Chapter 6 - Adrien’s First Promise
Elena could not move.
“My mother is dead.”
Miguel lowered his head.
“No.”
Elena turned on him.
“What?”
“I’m sorry.”
The apology landed harder than a confession.
Adrien stood but did not touch Elena.
He waited.
She reached for his hand herself.
Only then did he close his fingers around hers.
The woman entered.
Time had altered Isabel Cruz.
Her hair was silver at the temples. Her face was thinner. A scar crossed her left cheek.
But Elena knew her.
“Mamá?”
Isabel broke.
“Elena.”
Elena slapped her.
The sound cracked through the room.
Adrien did not interfere.
Isabel touched her cheek.
“I deserved that.”
“You let me bury you.”
“I know.”
“I stood beside an empty coffin?”
“Yes.”
“You let me believe I had nobody.”
Tears rolled down Isabel’s face.
“You had to believe it.”
“Why?”
“Because Vittorio was watching.”
Isabel explained.
Nine years earlier, she had learned that someone was searching again for Daniel.
Sofia was already dead.
Gabriel believed Isabel would be used to reach both children.
So they staged her death.
Elena had been kept outside the truth because genuine grief was impossible to fake under surveillance.
Elena felt sick.
“You protected me by destroying me.”
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it.”
“I won’t ask forgiveness.”
“Good.”
Isabel looked toward Adrien.
“You kept your promise.”
Adrien frowned.
“What promise?”
“To leave her alone when she asked.”
“How would you know?”
“Gabriel watched.”
Adrien’s expression hardened.
Elena squeezed his hand.
He stayed still.
Isabel noticed.
“Sofia would have been proud.”
“Don’t talk about my mother as though you knew what she wanted.”
“I did know.”
Isabel reached into her coat.
Bell immediately stopped her.
It was only a photograph.
Sofia held eighteen-year-old Adrien in front of a birthday cake.
On the back:
HE MUST BECOME BETTER THAN VITTORIO.
Adrien read it twice.
Elena watched his eyes turn wet.
He blinked the emotion away.
“Where is Daniel?”
Isabel hesitated.
“Gabriel moved him six months ago.”
“Why?”
“Because someone reopened MRL-27B.”
Adrien’s gaze sharpened.
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
“Inside my company?”
“Yes.”
Adrien looked toward Elena.
The betrayal wounded him differently.
Moretti Logistics had been the legitimate company he built from the remains of his father’s empire.
He had spent years cutting criminal operations away from it.
Yet someone had preserved the old network.
MRL-27B had survived.
“Why target Elena now?”
Isabel’s eyes moved toward Elena’s abdomen, then stopped.
“The pregnancy.”
“How did they know?”
“Medical records.”
Adrien swore quietly.
Isabel continued.
“Whoever reopened the route wanted another Moretti child documented.”
Elena’s blood chilled.
“Luca.”
“Yes.”
Adrien stood.
“No one gets near him.”
Elena looked up.
“Adrien.”
He caught himself.
Then crouched beside her.
“What do you want?”
She studied him.
“Promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“Don’t become your father trying to protect our son from him.”
Adrien’s face tightened.
“That’s not an easy promise.”
“I know.”
He looked at their joined hands.
Then into her eyes.
“I promise.”
It was the first promise Elena truly believed.
That evening, Isabel was taken into protective custody.
Miguel agreed to cooperate.
Elena returned to the hotel.
Luca slept between feedings.
Adrien sat outside the room because Elena had asked for space.
At midnight she opened the door.
He was still there.
“You could use the adjoining room.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you sitting in a hallway?”
“I didn’t want you to think I was assuming.”
Elena stared at him.
“Who are you?”
“I’m having a difficult month.”
She laughed.
It surprised both of them.
Then Luca cried.
Adrien followed her inside only after she nodded.
Together they changed a diaper.
Adrien looked more frightened by the diaper than he had by armed men.
Elena laughed again.
For ten minutes, they were almost normal.
Then Adrien’s phone rang.
Marco.
“I found the breach.”
Adrien put the call on speaker.
“Where?”
“Inside Moretti Logistics.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know yet. But someone accessed restricted archives six weeks ago.”
Six weeks.
The exact week Adrien stopped searching for Elena.
Elena understood.
“They were waiting for you to stop watching me.”
Adrien closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Marco continued.
“And there’s something else. Whoever accessed the system used executive authorization.”
Adrien frowned.
“Only you and I have executive authorization.”
“No.”
Marco’s voice became quiet.
“There’s a third credential.”
Adrien went still.
“That account was terminated eleven years ago.”
“I know.”
“Whose?”
Marco hesitated.
“Your mother’s.”
Silence.
Then the hotel lights went out.
Luca began crying.
Adrien moved toward Elena but stopped inches away.
“Can I?”
“Yes.”
He took Luca.
Emergency lights flickered on.
A shadow passed beneath the hall door.
Someone slid a white envelope into the room.
Adrien stared at it.
Elena picked it up.
Inside was a Moretti Logistics access card.
SOFIA MORETTI.
May you like
And beneath it, one handwritten sentence:
YOUR MOTHER NEVER DIED AT ST. CATHERINE’S.
