Chapter 3 - The Daughter Elena Rossi Tried To Hide
The man standing in the hallway did not look like someone who had broken into a mansion.
That was what frightened Hannah the most.
He wasn’t wearing a mask.
He wasn’t shouting.
He wasn’t acting like a desperate criminal.
He stood there calmly, surrounded by darkness and emergency lights, as if he had been invited.
As if this house belonged to him.
Victor Moretti stared at him with an expression Hannah had never seen before.
Not anger.
Not fear.
Something deeper.
Hatred.
“Adrian Voss,” Victor said quietly.
The man smiled.
“It’s been a long time.”
Hannah looked between them.
“You know him?”
Victor didn’t take his eyes off Adrian.
“I know exactly who he is.”
Adrian adjusted his expensive coat and stepped farther into the hallway.
Behind him, several armed men appeared.
Victor’s security team immediately raised their weapons.
But Adrian only smiled.
“Still protecting people who don’t belong to you, Victor?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“You should have stayed away.”
Adrian looked at Lily.
“No. I should have come sooner.”
Hannah instinctively stepped backward.
She held her daughter tighter.
The movement did not escape Victor’s attention.
He immediately shifted his body, placing himself between Hannah and Adrian.
The action was small.
Almost automatic.
But Hannah noticed.
Victor Moretti, the man everyone feared, was shielding her.
“Tell your men to leave,” Victor said.
Adrian laughed softly.
“You still give orders like the old days.”
“The old days ended.”
“No.”
Adrian’s smile disappeared.
“They ended when Elena Rossi died.”
The mention of her mother made Hannah freeze.
She looked at Victor.
Again, that pain crossed his face.
“Don’t say her name.”
Adrian tilted his head.
“Why?”
A pause.
“Because it reminds you that you failed her?”
The room became silent.
Hannah felt a strange anger rising.
Everyone knew something about her mother.
Everyone except her.
She had spent years believing Elena Rossi was simply a woman who died too young.
A woman who left behind a daughter with unanswered questions.
But now, standing in this mansion, Hannah realized her entire life had been built around a secret.
A secret her mother died protecting.
“Enough,” Hannah said.
Everyone turned.
Even Victor.
She looked at Adrian.
“I don’t know who you are.”
Then she looked at Victor.
“And I don’t know what happened twenty-five years ago.”
Her voice trembled.
“But this is my daughter.”
She held Lily closer.
“Not a symbol. Not proof. Not a secret.”
Her eyes hardened.
“She is a baby.”
For the first time, Adrian’s expression changed slightly.
Almost like he respected her courage.
Almost.
“You sound like Elena.”
Hannah’s face tightened.
“Don’t compare me to my mother.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t know me.”
Adrian smiled faintly.
“Actually, I know exactly who you are.”
Hannah froze.
“What?”
Adrian stepped closer.
“The daughter of Elena Rossi.”
The words felt heavier than they should have.
Hannah shook her head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“I know who my mother was.”
“No,” Adrian replied.
“You know who she wanted you to believe she was.”
Victor suddenly moved forward.
“That’s enough.”
Adrian looked at him.
“You never told her.”
Hannah turned toward Victor.
“Told me what?”
Victor said nothing.
That silence answered her.
Her heart sank.
“You knew.”
Victor looked away.
“Hannah—”
“You knew something about me.”
“I knew your mother.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
The room went quiet.
Hannah’s eyes filled with frustration.
“You knew who I was, and you still let me walk into this house without saying anything?”
Victor’s expression softened.
“I didn’t know you were Elena’s daughter.”
“But you recognized the locket.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew that meant something.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Victor had no answer.
Because the truth was complicated.
Because he had spent twenty-five years trying to bury the past.
And now the past had arrived carrying a baby.
A gunshot suddenly exploded.
Everyone dropped.
The bullet struck the marble wall behind Victor.
Security returned fire.
Chaos erupted.
Hannah screamed and covered Lily.
Victor grabbed Hannah and pulled her behind a large stone column.
“Stay down!”
“Who are they?”
“Adrian’s people.”
“Why are they shooting?”
Victor looked toward the hallway.
“Because they know we have something they want.”
Hannah looked at Lily.
“Her?”
Victor hesitated.
Then nodded.
“Yes.”
The answer terrified her.
“What is inside that locket?”
Victor looked at her.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“Elena never told me everything.”
Another shot.
The sound echoed through the mansion.
Victor leaned closer.
“But I know one thing.”
“What?”
“Your mother trusted that locket enough to put it around your neck.”
His eyes moved to Lily.
“And now she trusted you to give it to your daughter.”
The attack continued for several minutes.
Victor’s security team pushed Adrian’s men back toward the entrance.
Finally, the mansion became quiet again.
Too quiet.
Victor looked around.
“Where is Adrian?”
Everyone searched.
But he was gone.
Hannah felt a wave of fear.
“He escaped?”
Victor didn’t answer.
Instead, he walked toward the broken window.
On the snow outside were footprints.
Leading away.
Then stopping.
Victor stared at them.
“He wanted us to see him.”
Hannah frowned.
“What?”
Victor looked back.
“This wasn’t an attack.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was a message.”
A cold feeling moved through Hannah.
“A message for what?”
Victor looked at Lily.
“He wanted us to know he found you.”
Later that night, Lily finally fell asleep.
The private doctor stayed nearby.
The mansion was quieter.
But Hannah couldn’t sleep.
Too many questions.
Too many lies.
She found Victor standing alone in the library.
The room was enormous.
Bookshelves covered every wall.
Old photographs decorated the desk.
Including one photo Hannah noticed immediately.
Elena Rossi.
Young.
Beautiful.
Smiling.
Standing beside Victor.
Hannah walked closer.
“You loved her.”
Victor didn’t turn around.
“That was a long time ago.”
“That wasn’t an answer.”
He looked at the photograph.
“No.”
Hannah waited.
Finally, Victor spoke.
“I loved her.”
The honesty surprised her.
“What happened?”
Victor remained silent for a long time.
Then he opened a drawer.
Inside was another silver locket.
Identical to Lily’s.
Hannah stared.
“You have one too.”
Victor nodded.
“Elena gave it to me.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew something was coming.”
He picked it up carefully.
“She told me if anything happened to her, I had to protect her child.”
Hannah’s breath caught.
“You knew about me?”
Victor looked at her.
“I knew Elena had a daughter.”
“But not where she was?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Victor’s face became full of regret.
“Because Elena disappeared before she could tell me.”
Hannah whispered:
“My whole life…”
She looked at the locket.
“My mother was running from someone.”
“Yes.”
“And you were part of that world.”
Victor didn’t deny it.
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more than she expected.
“You were the reason she died?”
Victor closed his eyes.
For a moment, the powerful Victor Moretti disappeared.
Only a broken man remained.
“I was the reason she was in danger.”
Hannah looked at him.
“What happened?”
Victor looked toward the window.
The snow continued falling.
“Your mother discovered that Adrian Voss and several powerful people were involved in something illegal.”
“What kind of thing?”
Victor’s expression turned dark.
“Something big enough to destroy them.”
“And she had proof?”
“Yes.”
Hannah touched Lily’s locket through her coat.
“The proof is inside this?”
Victor looked at it.
“I believe so.”
“Then why didn’t they take it tonight?”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“Because they don’t know how to open it.”
Hannah looked confused.
“What?”
Victor walked toward the desk.
He placed the locket under a special light.
“The symbol isn’t decoration.”
He pointed at the engraving.
“It’s a lock.”
Hannah stared.
“A lock for what?”
Victor looked at her.
“That’s what we need to find out.”
Before Hannah could respond—
A small sound came from the hallway.
A phone ringing.
Everyone in the mansion had been ordered to remain silent.
Victor immediately reached for his weapon.
The ringing continued.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
Victor walked toward the sound.
On a table near the entrance was an old black phone.
Nobody had touched it.
Nobody knew it existed.
Victor picked it up.
“Hello?”
For several seconds, there was only silence.
Then a woman’s voice whispered through the phone.
A voice Hannah had not heard in more than twenty years.
A voice that made Victor freeze.
“Victor…”
His face turned pale.
Hannah watched him.
Because she recognized the impossible.
The voice.
The name.
The past.
The woman on the phone whispered:
“You have to protect my daughter.”
Victor couldn’t breathe.
Because he knew that voice.
Everyone knew that voice was impossible.
“Elena?”
A pause.
May you like
Then the woman answered:
“I’m still alive.”
