Chapter 11 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER DIED
The cemetery was empty.
Cold wind moved through the trees.
The kind of place where secrets felt alive.
Adrien walked beside me.
His men stayed several feet away.
For once, he wasn’t acting like a mafia boss.
He was just a man searching for answers.
My answers.
Our answers.
When we reached my mother’s grave, I stopped.
The stone was old.
Covered with leaves.
But there was something wrong.
A date.
A name.
Everything looked normal.
Except one thing.
The grave was empty.
Adrien noticed my expression.
“What?”
I pointed.
“There’s no record of a burial.”
His face hardened.
“What?”
I touched the stone.
“This was created to make people believe she was dead.”
A cold silence followed.
Alessandro stepped out from behind the trees.
Nobody moved.
Adrien immediately reached for his weapon.
“You have some courage showing your face.”
Alessandro smiled.
“Or maybe I know something you don’t.”
Adrien stood between us.
“You’re going to tell us everything.”
Alessandro looked at me.
“No.”
His eyes softened.
“Your mother should have told you herself.”
My voice shook.
“Where is she?”
He looked away.
That one second told me everything.
“She’s alive.”
The world stopped.
I couldn’t breathe.
“No.”
“Yes.”
I stepped forward.
“My mother is alive?”
Alessandro nodded.
“She survived.”
Tears filled my eyes.
Twenty years.
Twenty years believing I was alone.
“Where is she?”
Before Alessandro could answer, a gunshot exploded.
He fell backward.
Everyone reacted instantly.
Adrien pulled me behind him.
His men searched the area.
The shooter was gone.
Alessandro was on the ground.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Adrien knelt beside him.
“Who shot you?”
Alessandro grabbed Adrien’s arm.
His voice was weak.
“Not who you think.”
Adrien leaned closer.
“Who?”
Alessandro looked at me.
Then whispered:
“Your mother never ran from us.”
A pause.
“She ran from someone who had your face.”
My heart froze.
“What does that mean?”
Alessandro’s eyes closed.
But before he lost consciousness, he said:
“There is another Lena.”
The cemetery went silent.
Back at the mansion, nobody spoke.
Adrien sat across from me.
“Another Lena?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t understand.”
Marco placed a file on the table.
“We found this in Alessandro’s belongings.”
Inside were documents.
Photos.
Reports.
And one picture.
A girl.
Same age as me.
Same eyes.
Same face.
I stared at the photograph.
“No.”
Adrien looked at me.
“Lena…”
My hands covered my mouth.
Because the girl in the photo wasn’t a stranger.
She looked exactly like me.
The file had one name.
Lena Viscari.
And beneath it:
Subject: Replacement Identity Program.
My blood ran cold.
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Someone had spent twenty years preparing another version of me.
Someone wanted the real Lena to disappear.
