PART 2: THE MAN WHO STOLE THE MOBSTER’S DAUGHTER

“DON’T LET HIM ESCAPE!”

Alejandro’s voice thundered through the restaurant.

His bodyguards rushed after the man.

Emma stood frozen beside the table, still staring at the pH๏τograph.

“Who is he?” she whispered.

Alejandro looked at her.

“His name is Matteo.”

Emma’s face went pale.

“That can’t be…”

She remembered the name.

Her entire childhood, she had called him Uncle Matteo.

He had been the man who brought food when her mother was sick.

The man who paid her school fees.

The man who always warned her never to ask questions about her father.

Alejandro’s jaw тιԍнтened.

“He told me your daughter died nineteen years ago.”

Emma looked at him.

“You believed him?”

“I had no reason not to.”

Then one of the bodyguards returned.

“Boss, we found his car. He left his phone behind.”

Alejandro took it.

There was one unread message.

THE GIRL KNOWS TOO MUCH. MAKE SURE SHE NEVER LEARNS WHO HER FATHER IS.

Emma covered her mouth.

Alejandro stared at the screen.

Then another message appeared.

This one contained an address.

And a pH๏τograph.

It showed Emma as a baby.

Standing beside her mother.

And behind them was Matteo.

But he wasn’t alone.

A much younger Alejandro stood beside him.

Emma stared at the pH๏τograph.

“Why would he have a picture of my mother?”

Alejandro didn’t answer.

His face had gone completely pale.

Because he finally remembered something.

The night his wife was murdered, Matteo had been the last person he saw leaving their house.

And there was one detail Alejandro had never understood.

His wife had been clutching a piece of paper when she died.

A name.

He had spent nineteen years believing it belonged to the man who killed her.

Now he realized the name wasn’t the killer’s.

It was the name of the person she trusted to save their daughter.

Alejandro slowly looked at Emma.

“Your mother wasn’t trying to hide you from me.”

Emma’s eyes filled with tears.

“She was trying to protect you from him.”

Suddenly, every light in the restaurant went out.

A gunsH๏τ echoed from the kitchen.

Then another.

Alejandro pulled Emma behind him.

His bodyguards raised their weapons.

And from the darkness came Matteo’s voice:

“You were never supposed to find her, Alejandro.”

A pause.

Then he added:

“Because Lucía isn’t the only secret your wife left behind.”