Chapter 8: The Monster He Couldn’t Remember
The words on the screen burned into Alejandro’s mind.
SUBJECT ALEJANDRO MEMORY RESTORATION: FAILED
For several seconds, nobody moved.
The underground room was silent except for the sound of the old machines still running.
Machines that had no reason to exist.
Machines that proved someone had been using the Moretti mansion as a laboratory.
A place where memories were stolen.
A place where identities were rewritten.
A place where Alejandro Moretti had apparently been a patient.
Not the owner.
Not the master.
A patient.
“Turn it off.”
Alejandro’s voice was quiet.
Nobody moved.
“Turn it off!”
This time, his voice exploded through the room.
A guard immediately destroyed the monitor.
The screen went black.
But it didn’t matter.
The images were already inside Alejandro’s head.
The young version of himself.
Emma.
Isabella.
The three of them together.
A past he didn’t remember.
A life that had been taken away from him.
Emma looked at him.
“Alejandro…”
He raised his hand.
Not angrily.
Just asking for silence.
Because if he heard another voice right now...
He wasn’t sure what would happen.
Dr. Victor Laurent was found unconscious beside the machines.
Alive.
Barely.
The guards brought him upstairs.
But before he could be questioned, he woke up.
And the first thing he did was smile.
A strange, calm smile.
“You finally found it.”
Alejandro stood in front of him.
His eyes were empty.
“How long?”
Victor looked confused.
“How long what?”
“How long have you been lying to me?”
The doctor sighed.
“Longer than you can remember.”
Alejandro grabbed him by the collar.
“Tell me the truth.”
Victor looked at Emma.
Then back at Alejandro.
“The truth is the reason you’re still alive.”
Alejandro pushed him away.
“You erased my memories.”
Victor didn’t deny it.
“Yes.”
Everyone in the room froze.
Maria covered her mouth.
The guards reached for their weapons.
But Alejandro stopped them.
“Why?”
Victor looked tired.
Not afraid.
“You were going to destroy everything.”
“What everything?”
“The empire.”
Alejandro laughed coldly.
“My empire?”
Victor stared at him.
“No.”
A pause.
“The empire you inherited.”
Victor explained everything.
Fifteen years ago, Alejandro’s father, Lorenzo Moretti, was not just a businessman.
He was one of the leaders of The Vipers.
A secret organization that controlled businesses, politicians, and criminal networks across the world.
But Lorenzo had one weakness.
His son.
Alejandro.
Unlike his father, Alejandro hated the old ways.
He believed power should come from respect, not fear.
He wanted to leave the darkness behind.
And that made him dangerous.
Because people who want to escape powerful organizations are often considered more dangerous than enemies.
“They believed you would expose them,” Victor said.
“So they erased me?”
Victor nodded.
“They wanted to remove the part of you that remembered.”
Alejandro looked at Emma.
“And her?”
Victor became silent.
That silence answered everything.
Emma stepped forward.
“Tell me.”
Victor looked at her.
“You were never random.”
“I know.”
“You were Lorenzo Moretti’s final secret.”
Alejandro turned sharply.
“What?”
Victor continued.
“Your father had another child.”
The room froze.
Emma’s face lost all color.
“No…”
Victor nodded.
“You and Isabella discovered it years ago.”
Alejandro stared at Emma.
A million questions appeared.
“You’re saying…”
Victor looked at him.
“Emma Valdez is Emma Moretti.”
Nobody spoke.
The name echoed through the room.
Emma Moretti.
Alejandro’s sister.
His family.
The missing piece of a history nobody wanted remembered.
Emma stepped backward.
“No.”
Victor looked at her sadly.
“You were hidden because you were the only person who knew what Lorenzo did.”
“What did he do?”
Victor hesitated.
Then answered:
“He killed your mother.”
Emma froze.
A memory exploded inside her mind.
A woman crying.
A young Emma hiding behind a door.
A man shouting.
A gunshot.
A man wearing a ring.
The Moretti ring.
Emma fell to her knees.
Alejandro immediately caught her.
“Emma!”
She pushed him away.
“No…”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I remember.”
Everyone went silent.
“What do you remember?” Alejandro asked.
She looked at him.
“I remember your father.”
A pause.
“I remember Isabella.”
Another pause.
“And I remember you.”
Alejandro’s breathing stopped.
“What about me?”
Emma looked terrified.
“You were there.”
The words hit him like a bullet.
“What?”
“You were holding the gun.”
The room changed instantly.
Everyone looked at Alejandro.
The same suspicion.
The same fear.
The same feeling that had followed him for eleven months.
But this time...
Even Alejandro wasn’t sure.
Because he had seen the memory.
A gun.
Blood.
Isabella crying.
His own hands shaking.
“Tell me I didn’t do it.”
Nobody answered.
Alejandro looked at Emma.
“Tell me.”
Emma’s face showed pain.
“I don’t know.”
That was worse.
That night, Alejandro locked himself inside his office.
For the first time in years, he drank alone.
Not to celebrate.
Not to forget.
To remember.
Fragments kept coming.
Isabella screaming.
Someone behind him.
A voice saying:
“You have to choose.”
Then darkness.
A knock interrupted him.
He looked up.
Emma entered.
“You shouldn’t be alone.”
Alejandro laughed bitterly.
“Maybe I should.”
“Why?”
“Because maybe everyone around me is safer.”
Emma looked at him.
“You think you’re a monster.”
“I don’t know what I am.”
She sat across from him.
“Then find out.”
Alejandro stared.
“You’re not afraid of me?”
Emma was silent for a moment.
Then answered:
“I should be.”
A pause.
“But I remember something else.”
“What?”
She looked at him.
“You saved me.”
Before Alejandro could respond, his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A familiar voice appeared.
Isabella.
His entire body froze.
“Hello, Alejandro.”
His hand tightened.
“Isabella?”
Emma stood immediately.
The voice continued.
“I know you found the truth.”
“Where are you?”
A pause.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?”
Then Isabella whispered:
“For what I had to do to you.”
Alejandro’s expression changed.
“What did you do?”
Silence.
Then:
“The memories you lost…”
A pause.
“They were not erased because you were a victim.”
The line became quieter.
“They were erased because you were the only person who knew the truth.”
Alejandro stood.
“Isabella, tell me where you are.”
But before she answered, another voice appeared on the call.
A man.
A voice Alejandro recognized.
Marco.
“Hello, old friend.”
Alejandro’s face darkened.
Isabella gasped.
“Marco, no!”
A gunshot.
The call ended.
Alejandro stared at the dead phone.
No sound.
No emotion.
Nothing.
Then he whispered one sentence.
“She’s alive.”
Emma looked at him.
“But Marco has her.”
Alejandro looked toward the door.
The fear was gone.
The confusion was gone.
Only one thing remained.
Determination.
For eleven months, Alejandro searched for his missing wife.
Now he knew the truth.
She wasn’t lost.
She was captured.
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And the man holding her was the person he trusted most.
To be continued...
