Chapter 3 - The Man Who Buried The Truth
Leo watched the footage again.
And again.
His hands tightened into fists.
“No…”
Clare stood nearby.
“What is it?”
Leo didn’t respond.
He couldn’t.
Because the man who raised him.
The man he respected.
The man whose name built the Rossi empire.
Had been inside his mother’s room the night she disappeared.
Daniel entered moments later.
“You saw it?”
Leo turned.
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
Daniel looked away.
That was the answer.
Leo walked toward the desk.
“My father killed her.”
“No.”
Daniel spoke carefully.
“Don’t jump there yet.”
“But he lied.”
“Yes.”
“He hid evidence.”
“Yes.”
“He destroyed records.”
“Yes.”
Leo looked at him.
“Then what am I supposed to think?”
Nobody answered.
Because the truth was becoming darker.
Clare watched Leo carefully.
For the first time, she didn’t see a billionaire.
She saw a son.
A son who had spent half his life missing his mother.
A son who suddenly realized his childhood memories might have been built on lies.
“I’m sorry.”
Leo looked at her.
“For what?”
“For finding this truth.”
He almost smiled.
Almost.
“You’re the only person who ever gave me a reason to look.”
That night, Leo returned to the old Rossi mansion wing.
The part of the house nobody entered anymore.
His mother’s room.
The door had been locked for years.
He opened it.
Dust covered everything.
Her perfume bottle remained untouched.
Her books remained on the shelf.
Her old piano sat in the corner.
Leo walked slowly through the room.
Then Clare noticed something.
“Leo.”
He turned.
“What?”
She pointed at the piano.
“There.”
Behind it was a small envelope.
Hidden.
Leo opened it.
Inside was a letter.
His mother’s handwriting.
His hands started shaking.
“My son…”
He stopped.
He could barely breathe.
“She wrote to me.”
Clare whispered.
“Read it.”
Leo continued.
“My dear Leo.”
“If you are reading this, then someone finally allowed the truth to reach you.”
“I never abandoned you.”
“I never left you willingly.”
“They took me because I discovered what your father did.”
Leo stopped.
His face turned pale.
Clare looked at him.
“What did he do?”
Leo kept reading.
The final sentence was written differently.
As if Maria had written it while terrified.
“Your father was not the only person involved.”
“There was someone else inside our family.”
“Someone you trust.”
The letter ended there.
Leo stared.
Because his mother had not only accused his father.
She had warned him about someone closer.
Someone still alive.
Someone still inside his family.
Suddenly, the lights went out.
The room became completely dark.
Clare heard footsteps outside.
Slow.
Heavy.
Coming closer.
Leo reached for the hidden weapon beneath his jacket.
Then a voice came from the hallway.
A voice Leo knew very well.
“You should have stopped looking, son.”
Leo froze.
Because standing outside his mother’s room…
Was the man he thought had been dead for ten years.
His father.
May you like
Alive.
And smiling.
