Chapter 4 - ELENA'S SECRETThey found Elena at an abandoned train station just before dawn.
Luca knew it was a trap.
He went anyway.
The platform was empty.
Fog drifted between the tracks.
A single red light blinked at the far end.
Then Elena stepped from behind a pillar.
Her dress was still stained with blood.
But the fear in her eyes had changed.
She no longer looked like a victim.
She looked like someone who had been waiting for this moment.
“Where’s Marco?” Luca asked.
“Alive.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“He’s somewhere nearby.”
Luca raised his gun.
“Tell me why your mother is dead.”
Elena froze.
“What?”
“Tell me why my family paid yours to disappear.”
Her expression fell.
“You found the ledger.”
“You know about it.”
She said nothing.
Matteo stepped forward.
“Elena.”
She looked at him.
“I didn't kill anyone.”
“We didn't accuse you.”
“You were going to.”
Luca lowered his weapon slightly.
“Then explain.”
Elena took a breath.
“My father told me never to trust the Valentis.”
“Why?”
“Because your family destroyed ours.”
“That doesn't answer the question.”
“My mother worked for your father.”
Luca went still.
“As what?”
“She was his accountant.”
Matteo’s eyebrows lifted.
Elena continued.
“She discovered money moving through shell companies. Millions. Then billions.”
“Where did the money go?”
“She didn't know.”
“Who did?”
“My father.”
Luca stared at her.
“Gabriel?”
“Yes.”
“So he's alive.”
Elena shook her head.
“I never said that.”
“Your photo says otherwise.”
She looked confused.
Luca showed her the image.
She stared.
“That isn't my father.”
The world seemed to stop.
“Look.”
Elena did.
She stepped closer.
“That man looks like him.”
“But?”
“My father had a scar here.”
She touched her cheek.
“He got it in a factory accident.”
“This man has no scar.”
Matteo examined the picture.
“So it's someone pretending to be Gabriel.”
Elena nodded slowly.
“Or someone who knew him well enough to imitate him.”
Luca lowered the photograph.
“Who?”
Before Elena could answer, the station lights came on.
A voice echoed through the speakers.
“Good morning, Luca.”
Luca spun around.
“Show yourself.”
A man appeared on the giant departure screen.
His face was distorted.
“You brought Elena.”
“You asked for her.”
“Yes.”
“What do you want?”
“The truth.”
“You've been killing people for it.”
“No.”
The voice became colder.
“I've been removing obstacles.”
A train horn sounded in the distance.
The voice continued.
“Luca, ask Elena what she took from her mother.”
Elena’s face changed.
Luca turned toward her.
“What did you take?”
She stepped backward.
“Nothing.”
“What did you take?”
Elena closed her eyes.
Then reached beneath the lining of her dress.
She pulled out a tiny memory card.
Luca stared.
“You had that all night?”
“I couldn't trust anyone.”
“What is it?”
“My mother gave it to me before she died.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because she said a Valenti would kill me for it.”
Luca held out his hand.
“Give it to me.”
Elena hesitated.
Then she placed it in his palm.
The train entered the station.
At that exact moment, gunmen appeared on both platforms.
Matteo shouted.
“DOWN!”
Bullets ripped through the station windows.
Luca grabbed Elena.
They dove behind a concrete pillar.
Matteo returned fire.
Three men fell.
The train slowed.
The attackers retreated.
Luca looked at the memory card.
“Get to the car.”
Elena looked at him.
“What about Marco?”
“We find him.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
Luca stared into her eyes.
“I don't make promises.”
They escaped through a service tunnel.
Back at the safe apartment, they opened the memory card.
One video.
One audio file.
One encrypted folder.
The video showed Elena’s mother.
The recording date was seven months before her death.
She was sitting at a desk.
Her voice trembled.
“I found where the money goes.”
Luca leaned forward.
The woman continued.
“The Bellini trust is not a bank account.”
She looked directly into the camera.
“It is a list.”
“A list of people who own pieces of other people.”
Luca frowned.
“What does that mean?”
The screen changed.
Documents appeared.
Judicial appointments.
Police contracts.
Construction permits.
Election donations.
Private security operations.
Everything connected.
Then another document.
A birth certificate.
Luca stared.
The name on it was his.
But the father's name was different.
His mother's voice returned.
“Luca is not Victor Valenti's biological son.”
Silence.
Matteo looked at Luca.
Elena looked away.
Luca couldn't breathe.
The video ended.
He stood completely still.
Then he laughed once.
Not because it was funny.
Because suddenly every lie in his life had found another lie underneath it.
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A message appeared.
NOW ASK YOUR MOTHER WHO YOUR FATHER REALLY WAS.
Another followed.
AND ASK ADRIANO WHY HE'S BEEN PROTECTING YOU FOR TWENTY YEARS.
Luca looked toward Elena.
“What else is on the card?”
She shook her head.
“I don't know.”
The encrypted folder unlocked itself.
A single file appeared.
BLOODLINE.
Luca clicked it.
The first image loaded.
A photograph of his mother.
Beside her stood a man.
Luca knew that face.
Because he had seen it every day for the last twenty years.
In every official family portrait.
In every newspaper.
In every photograph hanging in the Valenti mansion.
The man was his father’s older brother.
Adriano’s father.
And the next photograph showed something even worse.
His mother was pregnant.
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Beside the photograph was a handwritten date.
The date was nine months before Luca was born.
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