Chapter 7 – The Second Daughter
Chapter 7 – The Second Daughter
Nobody moved.
The security room was silent except for the crackle of the frozen monitor.
Vincent reached toward the screen as though he could pull Elena back through it.
"Trace the signal."
His command snapped everyone into action.
Within seconds, technicians were tracking the transmission.
One minute.
Two.
Three.
Then a result appeared.
The signal hadn't come from another country.
It had originated less than twenty miles from the Moretti estate.
Someone had wanted Vincent to find it.
The abandoned building sat at the edge of an old industrial district.
Half the windows were boarded.
The rest had been shattered years ago.
Vincent insisted on leading the team himself.
I refused to stay behind.
"You promised Dani I'd come back."
"I did."
"Then I'm keeping that promise."
For a long moment, he simply looked at me.
Finally, he nodded.
"Stay beside me."
Inside, the building smelled of dust and bleach.
Someone had cleaned it recently.
Too recently.
A single light glowed beneath a steel door.
One guard pushed it open.
The room was empty.
Except for a chair.
A camera.
And another envelope.
Vincent ripped it open.
Inside was a handwritten note.
"You're still chasing ghosts, Vincent.
The woman you loved survived.
One daughter stayed with you.
The other became exactly what I needed her to become.
If you want your family back... come alone."
Below the message was an address.
An abandoned monastery outside the city.
Back at the estate, everyone argued.
"It's a trap," one captain insisted.
"Of course it is," Vincent replied.
"I'm still going."
"I'll go with you," I said.
"No."
"They're using me, too."
He looked at me for several seconds.
Then quietly admitted the truth.
"They've been using you since before you remembered us."
That night, my mother finally confessed everything.
The night of the attack, she hadn't escaped with one baby.
She had escaped with two.
One was Dani.
The other wasn't the missing twin.
It was me.
I stared at her.
"What?"
"You weren't my biological daughter."
The world seemed to stop.
"I found you during the evacuation."
"You were covered in blood... but none of it was yours."
She began to cry.
"I was told your parents were dead."
"So... you adopted me?"
"I tried to find your family."
"What happened?"
"They disappeared."
My knees nearly gave out.
Everything I believed about my life had been built on a lie.
Before dawn, Vincent left alone.
Exactly as the note demanded.
None of us listened.
His security team followed at a distance.
So did I.
So did Dani.
When Vincent realized his daughter had hidden inside one of the escort vehicles, it was already too late.
May you like
The monastery gates were opening.
Someone had been waiting.
