Chapter 6 - The Daughter They Tried to Erase
The study door closed behind us.
Not slowly.
Not by accident.
It slammed.
The sound echoed through the old mansion.
Everyone turned.
Matteo immediately moved toward the door and grabbed the handle.
Locked.
His father stepped closer.
"That's impossible."
Matteo looked at him.
"Nothing about this house is impossible anymore."
The security team rushed forward.
They tried the lock.
Nothing.
I looked back at the laptop.
The video was still frozen.
My father's face remained on the screen.
A man who had disappeared fifteen years ago.
A man who apparently knew everything.
A man who had left me a message I was never supposed to find.
Matteo looked at the door.
Then at the laptop.
"Keep trying."
The guards continued forcing the lock.
I walked toward the screen.
The file was still open.
"The truth about Elena Brooks."
I stared at my own name.
My entire life suddenly felt like a story someone else had written.
The strange warnings.
My father's disappearance.
The hidden documents.
The Bellandi family.
Everything connected.
But I still didn't know how.
Matteo noticed my expression.
"Elena."
I looked at him.
"What if everything I knew about myself was wrong?"
For a moment, the powerful man had no answer.
Then he said:
"Then we find the person who changed it."
The laptop suddenly made a sound.
A new video appeared.
Nobody touched it.
The title was different.
"FOR MATTEO."
He froze.
His father stepped back.
"No."
Matteo looked at him.
"You know this file?"
The older man looked at the screen.
"I thought it was destroyed."
That was the first time I saw Matteo's father truly afraid.
Not cautious.
Not worried.
Afraid.
The video started.
A woman appeared.
Matteo stopped breathing.
I didn't know her.
But I knew immediately.
This was his mother.
She looked younger than the pictures I had seen.
Her face was calm.
But her eyes were full of fear.
"Matteo."
Her voice filled the room.
"If you are watching this, then your father failed to protect you."
Matteo stared at the screen.
The woman continued.
"The people who took control of our family didn't want power."
A pause.
"They wanted blood."
I looked at Matteo.
He didn't move.
His mother continued.
"They will tell you Elena Brooks is dangerous."
My heart stopped.
"They will tell you she was hidden because she was a threat."
The video paused.
Then she looked directly into the camera.
"That is a lie."
Matteo's expression changed.
His mother continued.
"Elena was hidden because she was the only person who could expose them."
The room became silent.
I felt like I couldn't breathe.
Me?
How could I possibly be connected to all of this?
The video continued.
"Matteo, your father made one mistake."
The woman looked away.
"He trusted the wrong person."
The screen flickered.
Then a photograph appeared.
A family photo.
But not the one from the hallway.
This one showed my father.
Matteo's parents.
And me.
As a baby.
I stepped backward.
"No."
My voice came out quietly.
"I wasn't there."
But I was.
The photograph proved it.
A baby wrapped in a white blanket.
My father's hand resting beside me.
Matteo's mother holding me.
Matteo looked at the picture.
Then at me.
"What does this mean?"
I shook my head.
"I don't know."
But the truth was already forming.
A truth I didn't want to accept.
My father had not been hiding from the Bellandis.
He had been protecting me from them.
The video continued.
"Elena, if you are seeing this..."
My father's voice returned.
The screen changed.
A different recording.
His face appeared again.
"This means they found the last piece."
My eyes filled with tears.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
I whispered.
Even though he couldn't hear me.
My father looked into the camera.
"I wanted to."
A pause.
"But your mother made me promise."
I froze.
My mother.
The woman I barely remembered.
The woman everyone told me had died when I was young.
My father continued.
"She knew the truth before anyone."
The screen went black.
Then one final message appeared.
A location.
A date.
And a name.
The name was:
"Victoria Bellandi."
Matteo immediately grabbed his phone.
He called.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
His face became darker.
"She's gone."
I looked at him.
"What?"
"Victoria."
He looked toward the locked door.
"She left the gala."
"But the guards..."
"They were distracted."
A horrible realization passed between us.
The gala.
The blackout.
The messages.
It was never about stopping me.
It was about giving Victoria time.
Matteo turned toward his father.
"You knew she was involved."
His father didn't deny it.
"I suspected."
Matteo's expression hardened.
"You knew."
"I didn't have proof."
"You had my mother."
The words hit the room.
His father looked away.
And I realized something.
Everyone in this story had been protecting someone.
But nobody had been protecting the truth.
The security team finally opened the study door.
The hallway was empty.
But on the floor outside was something new.
An envelope.
Matteo picked it up.
There was no name.
No address.
Only one sentence.
"Open this when Elena learns who she really is."
I looked at Matteo.
He opened it.
Inside was a single page.
His eyes moved across the words.
Then stopped.
"What?"
He handed it to me.
I read the first line.
My hands started shaking.
Because it was not a letter.
It was a legal document.
A document proving ownership of something.
Something that had belonged to the Bellandi family for generations.
But the name listed as the rightful owner was mine.
Elena Brooks.
I looked at Matteo.
"I don't understand."
Neither did he.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Nobody spoke.
Only breathing.
Then a woman's voice whispered.
"Matteo."
His face changed.
Because he recognized it.
"Mother?"
The voice continued.
"Don't trust your father."
The call ended.
Everyone froze.
Matteo stared at the phone.
His mother was alive.
May you like
And before anyone could say another word...
the security cameras inside the mansion turned toward the basement door.
