, they found Elena.
Bleeding.
Alive.
She looked at Cora.
"I lied about one thing."
"What?"
"You weren't chosen."
Elena coughed.
"You were switched."
Cora froze.
"Switched with who?"
Elena looked at Dante.
Then whispered:
"You're not the daughter of the man you think you are."
The room went silent.
Cora looked at Dante.
May you like
Dante looked at Elena.
And suddenly, every photograph, every date, every hidden file made terrifying sense.
