Chapter 11 - The Family That Was Never Hers
The person standing on the balcony smiled.
A smile Simone remembered.
Not because it was kind.
Because it was familiar.
Too familiar.
Her entire body became cold.
The voice.
The face.
The memories.
Everything connected at once.
"No..."
The word escaped her lips.
Adrian looked at her.
"Simone."
She couldn't hear him.
She was looking at the person who had been part of her life since she was a child.
The person who attended her birthdays.
The person who told her stories when she couldn't sleep.
The person who held her hand at her mother's funeral.
The person she trusted.
Her uncle.
Daniel Bellamy.
The ballroom fell into complete silence.
Richard stepped backward.
"Daniel..."
Daniel smiled.
"Hello, Richard."
The calmness in his voice made everything worse.
Simone looked at her father.
"You knew."
Adrian looked down.
"Yes."
The pain in that answer was unbearable.
"You knew he was alive?"
Adrian shook his head.
"Not until recently."
Daniel slowly walked down the stairs.
Every step felt like a countdown.
"Everyone always underestimates the quiet ones."
Victor watched him carefully.
"You're the one behind everything."
Daniel smiled.
"Not everything."
A pause.
"Just enough."
Simone felt her hands shaking.
"What does that mean?"
Daniel stopped in front of her.
For a moment, he looked almost proud.
"You always asked the wrong question."
She frowned.
"What?"
"You kept asking who left you."
His eyes moved toward her mother.
"Your mother."
Then toward Adrian.
"Your father."
Then toward Richard.
"Your family."
He looked back at Simone.
"But you never asked why everyone was so desperate to keep you alive."
Simone stared.
"Why?"
Daniel smiled.
"Because you are the last piece."
The same phrase.
The same mystery.
The same answer everyone had avoided.
But now Simone was tired of being a piece in someone else's game.
"I am not a piece."
Daniel's smile faded slightly.
"No."
A pause.
"You are the key."
Everyone became silent.
Alessandro stepped forward.
"What key?"
Daniel looked at him.
"The key to everything your families built."
Alessandro's expression hardened.
"My family?"
Daniel laughed softly.
"You still think this is about families."
He looked around the ballroom.
"It was never about names."
A pause.
"It was about power."
Simone looked at the screens.
The cameras.
The messages.
The years of watching.
"You watched me."
Daniel nodded.
"Yes."
The honesty shocked her.
"Why?"
"Because I needed to know if you remembered."
"Remembered what?"
Daniel looked at her.
"The night your father disappeared."
Simone froze.
"I was a child."
"Yes."
"How could I remember?"
Daniel smiled.
"Because your mother made sure you would."
Her mother immediately stepped forward.
"Don't."
Daniel looked at her.
"You still think you can protect her."
His voice became colder.
"You failed once."
Simone turned toward her mother.
"What happened that night?"
Her mother looked broken.
"Simone..."
"No."
She shook her head.
"I need to know."
Her mother closed her eyes.
Then finally spoke.
"The night your father disappeared..."
A pause.
"You saw something."
Simone frowned.
"What?"
"You saw Daniel."
The room became silent.
Simone looked at Daniel.
"No."
Daniel smiled.
"You don't remember."
Her mother continued.
"You were only eight years old."
A memory suddenly appeared.
A dark hallway.
A loud argument.
Her father's voice.
Her mother's crying.
And someone standing near the door.
Someone she couldn't see clearly.
Someone holding something in his hand.
Simone touched her head.
"I remember..."
Everyone looked at her.
"I remember the hallway."
Adrian stepped closer.
"What do you remember?"
She closed her eyes.
"The sound."
"What sound?"
"A phone ringing."
A pause.
"Then someone said my name."
Daniel's expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Simone noticed.
"You were there."
Daniel didn't answer.
And that was enough.
"You were there."
Her voice became stronger.
"You were the person in the hallway."
Daniel smiled.
"Now you understand."
Adrian moved toward him.
"You used my daughter."
Daniel looked at him.
"No."
A cold smile.
"I saved her."
Nobody believed him.
Daniel continued.
"Your father wanted to expose the organization."
He looked at Adrian.
"You were going to destroy everything."
"Because it was wrong."
Daniel laughed.
"Wrong?"
He looked around.
"Every powerful family in this room was built on something."
A pause.
"Secrets."
Simone stared at him.
"So you destroyed my family."
Daniel looked at her.
"I saved the future."
"You ruined my life."
For the first time, Daniel's expression changed.
A small crack.
"You think your life was ruined because you didn't know the truth."
He stepped closer.
"But the truth is..."
He lowered his voice.
"You were protected from something much worse."
Simone stared.
"What?"
Daniel reached into his coat.
He pulled out an old document.
Not a photograph.
Not a letter.
A birth certificate.
He placed it on the table.
Simone looked down.
Her face changed.
Because the name written there was not Simone Bellamy.
Not Simone Moretti.
It was another name.
A name she had never seen before.
Her mother gasped.
"No."
Adrian immediately grabbed the paper.
"Where did you get this?"
Daniel smiled.
"From the place your mother hid it."
Victor stepped closer.
"That's impossible."
Daniel looked at him.
"You all thought the secret was who her father was."
A pause.
"But you were wrong."
Simone looked at the document.
"What does it mean?"
Daniel looked directly at her.
"It means your bloodline goes back further than any of us."
The room became silent.
Alessandro stared at the paper.
"Who signed this?"
Daniel smiled.
"The person who started everything."
Simone's fingers touched the document.
And then she saw the signature.
Her heart stopped.
Because it wasn't Edward Bellamy.
It wasn't Adrian Moretti.
It wasn't anyone she expected.
It was her mother's signature.
But dated...
Two years before Simone was born.
Her mother stepped backward.
"No..."
Simone looked at her.
"Mom?"
Her mother looked terrified.
Because for the first time...
She wasn't afraid of Daniel.
She was afraid of what Simone had just discovered.
And then the document revealed one final line.
A line that made everyone in the room freeze.
May you like
Simone's real father was not the man she had spent twelve years searching for...
Because Adrian Moretti had been protecting her from the truth about who he really was.
