CHAPTER 12 — THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
CHAPTER 12 — THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
The room went completely silent.
I stared at the phone screen.
Again.
And again.
My mind refused to accept what my eyes were seeing.
The security footage showed the front gate of the Moretti mansion.
The date stamp was clear.
Three days ago.
The night before I arrived.
A black car had stopped outside the property.
The driver stepped out.
Then the passenger door opened.
And there she was.
My grandmother.
Lucia Romano.
Older.
Wearing the same dark coat she had owned for years.
The same silver hair.
The same posture.
The same face I remembered from every childhood memory.
Except she had been dead for eight years.
"No."
The word left my mouth before I even realized I had spoken.
Dante watched me carefully.
"Ava..."
"That's impossible."
Marco stood near the desk, his expression serious.
"We verified the footage three times."
"It's not edited."
"It's not manipulated."
"It's real."
I shook my head.
"My grandmother died in front of me."
The memory came rushing back.
The hospital room.
The machines.
Her weak smile.
Her final words.
"Never let them find what I protected."
I had held her hand when she stopped breathing.
I had attended her funeral.
I had watched the coffin lowered into the ground.
She was gone.
She had to be gone.
Dante lowered his voice.
"Maybe she wasn't who you thought she was."
I looked at him sharply.
"Don't."
He stopped.
"You didn't know her."
"No."
His eyes remained on mine.
"But apparently neither did you."
The words hurt because they were true.
For my entire life, I thought my grandmother was simply a quiet old woman who carried too many memories.
Now I was discovering she had been connected to a secret war involving billionaires, criminals, and a mafia family.
And somehow...
She had planned for me to become part of it.
Marco replayed the footage.
"Look closely."
The video zoomed in.
My grandmother walked toward the mansion entrance.
But she wasn't alone.
Someone followed behind her.
A man.
Wearing a gray suit.
His face was hidden.
Dante immediately leaned closer.
"Pause."
The image froze.
"What is it?" Marco asked.
Dante pointed at the man's hand.
A ring.
Black stone.
Silver raven engraved across the surface.
The Raven Circle.
"They were with her," Dante said.
My heart sank.
"You're saying my grandmother worked with them?"
"No."
Dante shook his head.
"If she did, she wouldn't have spent her entire life running from them."
He studied the image.
"She was meeting them."
A dangerous possibility appeared.
My grandmother wasn't hiding from the Raven Circle.
She was negotiating with them.
The phone rang again.
Marco answered.
"What?"
His face changed.
"What do you mean?"
He looked toward Dante.
"Someone broke into the mansion."
Everyone froze.
"Who?"
Marco listened.
Then his voice lowered.
"It's not an intruder."
"Then who?"
The color drained from his face.
"Lucia Romano."
My blood turned cold.
"What?"
Marco looked at me.
"The woman in the footage."
"She's here."
Nobody moved.
For eight years, I believed my grandmother was gone.
Now she was alive.
And she was standing inside the mansion.
Dante reached for his weapon.
"Where?"
"Library."
We moved quickly.
Every guard followed.
The mansion felt different.
Every hallway carried the weight of a secret finally coming to the surface.
When we reached the library, the door was slightly open.
Dante raised his hand.
Everyone stopped.
Then a voice came from inside.
A voice I knew better than my own.
"Ava."
My entire body froze.
I stepped forward.
Slowly.
The door opened.
And there she was.
Lucia Romano.
Standing beside the fireplace.
Alive.
Older than the woman in my memories.
But unmistakably her.
My grandmother looked at me with tears in her eyes.
"I knew you would come eventually."
I couldn't speak.
All the anger.
All the confusion.
All the pain.
Everything came out at once.
"You let me believe you were dead."
Her face broke.
"I had no choice."
"You abandoned me."
"I protected you."
"From what?"
Her eyes moved toward Dante.
Then toward the sleeping twins in the doorway.
"From them."
Dante stepped forward.
"Choose your next words carefully."
Lucia looked at him.
"I don't blame you for what happened, Dante."
"But your family started this war."
Dante's jaw tightened.
"My family?"
Lucia nodded.
"Your father."
"The original agreement."
"The betrayal."
"The reason Elena died."
The room became colder.
Dante's voice lowered.
"Explain."
Lucia reached into her coat and removed a small envelope.
She handed it to me.
"This is what Elena wanted you to have."
I looked at the envelope.
My name was written across the front.
Again.
But this time...
There was something else.
A date.
The day after Elena's death.
My hands shook as I opened it.
Inside was a single page.
Only one sentence.
Ava, if Lucia returns, it means the man who killed me has finally been found.
I looked up.
Everyone was silent.
Dante stared at the letter.
"Who killed Elena?"
Lucia looked directly at him.
Her answer destroyed everything we believed.
"The man who gave the order..."
"...was not your enemy."
May you like
A pause.
"He was your father."
