Chapter 10 - The Music Inside Her MemoryThe final ledger was not hidden in a vault. It had been hidden inside a daughter's memory.
They reached the cemetery under a sky without stars.
No guards.
No cars.
No Matteo.
Nothing.
Too quiet.
Sophia walked toward her father's grave.
The stone was cracked.
The flowers were fresh.
Someone had been there recently.
Enzo followed.
"Stop."
Sophia froze.
He crouched beside the grave.
A tripwire.
He cut it.
Nothing happened.
"That was the warning."
"What warning?"
"Your father expected someone to come here."
They opened the grave.
Not the coffin.
The stone base beneath it.
A hollow chamber waited underneath.
Inside was a wooden box.
Sophia removed it.
There was a small key.
No lock.
Enzo looked confused.
Sophia wasn't.
"Music."
She sat on the edge of the stone.
She closed her eyes.
Her father's composition.
The final movement.
She played it silently.
In her head.
Five notes.
Three.
Two.
One.
She whispered:
"Third measure."
Enzo looked at her.
"What?"
"That's the key."
She searched the wooden box.
Nothing.
Then she noticed a tiny line of numbers etched beneath the lid.
A musical scale.
The numbers matched the notes.
She pressed them in order.
A compartment opened.
Inside was a tiny recording device.
Sophia turned it on.
Her father's voice emerged.
"My daughter."
She covered her mouth.
"If you are hearing this, the people who hunted us have probably found you."
A pause.
"Do not trust the ledger."
Sophia frowned.
"The ledger will tell you who is guilty."
Her father's voice became quieter.
"It will not tell you who is innocent."
Enzo looked at her.
"Keep listening."
"There is one person I trusted completely."
Sophia braced herself.
"It is Lorenzo Valente."
Enzo's eyes closed.
Her father continued.
"I chose him because he understands loyalty better than anyone."
Sophia looked at Enzo.
"And because his brother Matteo is the one person who can reach the enemy."
The recording crackled.
Then Marcus said something that made Sophia's blood run cold.
"If Edward ever learns you survived, he will come for you."
A pause.
"If he does, tell Lorenzo one sentence."
Sophia leaned closer.
"What sentence?"
Her father's voice answered:
"Tell him the little girl in the photograph was never my daughter."
The recording stopped.
Silence.
Sophia stared.
"The little girl?"
Enzo looked confused.
"What photograph?"
She realized.
The family photograph.
The one with her father and mother.
There had been another child.
A little girl standing near the window.
She hadn't noticed it before.
Sophia pulled out the photograph from the Gilded Cage.
She examined the background.
There.
A second little girl.
Same green eyes.
Same face.
Same scar.
Sophia's hand shook.
"That's me."
Enzo frowned.
"No."
She looked at him.
"It's me."
"No."
He took the photograph.
The little girl was perhaps six.
Sophia looked at the current reflection in a dark window.
The resemblance was undeniable.
"Then what did my father mean?"
Enzo looked at the recording device.
"Maybe he meant you weren't born into the family."
Sophia whispered:
"Then who am I?"
A light turned on behind them.
Matteo stood among the graves.
His gun was raised.
Enzo lifted his weapon.
"Don't."
Matteo's eyes were exhausted.
"Put yours down."
"No."
Matteo looked at Sophia.
"She needs the truth."
Enzo didn't move.
"You should be dead."
"I know."
"Why did you leave?"
"Because I was protecting the wrong person."
"Who?"
Matteo looked at Sophia.
"Your mother."
Sophia stepped forward.
"What did my father mean?"
Matteo took a breath.
"You're not Marcus Castellan's daughter."
"I know."
"You're not Edward Vale's either."
Sophia stared.
"What?"
Matteo lowered his gun.
"Your real father was a man named Julian Moretti."
Enzo's face hardened.
"Moretti."
Sophia frowned.
"The Moretti family?"
"Yes."
"That's impossible."
Matteo shook his head.
"Your father was the only man willing to tell you the truth."
Sophia's entire world shifted again.
Julian Moretti.
The rival family.
The man whose assassination had started the bloodiest war in New York.
But Julian Moretti had been killed twenty years ago.
Before Sophia was born.
Matteo continued.
"He didn't die."
Enzo stared.
"Then who died?"
Matteo looked toward the grave.
"A substitute."
Sophia felt the cold leave her body.
"Why?"
Matteo's answer was almost a whisper.
"Because you were the heir to two families."
Before Sophia could ask another question, a laser dot appeared on Enzo's chest.
Then another on Matteo.
A voice came from the darkness.
"Three years."
Sophia turned.
Edward Vale stepped between the gravestones.
"Three years of searching."
He smiled.
"I finally found my favorite mistake."
Sophia stared.
"You said you weren't my father."
Edward laughed.
"Of course I'm not."
He looked at her.
"But I know who is."
May you like
He raised his weapon.
"Because I killed him."
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