Chapter 14 - THE LAST MESSAGE FROM MY MOTHER
The mansion became a battlefield.
Glass shattered.
Security alarms screamed.
Footsteps moved through the darkness.
I stayed hidden with Marco and Isabella while Adrien fought his way toward the attackers.
The strange thing was…
I wasn’t afraid for myself anymore.
I was afraid for him.
The man I had every reason to hate.
The man who had lied.
The man who had still protected me.
Marco looked at me.
“You trust him?”
I hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
That was the truth.
“But I know he could have abandoned me.”
Marco nodded.
“And he didn’t.”
Before I could answer, Isabella spoke.
“You still don’t understand him.”
I looked at her.
“You hate him.”
She smiled faintly.
“I was created to replace you.”
A pause.
“But I spent my entire life studying you.”
I frowned.
“Why?”
“Because everyone wanted to know why your mother chose you.”
My voice softened.
“What did she see in me?”
Isabella looked away.
“She saw a daughter.”
The answer hurt.
Because I realized something.
Isabella wasn’t my enemy.
She was another victim.
Someone else who had been used.
Suddenly, a voice came through the mansion speakers.
A voice I had never heard.
But somehow…
I recognized it.
“Lena.”
I froze.
My mother.
Impossible.
Everyone stopped.
The voice continued.
“If you are hearing this, they failed to erase the truth.”
Tears filled my eyes.
A recording.
My mother’s final message.
“Lena, I need you to know something.”
A pause.
“I never left you.”
I covered my mouth.
“I was forced to disappear because someone I trusted betrayed me.”
The recording continued.
“The person who destroyed our family was not your father.”
Adrien stopped somewhere in the mansion.
Everyone listened.
“It was the person who convinced him to do it.”
A pause.
“The person who stood beside him for years.”
My heart raced.
“Alessandro?”
Isabella whispered.
But then my mother said the name.
And everyone froze.
“Victor Moretti.”
The former soldier.
The man who had tried to kill us.
The man everyone thought was only a follower.
My mother continued:
“Victor wanted control of the Viscari empire. He manipulated your grandfather, your father, and everyone around him.”
The recording crackled.
“But there is one thing he never knew.”
Silence.
“The evidence was never hidden.”
My heart pounded.
“It was with Lena.”
I looked down.
The necklace.
The key.
My mother’s final words echoed.
“Your heart remembers what your mind forgot.”
Then the recording ended.
A gunshot exploded downstairs.
Marco looked toward the hallway.
“He found us.”
Victor Moretti stepped into the room.
Older.
Cold.
Still dangerous.
He looked at me.
“You really are your mother’s daughter.”
Adrien appeared behind him.
His weapon aimed directly at Victor.
“This ends tonight.”
Victor smiled.
“No, Adrien.”
May you like
He looked at me.
“It ends when she remembers.”
