Chapter 13 - Elena’s Real Father
Elena stared at Dr. Shaw.
“No.”
The word came out as a breath.
Shaw smiled from behind the line of armed men.
“You have your mother’s stubbornness.”
Elena raised her weapon.
“My father died when I was six.”
“That was the story Lucia gave you.”
Elena looked at her sister.
Lucia’s silence confirmed everything.
“You knew?”
“I discovered it at St. Catherine’s.”
“And you said nothing?”
“You were already in danger.”
“Everyone keeps protecting me with lies.”
The words echoed more than her anger.
They described every person in my life.
Shaw lifted a loudspeaker.
“Give me the drive and the children will not be harmed.”
I motioned our group behind the cemetery wall.
“You touched Sofia once,” I called. “You will not come near her again.”
“She was never the objective.”
“Then why injure her?”
“To force Teresa into a mistake.”
Sofia’s pain had been a move in a war between factions.
I wanted Shaw alive long enough to understand what he had done.
Then I wanted him to regret surviving.
Isabella crouched beside me.
“Shaw leads the second Crown.”
“The faction you infiltrated.”
“Yes.”
“And Elena is his daughter?”
“Biologically.”
Elena heard her.
“Stop using that word as though it explains anything.”
Shaw’s men began spreading toward both sides of the cemetery.
Marco counted them.
“Twenty-three.”
“We have six armed adults,” Gabriel said.
“And four children,” I replied. “We don’t fight here.”
Grace and Hope had been flown to the monastery with Julian’s surviving men. They now crouched beside Lily and Sofia behind a stone mausoleum.
Four little girls drawn into a war created before any of them were born.
Lucia examined the wall.
“There is an old burial tunnel beneath the chapel.”
Gabriel nodded.
“It exits near the northern orchard.”
We moved toward the chapel while Isabella and Marco covered us.
Shaw’s men opened fire.
Bullets struck the cemetery stones.
Gabriel led the children inside.
I remained at the door.
Elena fired once and dropped a man advancing from the west.
Shaw shouted.
“You are shooting at your own family.”
Elena’s answer was cold.
“My family is behind me.”
We entered the tunnel.
It was narrow and damp, barely tall enough to stand upright.
Halfway through, an explosion collapsed the passage behind us.
Shaw knew the exit.
We emerged into the orchard.
A black SUV waited near the trees.
My mother stood beside it.
She had left the monastery before the attack to contact loyal Moretti teams.
Three vehicles appeared behind her.
Reinforcements.
For the first time, Shaw’s men hesitated.
We escaped north.
By evening, we reached a fortified Moretti safe house in the mountains.
The building had no digital systems. No networked cameras. No remote locks.
Only stone, steel, and men whose families had served mine for generations.
Inside, the girls ate soup at a long kitchen table.
Lily would not leave Isabella’s side.
Sofia remained close to Elena.
Grace and Hope sat beside my mother, still grieving Julian in the silent way frightened children grieve adults—by watching the door and expecting them to return.
I took Isabella into a private room.
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
I wanted to embrace her.
I wanted to demand that she leave.
Instead, I asked, “Did you love me?”
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Was any part of our marriage real?”
“Most of it.”
“That is not an answer.”
“I met you because Teresa ordered me to. Everything after the first month was mine.”
“You married me under a false name.”
“My birth name is Isabella Vale. Teresa adopted me when I was fourteen.”
My stomach tightened.
“You are related to her?”
“Not by blood. She selected girls from indebted families and trained them to enter powerful households.”
“How many?”
“I knew of seven.”
“And after the bridge?”
“Julian pulled me from the water. The woman in my clothes was one of Teresa’s agents who had been killed during the crash.”
“You could have returned.”
“No. Shaw had taken two newborn girls and claimed they were Lily and Sofia. He showed me videos of children in a laboratory. He threatened to kill them if I contacted you.”
“So the girls we saw at Saint Agnes…”
“Grace and Hope. I believed for months that they were ours.”
“Then you discovered the truth.”
“Yes.”
“And still did not return.”
“I had already infiltrated Shaw’s organization. If I left, we would lose the only chance to identify the network.”
I turned away.
“You chose the mission over us.”
“I chose to stop the people who had already reached our children.”
“Without trusting me.”
“I knew what you would do.”
“You did not.”
“You would have burned every hospital, killed every suspect, and driven the survivors deeper underground.”
She was right.
I hated her for being right.
A knock sounded.
Lucia entered with the microdrive.
“I opened the ledger.”
We gathered around an offline computer.
The database contained thousands of names.
Medical procedures.
Blackmail operations.
Fabricated paternity tests.
Deaths disguised as accidents.
At the top of the command structure were two entries.
MOTHER: TERESA VALE.
FATHER: NATHANIEL SHAW.
Elena’s face hardened at the word Father.
A third name appeared beneath them.
HEIR: A. MORETTI.
I stared at it.
“Me?”
Lucia scrolled.
The full name appeared.
Adrian Moretti.
Status: Unaware.
Succession protocol: Activate after elimination of both founders.
Teresa and Shaw had not only manipulated my life.
They had built the Crown for me to inherit.
My phone rang.
A secure line known only to my most trusted captains.
I answered.
Julian’s voice came through.
Weak.
“Brother.”
I gripped the phone.
“You’re alive.”
“Barely.”
“Where are you?”
“With Teresa.”
“Is she alive?”
“For now.”
I looked at Isabella.
Julian continued.
“Shaw is moving every remaining Crown asset to New York. He plans to release falsified genetic files naming you as the father of children belonging to governors, judges, and senators.”
“To turn the country against me.”
“To force you into hiding while he takes the ledger.”
“What does Teresa want?”
“To meet her sons.”
“Where?”
“The Moretti mansion.”
My burned home.
“Why?”
“There is something beneath Sofia’s room neither of us has found.”
I thought of Isabella’s warning.
The truth is beneath Sofia’s room.
Julian’s breathing became strained.
“Come before sunrise.”
Then Teresa’s voice entered the call.
“Bring all four girls, Adrian.”
My blood froze.
“Never.”
“You will.”
“Why?”
“Because only one of them can open the final vault.”
The line disconnected.
On the computer, the ledger refreshed by itself.
A new file appeared.
PROJECT EVE.
Four photographs filled the screen.
Lily.
Sofia.
Grace.
Hope.
May you like
Under Sofia’s photograph, one sentence was highlighted:
SOLE VIABLE SUBJECT.
