Chapter 5 - The Brother Behind The Locked Door
The voice upstairs said my name again.
"Alejandro..."
I didn't move.
I couldn't.
Because my mind was trying to understand something impossible.
Matteo was standing in front of me.
Alive.
Breathing.
Looking at me with the same eyes I remembered from twenty years ago.
But someone who sounded exactly like him was standing above us.
The four boys were silent.
Elena held them tightly.
And for a moment, nobody in that room was thinking about secrets.
Nobody was thinking about Sofia.
Everyone was thinking the same thing.
There were two Matteos.
I looked at my brother.
His face had lost all color.
"Tell me that's not him."
My voice was barely above a whisper.
Matteo didn't answer.
That was worse.
I had faced people who wanted me dead.
I had walked into rooms where every person inside wanted something from me.
But this was different.
This was my family.
And family had always been the one thing I couldn't predict.
The footsteps continued above us.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Not someone sneaking.
Someone making sure we knew they were coming.
I looked toward the staircase.
"Who is upstairs?"
Matteo finally spoke.
"You don't want to see him."
I turned back.
"That's not your decision."
His eyes hardened.
"Alejandro."
"No."
I stepped closer.
"You disappeared for twenty years."
My voice grew colder.
"My wife hid my children from me."
I pointed toward the stairs.
"And now someone who sounds like you is walking around my house."
I looked directly at him.
"So don't tell me what I want."
Matteo lowered his head.
For a second, he looked older.
Not twenty years older.
A lifetime older.
"There are things you don't know about our family."
I almost smiled.
"Apparently there are things everyone knows except me."
The words hit him.
Good.
They should have.
Because I was tired of being the last person to discover the truth about my own life.
Elena stepped forward.
"Alejandro, please."
I looked at her.
"What else?"
She froze.
"What?"
"What else are you hiding?"
Her mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
And that was the answer.
More secrets.
More lies.
More years of people deciding what I deserved to know.
A loud sound came from upstairs.
A door closing.
Then silence.
Matteo looked toward the staircase.
His expression changed.
"He knows we're here."
I stared at him.
"Who?"
Before he answered, the lights returned.
All of them.
The mansion came back to life.
But something was different.
The security monitors turned on.
Every camera feed appeared on the screens.
The hallway.
The entrance.
The garden.
The dining room.
Then one camera changed.
A camera I didn't recognize.
The image showed a hidden room beneath the mansion.
My mansion.
A room I had never seen.
My breathing slowed.
Because in the center of that room was a table.
On the table were photographs.
Documents.
And a large folder.
With my name on it.
ALEJANDRO MORETTI.
The camera moved closer.
Someone was controlling it.
Showing us.
A message appeared on the screen.
YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO FIND THIS ROOM.
Nobody spoke.
I looked at Matteo.
"You knew."
He shook his head.
"No."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I swear."
"Then explain."
Matteo looked at the screen.
"I didn't know about the room."
I watched him carefully.
Because Matteo had lied before.
But this time...
I believed him.
That scared me more.
Because if Matteo didn't know...
Then who did?
A sound came from the hallway.
The boys looked toward it.
One of them whispered:
"Mommy said we should never go there."
I turned.
"Where?"
The boy pointed.
Toward the wall behind the dining room.
My eyes narrowed.
The wall.
I had lived in this house for fifteen years.
I knew every room.
Every entrance.
Every hidden space.
Or I thought I did.
I walked toward the wall.
Elena immediately grabbed my arm.
"Don't."
I looked at her.
"Why?"
Her voice shook.
"Because Sofia told me if you ever found that door..."
She stopped.
"What door?"
Elena looked at the wall.
"The one your father built."
I stepped back.
"My father?"
She nodded.
"Before he died."
I stared at the wall.
Another hidden piece.
Another thing my family had buried.
I pressed my hand against it.
Nothing.
Then I noticed something.
A small mark.
Almost invisible.
A symbol carved into the wood.
The same symbol that was on the old key Matteo had placed on the table.
My heart tightened.
I reached into my pocket.
The key.
I still had it.
I inserted it.
The wall clicked.
Everyone froze.
The entire section moved slightly.
A hidden door.
Opening inside my own home.
Elena covered her mouth.
The boys moved closer together.
Matteo stepped forward.
"Alejandro."
I ignored him.
Because behind that door was something my father had hidden.
Something Sofia had protected.
Something someone had killed to keep secret.
The door opened slowly.
Inside was a narrow room.
Dark.
Dusty.
Untouched.
At least...
not recently.
I turned on the light.
The first thing I saw was a photograph.
A photograph sitting alone on a table.
I picked it up.
My hands stopped moving.
Because it showed my father.
My brother Matteo.
Sofia.
And someone else.
A person standing beside them.
Someone I recognized immediately.
Someone I had trusted for years.
Luciano Bellandi.
But that wasn't what made my blood run cold.
It was the date written on the back.
A date from twenty years ago.
The same week Matteo disappeared.
I turned the photograph around.
There was a message.
Only one sentence.
"Matteo did not disappear. He was taken."
I looked at my brother.
His face was broken.
Because he knew what came next.
A sound came from deeper inside the hidden room.
A phone ringing.
Impossible.
The room had been sealed for years.
Everyone stared.
The phone kept ringing.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then Matteo whispered:
"Don't answer it."
I looked at him.
"Why?"
His eyes moved toward the phone.
"Because the person calling..."
He stopped.
The phone rang again.
And the screen lit up.
The caller name appeared.
I stopped breathing.
Because it wasn't a number.
It wasn't a stranger.
It was a name.
May you like
A name I had buried twenty years ago.
Sofia Moretti.
