Chapter 10 - THE MEMORY I WAS FORCED TO FORGET
“No…”
The word left my mouth before I even realized I had spoken.
My entire body went cold.
The room disappeared.
The voices disappeared.
All I could see were pieces of something buried deep inside me.
A woman crying.
A broken glass on the floor.
A man shouting.
And a little girl hiding behind a door.
Me.
I grabbed my head.
“No, no…”
Adrian immediately stepped toward me.
“Mara.”
I moved away.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
Because he saw it.
The fear in my eyes.
The confusion.
The pain.
The woman standing beside Luca watched me carefully.
“You’re remembering.”
I looked at her.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Clara.”
“Why do you know me?”
Her expression softened.
“Because I was there the night everything changed.”
Adrian’s face became dangerous.
“What did you do?”
Clara looked at him.
“I saved her.”
“You know what happened to Elena?”
A long silence followed.
Then Clara nodded.
“Yes.”
The entire room changed.
Adrian stepped closer.
“Tell me.”
His voice was low.
But everyone heard the warning.
Clara looked at him sadly.
“You spent twenty-eight years blaming yourself.”
Adrian’s fists tightened.
“Tell me the truth.”
She looked at me.
“Not until she remembers.”
I hated those words.
Because everyone kept saying the same thing.
Everyone knew my story except me.
I looked at Luca.
The baby was watching me.
Quiet.
Like he understood my pain.
I walked closer to him.
The second I touched his hand…
The memory returned.
A small room.
A woman holding me.
Elena.
My mother.
Not the woman who raised me.
My real mother.
“Mara…”
Her voice.
I heard it.
“She’s coming.”
A man’s voice.
Angry.
“You should have never taken the child.”
Elena held me tighter.
“She is my daughter.”
A door slammed.
Then a gunshot.
I gasped.
Adrian caught me before I fell.
“Mara.”
I pushed against him.
“I remember.”
Everyone froze.
I looked at Adrian.
“My mother…”
My voice broke.
“She wasn’t running away.”
I swallowed.
“She was protecting me.”
Adrian looked like the answer hurt him.
“What else?”
I closed my eyes.
More memories came.
A man standing over Elena.
A tattoo.
A dragon.
But not Adrian’s dragon.
Different.
Older.
A scar across his hand.
My breathing stopped.
“The man who killed her…”
I whispered.
“Who?”
I looked at Gabriel.
Then Adrian.
“He had your family tattoo.”
Adrian’s face changed.
Because he understood.
“It was someone inside the family.”
Clara nodded.
“Yes.”
Adrian looked furious.
“Who?”
Clara hesitated.
Then she answered.
“Marco Viscari.”
The name hit the room like a bomb.
Gabriel stepped back.
“Our father?”
Clara nodded.
“He wanted control of everything.”
Adrian’s eyes darkened.
“He killed his own wife?”
“And tried to kill his own children.”
The silence afterward was unbearable.
I looked at Luca.
The child who brought me into this world of secrets.
The child who somehow recognized me.
Then I realized something.
“Why did Luca choose me?”
Nobody answered.
Until Clara whispered:
“Because Elena left something behind.”
“What?”
Clara reached into her bag.
And pulled out an old recording device.
“She knew she might not survive.”
She handed it to me.
“She recorded a message.”
My hands shook.
“For who?”
Clara looked at me.
“For you.”
I pressed play.
Static filled the room.
Then a woman’s voice.
A voice I had only known through old memories.
“Mara…”
My heart stopped.
“If you are hearing this…”
A pause.
“Then I’m gone.”
Tears filled my eyes.
Elena continued:
“But there is something you need to know.”
The recording crackled.
“You were never abandoned.”
I covered my mouth.
“You were protected.”
Then her voice changed.
More urgent.
“Do not trust anyone who tells you your family is finished.”
A pause.
Then the words that changed everything.
“Because the person who destroyed us…”
“She is still alive.”
Everyone froze.
Adrian looked at me.
“Who?”
The recording continued.
And Elena whispered:
“Your sister.”
My blood turned cold.
“My sister?”
The machine clicked.
Then stopped.
No more answers.
Only one terrifying truth.
There was another child.
May you like
Another secret.
And someone had been hiding her all these years.
