Chapter 14 - THE PERSON BEHIND THE DOOR
The next morning, the Moretti estate felt different.
Not like a home.
Like a battlefield.
Everyone was watching everyone.
Every hallway felt dangerous.
Every conversation felt like a trap.
Lorenzo gathered the remaining staff.
“I want everyone questioned.”
Nobody argued.
Because now everyone understood.
The enemy had been inside the walls the entire time.
I stayed with Mia.
I couldn’t let her out of my sight.
Not anymore.
She sat on the floor drawing again.
I watched her carefully.
“Mia.”
“Yes, Mama?”
“Do you remember Daddy?”
She nodded.
“Sometimes.”
“What do you remember?”
She looked at her picture.
“He was always worried.”
My heart tightened.
“What else?”
“He told me a secret.”
“What secret?”
She leaned closer.
“He said if anything bad happened…”
She touched her rabbit.
“I should find the door.”
I froze.
“What door?”
Mia pointed upstairs.
“The door where the song lives.”
I followed her eyes.
The forbidden door.
The place where everything started.
That afternoon, Lorenzo and I returned to the medical wing.
He stood by the window.
“You hate me.”
I looked at him.
“I don’t know what I feel.”
“That’s fair.”
“You knew Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about me.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me struggle alone.”
His face tightened.
“I tried to help.”
“But you stayed silent.”
“I thought silence would protect you.”
I shook my head.
“Silence hurt me more.”
He looked away.
“You’re right.”
That surprised me.
Because powerful people rarely admitted when they were wrong.
Then something happened.
The heart monitor beside Lorenzo suddenly started beeping.
Not because of him.
Because of another device.
An old recorder hidden inside the wall.
Lorenzo looked confused.
“What is that?”
We opened the panel.
Inside was a small storage device.
A final message.
From Daniel.
The video started.
Daniel appeared on the screen.
Older.
Tired.
But smiling.
“Clara.”
I immediately started crying.
“If you are seeing this, then Mia is old enough to understand.”
He looked down.
“I’m sorry.”
The words broke me.
“I wanted to come home.”
A pause.
“But I couldn’t.”
Daniel continued.
“Mia was never the problem.”
He smiled softly.
“She was the reason I kept fighting.”
Then his expression changed.
“Someone will try to tell you that the Morettis are monsters.”
He looked directly at the camera.
“That isn’t true.”
A pause.
“But one of them is.”
The video ended.
Then the screen flashed.
A location appeared.
A warehouse address.
Lorenzo looked at it.
“That’s where Matteo kept his records.”
My heart raced.
“Then let’s go.”
Lorenzo looked at me.
“It’s dangerous.”
I looked toward Mia.
“No more hiding.”
That night, security discovered something.
Someone had already left the estate.
Someone who knew we found the message.
Someone who had been watching everything.
A car was found abandoned outside the gates.
Inside was one thing.
A photograph.
A photograph of Daniel.
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And written on the back:
YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO FIND HER.
