Chapter 2: The Mark That Should Not Exist
Alejandro Moretti had stared down armed men, corrupt politicians, and enemies who wanted him buried beneath the ground.
He had never shown fear.
Not once.
But now, standing inside an expensive beauty salon, surrounded by people who didn’t understand what they had just uncovered, Alejandro couldn’t move.
Because on Emma’s neck was a symbol he had spent years trying to forget.
A black crescent-shaped mark with three thin lines crossing through the center.
The same symbol that belonged to a secret organization his father once warned him about.
An organization that had disappeared fifteen years ago.
An organization called The Vipers.
Emma noticed the sudden change in Alejandro’s expression.
The cold confidence he always carried was gone.
For the first time since she met him, he looked like a man who had seen a ghost.
“What is it?” she asked.
Alejandro didn’t answer.
His eyes remained fixed on the mark.
The stylist stepped back nervously.
“Sir, is something wrong?”
Alejandro immediately regained control.
“Everyone leaves.”
The room went silent.
The employees looked confused.
“Now.”
His voice wasn’t loud.
It didn’t need to be.
Within seconds, the salon emptied.
Only Alejandro, Emma, and his driver Marco remained.
Emma looked between them.
“You knew about this.”
Alejandro ignored the accusation.
“Who gave you that mark?”
Emma frowned.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
She touched her neck.
“I’ve had it for as long as I remember.”
Alejandro’s expression hardened.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because that symbol is not a birthmark.”
Emma stared at him.
“Then what is it?”
Alejandro looked toward Marco.
“Find everything about her.”
Marco nodded.
“Everything?”
“Everything.”
“Name, records, hospitals, schools, fingerprints. I want her entire life.”
Emma crossed her arms.
“You’re investigating me?”
Alejandro looked at her.
“You’re pretending to be my dead wife.”
His voice became colder.
“I need to know who you really are.”
Emma felt anger rising.
“I thought you needed someone who looked like her.”
“I did.”
“Then why do you care?”
Alejandro stepped closer.
“Because nobody accidentally carries that symbol.”
Three hours later, Emma sat inside Alejandro’s mansion.
The same mansion where Isabella had lived.
The same place where she disappeared.
The place she was now supposed to return to.
Everything around her felt unreal.
The marble floors.
The giant paintings.
The expensive furniture.
It looked like a palace.
But Emma felt like she had entered a cage.
Alejandro watched her from across the room.
“You need to learn everything about Isabella.”
Emma looked at him.
“Tell me about her.”
Silence.
A strange silence.
For the first time, Alejandro looked uncomfortable.
“She was intelligent.”
“That’s all?”
“No.”
He looked at an old photograph sitting on the table.
“She was the only person who wasn’t afraid of me.”
Emma noticed something.
The way he looked at the picture.
This wasn’t the expression of a man who lost an object.
This was the expression of a man who lost someone important.
“You loved her.”
Alejandro didn’t respond.
That was enough of an answer.
Isabella Moretti had not been like other people in Alejandro’s world.
Most people around him wanted something.
Money.
Power.
Protection.
But Isabella wanted the truth.
She asked questions nobody else dared to ask.
She challenged him.
She argued with him.
She told him when he was wrong.
And that was exactly why Alejandro loved her.
But it was also why their marriage had started falling apart.
Because Isabella discovered something.
Something about Alejandro’s empire.
Something that changed the way she looked at him.
The night before she disappeared, they had their biggest fight.
“You built everything on lies,” Isabella had said.
Alejandro remembered every word.
“You don’t understand this world.”
“No.”
Her eyes had filled with disappointment.
“I understand it better than you think.”
Then she walked away.
The next morning...
She was gone.
Emma noticed something.
“Why did the police think you killed her?”
Alejandro’s eyes narrowed.
“Because it was convenient.”
“Convenient?”
“They already believed men like me were capable of anything.”
“But did you?”
The question hung in the air.
Did you kill your wife?
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Alejandro answered.
“No.”
The certainty surprised her.
He wasn’t offended.
He wasn’t angry.
He sounded like a man defending the only truth he had left.
“No matter what people believe, I did not hurt Isabella.”
Emma studied him.
She didn’t know if she believed him.
But she knew one thing.
A liar usually prepared excuses.
Alejandro didn’t.
That evening, the first test began.
Emma had to return to the mansion.
The servants would see her.
People who knew Isabella.
People who could expose everything.
Alejandro stood beside her before they entered.
“You have one job.”
“What?”
“Convince them.”
Emma swallowed.
“And if they know I’m not her?”
Alejandro looked at the mansion doors.
“Then we both lose.”
The doors opened.
The servants froze.
A glass fell from someone’s hand.
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Because standing in front of them...
Was the woman they had buried in their minds.
The woman they believed was gone forever.
One elderly servant slowly walked forward.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Mrs. Moretti?”
Emma said nothing.
The servant touched her face.
Then whispered:
“No…”
Alejandro’s heart stopped.
The woman stepped back.
Everyone waited.
The servant looked at Emma carefully.
Then said something that made the entire room freeze.
“You’re not Isabella.”
The guards immediately moved.
Emma panicked.
But before anyone could react, the old servant continued.
“You’re the woman Isabella was trying to protect.”
Alejandro’s eyes changed.
“What did you say?”
The servant looked directly at him.
Her hands trembled.
“Before she disappeared, Isabella told me something.”
Alejandro stepped closer.
“What?”
The servant lowered her voice.
“She said if anything happened to her…”
She looked at Emma.
“Find the girl with the Viper mark.”
The room became silent.
Alejandro felt his blood run cold.
Because Isabella had known.
She had known Emma existed.
And she had planned for Alejandro to find her.
The servant reached into her pocket and pulled out a small envelope.
“I was told to give this to you only when she returned.”
Alejandro stared at the envelope.
“Who wrote this?”
The servant looked at Emma.
Then answered:
“Your wife.”
Alejandro opened it with shaking hands.
Inside was a single sentence.
Seven words.
Seven words that destroyed everything he believed.
"Alejandro, the woman you love betrayed you."
His hands tightened around the paper.
Because underneath the message was Isabella’s signature.
And a date.
A date three days after her disappearance.
Meaning one terrifying possibility:
Isabella Moretti had been alive.
She had been watching him.
May you like
And she had left him a warning.
To be continued...
