Chapter 5 - The Name Hidden Inside The Ruby
The man on the screen smiled.
Not a friendly smile.
Not a warm one.
The kind of smile people wear when they believe they have already won.
Nobody in the security room moved.
The live video continued playing.
A dark room.
A single chair.
A person sitting in the shadows.
And a voice that seemed to know everything about me.
"Hello, Serena."
My hands tightened.
"Who are you?"
The man leaned closer to the camera.
"I think the better question is..."
A pause.
"Who were you before everyone told you who to become?"
The words hit me harder than I expected.
Because I had spent years building my identity.
Serena Sinclair.
Owner of Sweet Mercy Bakery.
The woman who woke up before sunrise.
The woman who made cakes for strangers' happiest moments.
The woman who learned how to survive alone.
But suddenly, this stranger was telling me that even my own name was part of a lie.
Damiano stepped forward.
"Show your face."
The man laughed softly.
"Still giving orders, Damiano?"
Something changed in Damiano's expression.
A tiny movement.
Almost invisible.
But I saw it.
Recognition.
"You know him."
It wasn't a question.
Damiano remained silent.
My eyes moved between them.
"You know who this is?"
"No."
His answer came too quickly.
That made me suspicious.
The man on the screen laughed again.
"He's always been good at hiding things."
Damiano looked at the monitor.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because she deserves the truth."
The man's voice became serious.
"She deserves to know what your family did."
The room became silent.
My mother looked at Damiano.
Not with anger.
With disappointment.
"You knew."
Damiano looked at her.
"I don't know what you think I know."
"You know enough."
I turned toward my mother.
"What is happening?"
She looked at me.
And for the first time since she appeared, I saw something I had never seen in her before.
Fear.
Not fear for herself.
Fear for me.
"Serena, listen to me."
Her voice was quiet.
"Whatever happens next, you cannot believe everything you hear."
I frowned.
"That's not an answer."
"I know."
"Then give me one."
She looked at the screen.
Then at the envelope in my hand.
"You need to open that."
I looked down.
The old envelope.
My name written across it.
The name from before my life changed.
My fingers slowly opened the seal.
Inside was a single piece of paper.
And a photograph.
The photograph was old.
The edges were worn.
A little girl stood between two adults.
Me.
My father.
And my mother.
I had seen pictures of my childhood before.
But never this one.
Because behind us was a building.
A large stone building.
And carved above the entrance was a symbol.
A red stone surrounded by a circle.
The same symbol that was connected to the ruby.
My breathing became shallow.
"What is this place?"
My mother looked away.
"The place where everything started."
Damiano stared at the photograph.
"Where did you get this?"
My mother looked at him.
"Your grandfather kept the original."
Damiano froze.
"My grandfather?"
She nodded.
"The Vercelli family didn't inherit the ruby."
She pointed at the photograph.
"They inherited the responsibility of protecting it."
I looked at Damiano.
"You knew about this?"
He didn't answer.
That was enough.
"You knew."
His jaw tightened.
"Not everything."
"But something."
Silence.
The worst kind of answer.
I stepped back.
The same man who had accused me hours earlier was now standing in front of another secret.
And somehow, I was caught between him and my mother.
Between two people who had both hidden things from me.
The man on the screen spoke again.
"Ask him about the night your father disappeared."
Damiano looked up.
The room went still.
My father's disappearance.
Again.
Always that night.
The night nobody wanted to explain.
I turned to Damiano.
"What happened?"
He looked at me.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then:
"Your father wasn't taken."
My heart stopped.
"What?"
Damiano looked at the floor.
"He left."
My mother immediately stepped forward.
"That's not true."
Damiano looked at her.
"You don't know what happened after you ran."
My mother's face changed.
"You promised him."
"Promises ended when people started dying."
Nobody spoke.
I felt like I was watching a conversation that had started years before I existed.
A war between people carrying secrets.
And somehow, I was the person standing in the middle.
"Enough."
My voice surprised everyone.
I looked at both of them.
"I spent twelve years believing my mother abandoned me."
I looked at my mother.
"I spent years believing my father abandoned me."
Then I looked at Damiano.
"And today I discovered the man who accused me of stealing was connected to my family's secrets."
My voice shook.
"But everyone keeps saying they are protecting me."
I laughed quietly.
"Protecting me from what?"
Nobody answered.
The man on the screen did.
"From the truth."
Everyone looked back.
The screen flickered.
The man's face remained hidden.
"But the truth is simple, Serena."
A pause.
"The ruby was never stolen."
I frowned.
"What?"
"The ruby was moved."
"By who?"
The man leaned closer.
"By your mother."
My mother went completely still.
I looked at her.
"No."
The man continued.
"She took it twelve years ago because she knew what would happen if the Vercelli family found it."
Damiano looked at my mother.
"Is that true?"
She didn't answer.
And that scared me more than anything.
Because my mother always had answers.
Even when those answers hurt.
But now...
She was silent.
I looked at her.
"Mom."
Slowly, she reached into her coat.
She pulled out something small.
A red stone.
A ruby.
My entire body froze.
The same ruby everyone had been searching for.
The same ruby that supposedly disappeared from the wedding.
It was in her hand.
Mia gasped.
Damiano stepped forward.
"You had it?"
My mother looked at me.
"I did."
The room exploded with questions.
But I only heard one thing.
My own voice.
"Why?"
She looked at the ruby.
Then at me.
"Because this wasn't jewelry."
She turned it over.
There was a tiny marking carved into the back.
A symbol.
The same one from my birthmark.
"The person who created this left something inside."
Damiano stared.
"What?"
My mother looked at me.
"A message."
The room went silent.
I stepped closer.
"What message?"
She pressed the ruby.
A small compartment opened.
Inside was something tiny.
A memory card.
My heart dropped.
Not again.
Another hidden message.
Another secret.
Another piece of my life someone had hidden away.
My mother handed it to me.
"Your father recorded this."
I looked at the memory card.
"Why didn't you show me?"
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Because I was afraid of what you would discover."
Before I could answer, every screen in the security room suddenly went black.
The man on the monitor disappeared.
A final message appeared.
White letters on a dark screen.
"YOU WERE NEVER SUPPOSED TO FIND THE SECOND RECORDING."
Then another line appeared.
A name.
A name that made my mother step back.
A name that made Damiano whisper:
"No..."
I stared at the screen.
Because the person behind everything...
May you like
was someone who had been standing beside us the entire night.
And the security room door slowly opened.
