Chapter 2 - The Secret Elena Died Protecting
Victor moved Hannah through a hidden door behind the library.
“Where are we going?”
“Safe room.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me why armed men want my baby.”
“Keep moving.”
“No.”
Victor stopped.
Gunfire echoed through the mansion.
Hannah stood her ground.
“You knew my mother.”
“Yes.”
“You said she was killed because of you.”
“Yes.”
“And somehow that necklace puts Lily in danger.”
“Yes.”
Hannah’s voice rose.
“Then start explaining!”
Victor stared at her.
“Your mother worked for my father.”
Hannah blinked.
“My mother was an accountant.”
“For Moretti Holdings.”
“She never told me that.”
“She wasn’t allowed to.”
Victor pushed open a steel door.
Inside was a fortified room with monitors showing every corner of the property.
Men were fighting near the gates.
Victor locked the door.
“Elena discovered my father’s organization had been infiltrated.”
“By who?”
“A man named Carlo Vescari.”
Victor pointed to Lily’s locket.
“That symbol belongs to the Rossi family.”
“My family?”
“Your grandfather wasn’t just a jeweler, Hannah.”
She gave him an exhausted look.
“Please don’t tell me he was another gangster.”
Victor almost smiled.
“He was a locksmith.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“He designed secure vault systems for banks, governments…and men like my father.”
Hannah stared at him.
“What does that have to do with Lily?”
“Everything.”
Victor sat opposite her.
“Seventeen years ago, Elena discovered Vescari was stealing from several families and preparing to eliminate my father.”
“And?”
“She collected proof.”
“Where?”
“We never found it.”
Victor looked at the locket.
“Until now.”
Hannah instinctively covered it.
“You think this contains evidence?”
“I think it contains a key.”
“To what?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
Victor leaned closer.
“If I knew, Vescari wouldn’t have spent seventeen years looking for it.”
Hannah suddenly remembered something.
“My mother gave me this the night before she died.”
Victor’s expression tightened.
“What did she say?”
Hannah closed her eyes.
The memory returned.
Her mother kneeling beside her bed.
Her shaking hands.
Her whispered words.
“Keep this close. Someday it may protect you.”
Hannah opened her eyes.
“She told me never to sell it.”
Victor nodded slowly.
“She knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That Vescari was coming.”
Hannah’s eyes filled with anger.
“And you?”
Victor didn’t answer.
“Were you there?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Victor looked toward the security screens.
“I was twenty-three. Arrogant. Stupid. I believed I could expose Vescari myself.”
His jaw tightened.
“Elena warned me not to confront him.”
“But you did.”
“Yes.”
“And he killed her.”
Victor met Hannah’s eyes.
“He planted the bomb intended for me.”
Hannah recoiled.
“So she died because she was near you?”
“She died because she pushed me out of the car before it exploded.”
The room fell silent.
Hannah whispered, “She saved you?”
“Yes.”
“And you never came looking for me?”
That question hit harder.
Victor looked away.
“I was told you had been sent overseas with relatives.”
“You believed that?”
“I was twenty-three and surrounded by liars.”
Hannah laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
“It isn’t an excuse.”
“No.”
“It’s the truth.”
A guard’s voice came through Victor’s radio.
“Boss, attackers retreating.”
Victor answered.
“Prisoners?”
“One alive.”
“Bring him downstairs.”
Hannah stood.
“What happens now?”
“Now we find out how Vescari discovered Lily.”
“Then I leave.”
“No.”
Victor’s answer came instantly.
“You don’t decide that.”
“Tonight someone attacked my home because your daughter carries something men have murdered for.”
Hannah moved closer.
“She is my daughter.”
“And Elena died saving my life.”
Victor looked directly at Lily.
“I owe your family a debt I’ve spent seventeen years unable to repay.”
Hannah’s expression hardened.
“Lily isn’t your redemption.”
“No.”
Victor opened the steel door.
“She’s my responsibility until the people hunting her are gone.”
Hannah followed him.
“Victor?”
He turned.
“If anything happens to my daughter because of you—”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
Hannah held Lily tighter.
“I will burn your entire world down.”
May you like
For the first time that night, Victor Moretti smiled.
“Now I believe you’re Elena’s daughter.”
