CHAPTER 8 — ELENA'S FINAL WARNING
CHAPTER 8 — ELENA'S FINAL WARNING
No one moved.
Elena's voice echoed softly through the hidden room, impossibly clear despite the years that had passed.
Dante stared at the recorder as though he had seen a ghost.
His grip tightened until his knuckles turned white.
"...It's already living inside this house."
The recording crackled for a moment before Elena spoke again.
"If you're hearing this, then I wasn't able to stop them."
She took a shaky breath.
"I pray our girls are still alive."
Dante closed his eyes.
For three years, he had replayed the night of her death over and over in his mind, believing there was nothing left to hear.
Now his wife was speaking to him again.
"If the twins have been taken," Elena continued, "don't waste time chasing the men with guns."
"They're only the hands."
"Find the mind."
Marco looked at Dante.
"She knew."
Dante didn't answer.
He couldn't.
The recorder continued.
"There is someone close to you who has been feeding information to our enemies for years."
A long pause followed.
"I don't know his name."
"I never saw his face."
"But I know one thing."
"He has access to every room in this house."
Marco's eyes swept across the hidden nursery.
"That narrows it down to almost no one."
Dante finally spoke.
"Not no one."
He looked toward the ceiling.
"It narrows it down to my inner circle."
Silence settled over the room.
Every member of Dante's inner circle had served him for years.
Some since he was a teenager.
The thought that one of them had betrayed Elena...
And now his daughters...
Was almost impossible to accept.
The recording wasn't finished.
"If Ava is with you..."
My heart skipped.
"...listen to her."
Everyone slowly turned toward me.
I felt every eye in the room.
My voice barely came out.
"She knew my name."
Elena continued.
"Lucia promised me that if anything ever happened, her granddaughter would find her way here."
Dante looked stunned.
"You've known about her your entire life," I whispered.
He nodded slowly.
"I knew Lucia."
"You knew my grandmother?"
"When I was a child."
He swallowed hard.
"She saved Elena's life."
The room fell silent again.
"What?"
Dante looked at the old photograph hanging on the wall.
"Thirty-one years ago, Elena's family was attacked in Sicily."
"My father believed everyone escaped."
"He was wrong."
"Lucia found Elena hiding inside a burned church."
My eyes widened.
"My grandmother never told me."
"Because if she had..."
Dante looked down.
"...you would have been in danger long before now."
The recorder clicked again.
Elena's voice grew weaker.
"The Raven Circle never stopped searching."
"They believe Lucia took something that belongs to them."
Marco frowned.
"The silver key."
Dante nodded.
"It wasn't just a key."
He opened the wooden box again.
Inside, beneath the journal, was a folded sheet of yellowed paper that none of us had noticed before.
He unfolded it carefully.
It wasn't a letter.
It was a bank receipt.
A safety deposit box.
Swiss National Bank.
Vault Number 217.
Marco read the date.
"Twenty-eight years ago."
I looked at Dante.
"What was inside?"
He slowly shook his head.
"I don't know."
"But apparently..."
He looked at the recorder.
"...the Raven Circle thinks your grandmother stole it."
Before anyone could speak, Marco's radio crackled.
"Sir!"
Marco answered immediately.
"Report."
"We found one of the kidnappers."
"Alive?"
"Barely."
"Location?"
"Old Harbor District."
"He was left behind."
Dante grabbed his jacket.
"We're going."
The guard hesitated.
"Sir..."
"What?"
"He keeps repeating the same sentence."
"What sentence?"
The radio went quiet for a moment.
Then the guard answered.
"He says..."
"...the girls were never the target."
A chill spread through the room.
Dante froze.
"What?"
"He says the kidnapping was only meant to get everyone away from the music room."
My eyes dropped to the wooden box.
The journal.
The silver key.
The recorder.
The envelope with my name.
The safety deposit receipt.
The kidnappers hadn't come for the twins.
They had come for Elena's secrets.
The twins had been taken because they were convenient.
Someone had expected us to discover the hidden room.
Someone had expected us to open the safe.
Someone wanted what was inside.
Marco reached for the unopened envelope addressed to me.
"It's time."
He handed it over.
"For Ava... if she ever comes home."
My hands shook as I carefully broke the seal.
Inside was a single handwritten letter.
And one old photograph.
The picture showed my grandmother holding me as a baby.
Standing beside us...
Was Elena Moretti.
She had one hand resting gently on my shoulder.
On the back of the photograph, written in Elena's unmistakable handwriting, were eight words that made the room fall silent.
"One day, she'll save our daughters, just like Lucia saved me."
I stared at the photograph, unable to breathe.
I had never met Elena.
May you like
Or at least...
That's what I had believed my entire life.
