Chapter 13 - THE TRUTH THAT DESTROYED EVERYTHING
For several seconds…
I forgot how to breathe.
The words repeated inside my head.
The person who ordered my death…
Was you.
I looked at Elena.
Waiting for her to take it back.
Waiting for her to say it was a misunderstanding.
A trick.
A lie.
But she didn’t.
And that was the most terrifying part.
“Explain.”
My voice was empty.
Elena looked like she had been carrying those words for nineteen years.
“Daniel…”
“Explain.”
This time my voice was louder.
Gabriel watched silently.
Thomas smiled.
Because they knew something I didn’t.
And I hated that.
Elena stepped closer.
“The night of the accident…”
She swallowed.
“You were not yourself.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“You had discovered someone inside your organization was betraying you.”
I remembered.
The weeks before Elena disappeared.
The missing money.
The leaked information.
The people turning against me.
“I was investigating.”
Elena nodded.
“Yes.”
“And?”
“You became obsessed.”
I looked away.
Because part of me knew she was right.
The Ghost was never satisfied with finding the truth.
He wanted punishment.
He wanted control.
He wanted everyone who threatened him to disappear.
“I was protecting our family.”
Elena’s eyes filled with sadness.
“No, Daniel.”
A pause.
“You were protecting The Ghost.”
Those words hurt.
Because they sounded exactly like something Elena would say.
I looked at Gabriel.
“What does he have to do with this?”
Gabriel stepped forward.
“Everything.”
My expression hardened.
“You have been waiting nineteen years to say that?”
He nodded.
“Because you would never listen before.”
“Try me.”
Gabriel looked at Elena.
“The night she disappeared, Daniel ordered a cleanup.”
My eyes narrowed.
“A cleanup?”
Thomas answered.
“The people who betrayed you were supposed to disappear.”
I looked at him.
“And?”
Thomas smiled.
“And Elena was one of the targets.”
Silence.
“No.”
I shook my head.
“I would never.”
Elena looked at me.
“You did not know it was me.”
The room became still.
My mind raced.
The Ghost had many enemies.
Many operations.
Many orders.
But I controlled everything.
Every instruction.
Every movement.
“Who gave the order?”
Gabriel answered:
“You did.”
I stepped back.
Impossible.
I remembered that night.
The anger.
The betrayal.
The feeling that everyone around me was lying.
But Elena?
Never.
Never.
“I would remember.”
Gabriel looked at me.
“That is exactly why they were able to use you.”
My eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
Thomas smiled.
“Your enemies.”
He walked closer.
“You thought you controlled The Ghost.”
A pause.
“But someone else controlled what The Ghost saw.”
I understood.
Someone had manipulated information.
Someone had made me believe Elena was a threat.
Someone had turned me against my own family.
My stomach tightened.
“Victor.”
Thomas laughed.
“No.”
“Then who?”
He looked directly at me.
“Your father.”
The room became silent.
My father.
A man who had been dead for years.
A man I remembered as strict.
Cold.
Demanding.
But not a criminal.
Not this.
“You’re lying.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“I wish I was.”
He pulled out an old file.
A document.
A photograph.
He placed it in front of me.
My father’s signature.
On an Argentis document.
My hands froze.
“He created the system before you.”
Gabriel continued.
“You only inherited it.”
I stared at the paper.
My entire identity began collapsing.
I thought I escaped my father’s shadow.
But maybe…
I had been living inside it.
Elena stepped closer.
“I discovered the truth after Renata was born.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I saw what happened when you learned someone betrayed you.”
She looked at Thomas.
“You destroyed people.”
Then she looked at me.
“I was afraid you would destroy yourself.”
I closed my eyes.
Because the worst part was…
I understood.
A sound interrupted us.
A phone ringing.
Everyone looked around.
It was mine.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A young voice spoke.
“Dad?”
My heart stopped.
Renata.
“Where are you?”
A pause.
“I don’t know.”
I stood still.
“What happened?”
Her breathing became shaky.
“Isabella and I found something.”
“What?”
She whispered:
“The person behind everything.”
I looked around the warehouse.
“Tell me.”
Silence.
Then Renata said:
“Dad…”
Her voice cracked.
“Mom didn’t hide Isabella from you.”
A pause.
“She hid you from Isabella.”
I froze.
“What?”
Renata continued:
“Because Isabella was told her whole life that you were the reason Mom suffered.”
My chest tightened.
Someone had turned my daughters against me.
Someone had spent nineteen years creating a lie.
“Who told her that?”
The line became silent.
Then I heard another voice.
A woman.
Isabella.
“Hello, Daniel.”
I closed my eyes.
“Isabella.”
Her voice was cold.
“You want the truth?”
“Yes.”
“Then come here.”
“Where?”
She answered:
“The place where Elena was supposed to die.”
The old highway.
The accident location.
My blood ran cold.
“Why?”
Her voice trembled.
“Because that is where I found the truth.”
The call ended.
I looked at Elena.
She was crying.
“Daniel…”
“What?”
She whispered:
“If you go there…”
A pause.
“You will finally learn who you really are.”
I looked at the people around me.
My wife.
My brother.
My former enemy.
Everyone had a piece of the truth.
Everyone except me.
For nineteen years, I thought I was running from my past.
But now I understood.
My past was waiting.
And the person I feared most…
Was not Victor Hale.
Not Thomas Reed.
Not even my father.
It was the possibility that everything I hated…
May you like
Was something I had created myself.
TO BE CONTINUED...
