Chapter 9 - THE PRICE OF SILENCE
The gun fired.
Adrian pulled Mateo down.
The bullet struck the wall.
Rosa ran.
The masked man fired again.
Elena dragged Mateo behind a stone column.
Adrian tackled the attacker.
They crashed through a side table.
The pistol skidded across the marble.
The man reached for a knife.
Adrian caught his wrist.
They struggled.
Then Isabella appeared.
She smashed a bronze candleholder across the attacker’s shoulder.
He collapsed.
Police arrived minutes later.
The man was identified as Sergio Vela.
A former Laurent security employee.
His phone contained a single message.
FINISH ROSA BEFORE SHE TALKS.
The sender was Victoria.
Rosa sat in the library afterward.
Her hands would not stop shaking.
“She knows.”
Adrian stared at her.
“Knows what?”
“The reason I changed sides.”
Rosa looked toward Mateo.
Then at Isabella.
“Thomas came to me the night before he died.”
“He knew Victoria planned to kill him.”
Isabella gasped.
“He asked me to protect Gabriel.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Why you?”
“Because Thomas knew something nobody else did.”
Rosa’s voice trembled.
“Victoria was not Isabella’s biological mother.”
Isabella stared at her.
“What?”
Rosa continued.
“Victoria’s younger sister, Sofia, gave birth to you.”
“No.”
“She was seventeen.”
“Your grandfather forced the family to hide the pregnancy.”
“Victoria was married and unable to have children.”
“So she raised you as hers.”
Isabella stood slowly.
“My mother is my aunt?”
“Yes.”
“Where is Sofia?”
Rosa began crying.
“She died.”
“How?”
Rosa could not answer.
Adrian knew before she spoke.
“Victoria.”
Rosa nodded.
“She pushed Sofia down the main staircase.”
Isabella backed away.
“No.”
“You were four.”
“No.”
“You saw it.”
“No!”
“That is why you have nightmares about those stairs.”
Isabella covered her ears.
“Stop.”
“Victoria convinced everyone Sofia fell.”
Isabella ran from the room.
Mateo watched her go.
For the first time, he looked concerned for her.
Adrian followed.
He found Isabella sitting halfway up the staircase.
The same staircase where Sofia had died.
“I remember her shoes.”
Adrian sat beside her.
“Red shoes.”
“She was screaming at Victoria.”
“She said she was taking me away.”
“Then she fell.”
Isabella looked at him.
“I spent thirty years calling the woman who killed my mother ‘Mom.’”
Adrian said nothing.
“And then I became exactly like her.”
“No.”
“I abandoned my son.”
“You failed him.”
She looked at him.
“That sounds worse.”
“It should.”
She nodded slowly.
“I don’t want you to forgive me.”
“This isn’t about me.”
“I know.”
She looked toward the hallway where Mateo had disappeared.
“It’s about whether he ever can.”
Adrian stood.
“Then stop trying to make him forgive you.”
“Start becoming someone worth forgiving.”
The words stayed with her.
Then Adrian’s phone buzzed.
A banking alert.
Every Laurent corporate account had been frozen.
A second message arrived.
From Victoria.
YOU WANT THE TRUTH?
May you like
COME TO THE WEDDING CHAPEL AT MIDNIGHT.
ALONE.
