Chapter 5 - The Secret Beneath the Family Empire
The gun was pointed at me.
But I wasn't looking at the weapon.
I was looking at my brother.
Adrian Moretti.
The same man who had shared my childhood.
The same man who had stood beside me during my father's funeral.
The same man who had spent twenty years telling me he was protecting me.
Now he stood in front of me with a gun in his hand.
And my daughter was gone.
"Put it down."
My voice was calm.
Too calm.
Adrian knew that voice.
Everyone who knew me knew that voice.
It meant I was no longer angry.
I was thinking.
"Dominic, listen to me."
"No."
I looked at the gun.
Then at him.
"You listen."
His hand trembled slightly.
Not from fear.
From guilt.
"You took her."
His face changed.
"I didn't."
"Then explain why my daughter disappeared the second your secret was exposed."
He looked away.
That was the answer.
The room felt smaller.
The air felt heavier.
Twenty years of questions had finally reached one moment.
One person.
My own brother.
"You always thought you were smarter than everyone else."
Adrian swallowed.
"I was trying to fix what you couldn't."
"Fix?"
I stepped closer.
"You destroyed my life."
"No."
His voice became louder.
"You destroyed yourself."
The words hit harder than I expected.
Because somewhere inside me, I had wondered the same thing.
After Elena disappeared, I became colder.
More ruthless.
More dangerous.
I built walls so high nobody could reach me.
Not even myself.
But Adrian didn't get to use my pain as an excuse.
"You don't get to decide who I become."
He lowered the gun slightly.
"I didn't want Lily hurt."
"Then where is she?"
Silence.
A terrible silence.
The kind that reveals more than words.
I moved toward him.
"Where is my daughter?"
Adrian closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, I saw something I had never seen before.
Regret.
"She's not just some random child you found on the street."
"I know."
"You don't understand."
"Then make me understand."
He looked at the broken window.
Then at the empty hallway.
Then back at me.
"Lily is the reason Elena died."
The sentence froze everything.
For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.
"What did you say?"
Adrian looked broken.
"Elena wasn't running from you."
I stared at him.
"She was running from them."
"Who?"
He didn't answer.
Because before he could, the woman who had been standing downstairs appeared at the doorway.
Her face was pale.
"Dominic..."
I turned toward her.
"You knew."
She looked down.
"You need to hear the whole truth."
I laughed quietly.
"The whole truth?"
I looked around.
"My daughter is missing."
"My brother is holding a gun."
"I just found out the woman I loved was murdered."
I stepped closer.
"And you want to tell me there is more?"
Nobody answered.
Because there was.
There was always more.
That was the problem with secrets.
They never came alone.
I lowered my voice.
"Start talking."
The woman walked slowly into the room.
Her name was Maria.
Elena's mother.
The woman who had spent twenty years hiding.
"The night Elena disappeared, she discovered something about your family."
I frowned.
"My family?"
Maria nodded.
"Not you."
She looked at Adrian.
"Him."
My eyes moved toward my brother.
Adrian didn't deny it.
That was the first time I saw him truly afraid.
"What did he do?"
Maria took a deep breath.
"Twenty years ago, your father was not just building an empire."
I said nothing.
I already knew that.
My father had been many things.
A businessman.
A criminal.
A man who believed power solved every problem.
But Maria continued.
"He was building a system."
"What system?"
"A way to control everything."
She looked at me.
"Money. Police. Politicians. Companies."
I frowned.
"And Elena found out?"
"Yes."
"How?"
Maria hesitated.
"Because she found the records."
My mind went back to the envelope.
The photographs.
The documents.
The hidden evidence.
"What records?"
"The names of everyone your father controlled."
The room went quiet.
Because I understood.
This wasn't about money.
It wasn't about inheritance.
It was about power.
A secret powerful enough to destroy everyone involved.
"Elena wanted to expose it."
Maria continued.
"She believed you would help her."
My chest tightened.
"Why didn't she come to me?"
Adrian answered.
"Because I stopped her."
I looked at him.
The room became silent.
"You."
His voice was barely above a whisper.
"I convinced her you would choose the empire."
My expression changed.
"Why?"
He looked at the floor.
"Because I was afraid."
"Of what?"
"Of losing everything."
There it was.
The truth.
Not loyalty.
Not protection.
Fear.
Adrian had betrayed everyone because he was afraid of losing power.
"What happened to Elena?"
Maria looked away.
"She tried to escape."
"And?"
A tear rolled down her face.
"She didn't make it."
I closed my eyes.
For one second.
Only one second.
I allowed myself to remember her.
Her smile.
Her voice.
The way she used to tell me I wasn't the monster everyone believed I was.
Then I opened my eyes.
Because grief could wait.
My daughter couldn't.
"Where is Lily?"
Nobody spoke.
I grabbed Adrian by the collar.
"Where is my daughter?"
He didn't fight.
That scared me more.
"I don't know."
I pushed him back.
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
He looked at me.
"The people who took Lily aren't working for me."
"Who are they?"
Adrian looked toward the hallway.
Then whispered:
"The same people who killed Elena."
My phone suddenly rang.
Everyone froze.
The number was unknown.
I answered.
No one spoke.
Only breathing.
Then a child's voice.
"Daddy?"
My heart stopped.
"Lily?"
A quiet sob came through the phone.
"Please hurry."
I gripped the phone.
"Where are you?"
Before she could answer, another voice took the phone.
A man's voice.
Calm.
Controlled.
A voice that sounded like it had been waiting twenty years.
"Hello, Dominic."
I froze.
Because I knew that voice.
I had heard it once before.
The night my father died.
The man continued:
"Your daughter has something that belongs to us."
I tightened my grip.
"Who are you?"
A pause.
Then the answer.
"The person who has been cleaning up your family's mistakes."
The call ended.
At the exact same moment, every light in the mansion turned back on.
And on the wall across from me was a message written in red.
May you like
Three words.
"COME ALONE, DOMINIC."
