Chapter 14 - Isabella MorettiWe reached the hospital under heavy guard.
Luca was waiting outside.
Blood covered his shirt.
Dante nearly attacked him.
“Where is she?”
Luca pointed.
“Inside.”
“Isabella?”
He nodded.
Dante froze.
For seven years, he had believed his mother dead.
Now she was behind a hospital door.
Alive.
I touched his arm.
“Go.”
He looked at me.
Then nodded.
Dante entered.
I stayed outside with Luca.
“Why did you bring her back?”
Luca's expression softened.
“She came back herself.”
“Why?”
“To finish what she started.”
“What did she start?”
“Ending your father's empire.”
I looked at him.
“Why me?”
Luca stared at me.
“Because your mother trusted you.”
“I don't remember anything.”
“You remember now.”
“Not enough.”
He smiled.
“You will.”
The door opened.
Dante emerged.
His eyes were red.
I had never seen him like that.
He looked at me.
“My mother wants to meet you.”
I entered.
The woman in the bed looked older than the photographs.
But her eyes were the same.
The eyes from my memories.
She smiled.
“Elena.”
I froze.
“You know me.”
“I knew you before you knew yourself.”
I approached.
“Why did you let me believe you were dead?”
“Because your father-in-law would have killed you.”
“He was never my father-in-law.”
“No.”
She looked at Dante.
“He became something worse.”
Dante took her hand.
“Who hired Michael?”
She looked at me.
“You did.”
I froze.
“What?”
“You hired him.”
Dante stared.
“No.”
Isabella shook her head.
“I was speaking about someone else.”
Then she looked at me.
“Your father.”
“My father?”
“You never knew who he was.”
I frowned.
“I thought he died when I was young.”
“He didn't.”
My chest tightened.
“Where is he?”
She pointed toward the hallway.
“You passed him ten minutes ago.”
I turned.
A man stood behind the glass doors.
Gray hair.
Cold eyes.
And a scar across his cheek.
He stared directly at me.
Dante pulled his gun.
His mother whispered:
“That's your father.”
The man smiled.
Then the hospital lights went out.
A gunshot exploded.
Isabella's hand slipped from Dante's.
“Mom!”
She fell backward.
Dante screamed.
I looked toward the hallway.
My father was gone.
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And on the hospital wall, written in blood, was one sentence.
ONE CHILD DIES BEFORE DAWN.
