Chapter 12 - DANIEL’S FINAL MESSAGE
The room felt frozen.
Nobody spoke.
Not Isabella.
Not Lorenzo.
Not even me.
I held Daniel’s letter with shaking hands.
The handwriting was familiar.
The same handwriting from the note hidden inside Mia’s rabbit.
The same handwriting from the man who disappeared and left me with a thousand unanswered questions.
I started reading.
Clara,
I know you are angry.
You have every right to be.
You probably believe I abandoned you.
But I need you to know one thing.
Leaving you was the hardest thing I ever did.
My eyes filled with tears.
Because those were the words I had waited years to hear.
But they came too late.
The letter continued.
Daniel explained everything.
He discovered that someone inside the Moretti family had been moving money illegally.
He found documents.
Proof.
Names.
Dates.
Everything.
But when he tried to expose it, someone threatened the people he loved.
Me.
And Mia.
Especially Mia.
Because she carried something nobody understood.
A connection to the past.
I looked at Lorenzo.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He looked devastated.
“Because Daniel made me promise.”
“A promise?”
“He told me if anything happened to him, I had to protect you without revealing the truth.”
I shook my head.
“You let me hate him.”
“I know.”
“You let me believe he left us.”
His eyes lowered.
“I know.”
The letter continued.
Then came the part that made everyone silent.
Mia has something special.
Not because she is powerful.
Not because she is part of the Moretti family.
But because she remembers what everyone else forgot.
I looked at Mia.
She was holding her rabbit.
Confused.
Scared.
But calm.
The final page had one sentence.
A warning.
Do not trust the person who protected this secret for years.
I stopped.
Because that sentence changed everything.
I looked at Isabella.
She looked at me.
“What?”
I slowly lowered the letter.
“Daniel warned me about someone.”
Nobody spoke.
“Someone who protected the secret.”
The room became silent.
Then Lorenzo looked at Isabella.
And for the first time...
he looked suspicious.
Suddenly, the lights went out.
Again.
A loud sound came from outside.
Glass breaking.
Someone screamed.
Security rushed into the hallway.
Then a voice came through the speakers.
A voice everyone recognized.
Victor.
“You wanted the truth?”
The speakers crackled.
“Fine.”
A pause.
“Ask Isabella why Daniel trusted her…”
Another pause.
“And ask her why she was the last person who saw him alive.”
I turned slowly.
And looked at Isabella.
Her face had lost all color.
“Is it true?”
She didn’t answer.
“Isabella.”
Her lips trembled.
“I can explain.”
But before she could continue...
Mia spoke.
A quiet voice.
A child’s voice.
“He wasn’t alone that night.”
Everyone froze.
I looked down.
“Mia?”
She stared at the old photograph in my hand.
Then whispered:
“Daddy was crying.”
My heart stopped.
“What did you say?”
She pointed at the picture.
“He told me.”
A pause.
“He said the person who hurt him was someone he loved.”
Nobody moved.
Because suddenly the biggest mystery wasn’t who betrayed Daniel.
It was something much worse.
Who had Daniel loved enough...
May you like
to never suspect them?
TO BE CONTINUED...
