Chapter 11 - What Adrien’s Father Had Done
They returned to the Moretti estate with Bell.
No one went alone.
No one improvised.
Adrien repeated that twice, mostly to himself.
The blanket led them to Sofia’s old bedroom.
Behind a wardrobe, investigators found a hidden compartment.
Inside were Vittorio’s journals.
Sofia had never known they existed.
Adrien read the first pages.
Then stopped.
“I can’t.”
Elena sat beside him.
“You don’t have to.”
“I do.”
“No. You can choose to.”
He looked at her.
That distinction gave him strength.
He continued.
Vittorio had documented everything.
MRL-27B.
Elias.
Daniel.
The medical blackmail operation.
But another truth emerged.
Vittorio had not ordered Sofia’s death.
He had ordered her imprisoned.
Elias had planned to kill her.
Gabriel helped Sofia escape before the procedure.
The coffin contained another unidentified woman.
Adrien shut the journal.
“My father knew she survived.”
Sofia nodded.
“For years.”
“And he never told me.”
“He used your grief.”
Adrien looked sick.
Vittorio had shaped his son through loss.
Every lesson about weakness.
Every warning about trust.
Every demand that Adrien control people before they could leave him.
It had all grown from a lie.
Elena touched his hand.
“You’re not him.”
“I hear his voice every time I’m afraid.”
“Then answer with your own.”
Adrien looked at her.
“I love you.”
Elena went still.
He did not continue.
No demand.
No expectation.
Just truth.
“I know,” she whispered.
“That’s all.”
“No, it isn’t.”
She kissed him.
Softly.
Briefly.
When she pulled away, Adrien looked stunned.
“You can stop looking terrified.”
“I’m not terrified.”
“You look terrified.”
“I’m processing.”
Despite the nightmare around them, Elena smiled.
Bell interrupted.
“We found something.”
The final journal contained a location.
An underground storage room beneath St. Catherine’s.
Police had missed it.
The archive.
If Elias reached it first, he could destroy the evidence.
Sofia insisted on going.
So did Gabriel.
Bell refused both.
Daniel volunteered.
Adrien looked at him.
Then asked, “What do you want?”
Daniel smiled faintly.
“You really are learning.”
The police entered the underground level the following morning.
The room contained decades of records.
Hundreds of victims.
Daniel’s original medical file.
And a refrigerated evidence cabinet.
Inside were preserved samples.
Elias had been trying to rebuild the program.
But one compartment was empty.
Label:
LM-01.
Luca Moretti.
Elena’s blood turned cold.
“He has a sample from Luca?”
Bell checked hospital records.
A routine blood draw taken after birth had disappeared.
Adrien closed his eyes.
He was fighting himself.
Elena knew it.
“Say it.”
“I want to lock you and Luca somewhere no one can reach.”
“And?”
“And I know that isn’t my decision.”
She squeezed his hand.
“Good.”
Bell’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her face changed.
“What?”
Everyone turned.
“Elias was spotted at Mercy General.”
Elena’s heart stopped.
Isabel was there with Luca.
They ran.
By the time they reached the maternity floor, security had sealed it.
Isabel was safe.
Luca was safe.
Elias was gone.
But he had entered the nursery.
He had left a black envelope inside Luca’s cradle.
Adrien opened it with gloves.
A single photograph slid out.
It showed Vittorio Moretti holding a newborn.
On the back:
ADRIEN WAS NOT HIS FIRST SON.
Adrien stared.
Sofia whispered, “No.”
He turned toward her.
“You know.”
She shook her head.
“Sofia.”
Her eyes filled.
“Your father had another child before you.”
“Who?”
Sofia looked toward the corridor.
Footsteps approached.
Gabriel appeared.
He carried one final file.
He placed it in Adrien’s hands.
The birth certificate was twenty years older than Daniel’s.
Father:
VITTORIO MORETTI.
Mother:
CAMILLE LAURENT.
Child:
ELIAS MORETTI.
Adrien looked up.
Elias Voss was not merely Elena’s uncle.
May you like
He was Adrien’s half-brother.
And somewhere inside Mercy General, an alarm suddenly began to scream.
