Chapter 6 - THE QUEEN BURIED BENEATH THE MORETTI NAME
My mother had been dead for twenty-six years.
At least, that was what I believed.
Sofia opened a hidden file on the database.
Photographs filled the screen.
My mother, Alessandra Moretti, standing beside politicians, doctors, and international bankers.
Not as a wife.
As their leader.
“She created Project Lazarus,” Sofia said. “Vittorio expanded it.”
I could barely speak.
“My mother hated violence.”
“She hated uncontrolled violence,” Dante replied. “There is a difference.”
He held Matteo against his chest while the boy’s heart monitor steadied.
Dante looked at me with exhaustion.
“Alessandra discovered a method to preserve soldiers after catastrophic injury. She believed temporary heart suspension could save lives.”
“And Vittorio turned children into experiments.”
“Yes.”
“Why would she allow it?”
“She didn’t.”
Dante’s voice softened.
“She tried to destroy the project. Vittorio killed her before she could.”
Another lie.
Another grave.
Another piece of my childhood rewritten.
Sofia showed me the final record.
Before her death, my mother had hidden the ownership ledger beneath the Moretti estate.
Whoever possessed it controlled billions in offshore accounts, medical patents, and the network Vittorio had used for decades.
“He wants Isabella because she can access it,” Sofia said.
“Why her?”
“Alessandra created a blood lock.”
I looked at Isabella’s photograph.
“The ledger opens only for a female descendant.”
My daughter.
Vittorio had not taken Isabella merely to threaten me.
He needed her blood.
We left the monastery with Matteo, Sofia, Dante, Elena, and the rescued children.
Authorities loyal to Gabriel were called anonymously to secure the facility.
I did not know whether Gabriel was alive.
There was no time to search.
By dawn, helicopters carried us toward Chicago.
Matteo slept against Sofia’s chest.
She kissed his hair again and again, crying silently.
I watched them from across the cabin.
For two years, I had imagined what I would say if granted one more minute with her.
Now words felt too small.
Sofia reached for my hand.
“You hate me.”
“No.”
“You should.”
“I hate every moment you were alone.”
“I stayed away to protect you.”
“You should have trusted me.”
“I tried.”
Her eyes filled.
“Every time I planned to escape, Vittorio showed me footage of Matteo. Then of you. Then Isabella. He said one attempt would kill all three.”
I moved beside her.
“You survived.”
“So did you.”
“No, Sofia.”
I touched my forehead to hers.
“I existed.”
She began crying.
I kissed her for the first time since the night before her funeral.
It was not passionate.
It was broken.
A kiss filled with grief for stolen years and gratitude for one impossible second chance.
Then the pilot announced we were approaching the estate.
Smoke rose from the eastern wing.
Vittorio’s men had already breached the house.
We entered through the underground garage.
The corridors were silent.
Too silent.
In the old library, a section of floor had been opened.
Beneath it spiraled a staircase.
At the bottom was a chamber I had never seen.
Isabella stood in the center beside a black stone table.
Her wrist had been cut.
Blood ran across a silver pattern carved into the surface.
Vittorio held her shoulder.
Behind him stood Gabriel.
Alive.
Holding a gun on us.
I stopped.
“Gabriel.”
His expression was empty.
“Put down your weapon, Luca.”
Dante looked shattered.
“You helped me escape.”
“I helped both of you survive,” Gabriel said. “So one day you could open this room.”
Vittorio laughed.
“My brother was always the obedient one.”
Gabriel’s betrayal hurt more than I expected.
He had taught me to drive.
He had stood beside me at my wedding.
He had carried Matteo through the halls the day he was born.
“Why?” I asked.
Gabriel looked at Isabella.
“Because Alessandra was my wife before Vittorio stole her.”
The chamber fell silent.
My mother had loved Gabriel.
Vittorio had forced her into marriage to legitimize the Moretti bloodline.
Gabriel had spent decades serving the man who took everything from him.
“Then help us end this,” I said.
“I intend to.”
He turned and shot Vittorio in the leg.
Chaos erupted.
Dante lunged for Isabella.
Sofia pulled the girl behind the stone table.
I tackled Vittorio as he raised his pistol.
We crashed against the wall.
He was older, but hatred made him strong.
“You inherited her weakness,” he spat.
I struck him.
“What weakness?”
“Love.”
He drove a knife into my side.
Pain exploded through me.
I grabbed his wrist and forced the blade away.
Across the chamber, the stone table opened.
A metal case rose from inside.
The ledger.
Vittorio saw it and smiled.
Then Isabella stepped in front of the case.
“No.”
Her voice was small.
But steady.
Vittorio raised his gun toward her.
Gabriel moved first.
The bullet struck him in the chest.
He fell between Vittorio and the child he had protected.
I grabbed Vittorio and slammed him against the table.
He stared at Gabriel’s body.
For the first time, fear entered his eyes.
Not fear of death.
Fear of losing control.
“You built an empire by making children suffer,” I said.
I pressed his hand into the blood lock.
“You will watch a child destroy it.”
Isabella placed her palm on the ledger.
The screen activated.
A question appeared.
**TRANSFER OR TERMINATE?**
Vittorio screamed, “Transfer!”
Isabella looked at Sofia.
Then at me.
“What should I do?”
I thought of the hospitals.
The children.
The lies.
The empire built beneath my name.
“Terminate it.”
She pressed the button.
Across the world, accounts froze.
Servers erased.
Contracts dissolved.
Project Lazarus collapsed in a single command.
Vittorio stared at the dark screen.
“You destroyed everything.”
I looked at Sofia, Matteo, Isabella, Dante, Elena, and Gabriel bleeding on the floor.
May you like
“No,” I said.
**“We saved everything that mattered.”**
