PART 4 — THE DAUGHTER OF THE ᴅᴇᴀᴅ WOMAN

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Nora could hear the rain hitting the windows.

She looked at Vincent.

Then at the pH๏τograph.

Then back at the security guard.

“My daughter?”

The man nodded.

“That’s what the message said.”

Nora shook her head.

“Ethan doesn’t have a daughter.”

Vincent stepped toward the guard.

“Where is he?”

“Outside the south entrance. Alone, apparently.”

“Apparently?”

“We have four vehicles monitoring the street. None of them belong to us.”

Vincent turned toward Evelyn.

“Get her upstairs.”

Nora immediately stepped between them.

“No.”

“Nora, this isn’t negotiable.”

“You’ve been telling me what to do since the restaurant. I’m finished listening.”

Vincent’s expression hardened.

“Ethan knows about Sofia.”

“And I deserve to hear what he has to say.”

“Not while you’re standing in an unsecured room.”

Nora looked around.

The security cameras.

The armed men.

The encrypted device on the table.

“This entire building is apparently your idea of secure.”

Vincent rubbed his forehead.

For the first time, he looked genuinely tired.

Then he handed her a small black phone.

“One call. Stay beside Evelyn. Don’t leave the room.”

Nora took it.

“Thank you.”

He started toward the elevator.

“Vincent?”

He stopped.

“Is Sofia really my mother?”

He looked at the pH๏τograph.

Then nodded.

“Yes.”

Nora felt tears gather.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

“Because I didn’t know you existed.”

He entered the elevator.

The doors closed.

Nora remained beside the table.

Evelyn carefully removed the ring from the encrypted reader.

“You should sit down.”

“I’ve had enough sitting.”

The older woman gave a small, understanding smile.

“I imagine you have.”

Nora looked at the pH๏τograph again.

“Tell me about Sofia.”

Evelyn hesitated.

“She was kind. Much kinder than the world she was born into.”

“Was she married?”

“No.”

“Was she with someone?”

Evelyn looked down.

“That’s complicated.”

Nora’s stomach тιԍнтened.

“Please.”

The woman pulled out a chair.

“Sofia met a man outside the organization. His name was Adrian Warren.”

Nora blinked.

“Warren?”

“Yes.”

It was her surname.

“My father?”

Evelyn nodded.

“He was a surgeon. A good man. He loved Sofia, but he wanted her away from Vincent’s family.”

Nora looked toward the elevator.

“Then what happened?”

“Sofia discovered she was pregnant. Adrian wanted them to leave the country.”

“And they did?”

“Not together.”

Evelyn took a breath.

“Before Sofia could leave, there was an attack. Adrian was injured. Sofia disappeared.”

“Disappeared?”

“Vincent searched for her for months. Eventually, he found evidence that she had been killed.”

Nora stared at the pH๏τograph.

“But I was alive.”

“Yes.”

“Who raised me?”

“Your father.”

Nora closed her eyes.

Her father had died when she was seventeen.

She remembered him as a quiet man who worked long hours and never discussed the past.

He had kept one pH๏τograph of her mother in a locked drawer.

Nora had asked about it once.

He told her Sofia had died shortly after childbirth.

She had believed him.

All her life.

“Did he know about Vincent?”

“I believe he did.”

“Why didn’t he tell me?”

Evelyn didn’t answer.

Nora looked at the ring.

“Maybe the second key is something my father left behind.”

Before Evelyn could respond, the elevator opened.

Vincent returned.

His expression was unreadable.

“Ethan is coming up.”

Nora stood.

“Where is he?”

“Security is bringing him to the conference room.”

“I’m coming.”

Vincent looked at her.

“Nora—”

“I’m coming.”

After a moment, he nodded.

They walked through a corridor lined with dark wooden panels.

Two armed guards opened the conference room door.

A man stood beside the window.

His hair was longer than Nora remembered.

He had lost weight.

There was a scar near his left eyebrow.

But it was Ethan.

The man she had loved for four years.

The man who had left without explanation.

The man whose disappearance had made her feel as though she wasn’t worth a goodbye.

He turned.

“Nora.”

She slapped him.

The sound echoed through the room.

Ethan didn’t move.

“Don’t ever say my name like you have the right.”

He lowered his eyes.

“I deserved that.”

“You deserved much worse.”

Vincent remained near the door.

Nora stepped closer.

“Why did you leave?”

Ethan looked at Vincent.

“Because she was safer without me.”

Nora laughed bitterly.

“You could have told me.”

“I couldn’t.”

“You could have trusted me.”

“I did.”

“Then why did you disappear?”

Ethan reached into his coat.

Vincent immediately raised a hand.

“Slowly.”

Ethan removed a small envelope.

He placed it on the table.

“Your father gave me this.”

Nora froze.

“My father died eleven years ago.”

“I know.”

“He never met you.”

Ethan looked at her sadly.

“He met me once.”

Nora stared.

“When?”

“Three months before he died.”

Ethan pushed the envelope toward her.

“He told me to give it to you only if someone from the Moretti family ever found you.”

Vincent approached.

“What did Adrian know?”

Ethan shook his head.

“More than you ever imagined.”

Nora opened the envelope.

Inside was a pH๏τograph.

Her father stood beside Sofia.

They were holding a baby.

Nora.

On the back, her father’s handwriting was visible.

To my daughter. When the truth becomes more dangerous than the lie, find the man who carries Sofia’s name in his heart.

Nora looked up.

Vincent was staring at the pH๏τograph.

His face had changed.

He looked almost unsteady.

“Where did you get this?”

Ethan answered.

“From Adrian’s lawyer.”

Vincent took the pH๏τograph carefully.

“Did he leave anything else?”

Ethan nodded.

“A recording.”

Nora’s hands trembled.

“Of my mother?”

“Of both your parents.”

Ethan reached into his pocket and placed a small flash drive on the table.

Vincent’s security chief took it.

“Don’t connect that to anything here,” Evelyn warned.

The room fell silent.

Then Ethan looked at Nora.

“There is something else.”

She turned.

“What?”

“I didn’t leave because I stopped loving you.”

Nora folded her arms.

“Then why?”

“Because Alby discovered who you were.”

Vincent’s expression darkened.

“Explain.”

Ethan swallowed.

“Alby knew Sofia had a child. He believed the child had inherited something she left behind.”

Nora looked at the ring.

“The key.”

Ethan nodded.

“He wanted it. I took the key before he could get it.”

“Why not give it to Vincent?”

“Because I didn’t know whether I could trust him.”

Vincent stepped forward.

“You worked for me.”

“I worked for your family. That isn’t the same thing.”

The room became painfully quiet.

Ethan looked at Nora.

“I wanted to tell you everything. But once Alby discovered our connection, he began watching your apartment.”

Nora remembered the pH๏τograph.

Her building.

Her front door.

The feeling of being followed.

“So you left me?”

“I thought if you believed I had abandoned you, you’d move on.”

“You didn’t even give me the chance to decide.”

Ethan looked down.

“No. I didn’t.”

Nora turned away.

There was so much she wanted to say.

She hated him.

She missed him.

She wanted to know whether any of their four years had been real.

But before she could speak, the security chief entered.

He looked at Vincent.

“We’ve recovered the recording.”

Vincent nodded.

“Play it.”

The screen flickered.

A woman appeared.

Dark hair.

Gray eyes.

The same face Nora had just seen in the pH๏τograph.

Sofia.

Nora covered her mouth.

Her mother looked directly into the camera.

“If you’re watching this,” Sofia began, “then my daughter is no longer a child.”

She paused.

“And Vincent, if you’re there, I need you to understand something.”

Vincent stepped closer.

Sofia’s expression became frightened.

“Alby wasn’t the man who arranged the attack.”

Vincent went completely still.

Sofia continued.

“The man who ordered it was someone we both trusted.”

A faint sound came from behind the camera.

Then Sofia whispered one final sentence.

“It’s the person who raised Nora.”

The screen went black.

Nora stared at it.

Her father.

The man who had protected her.

The man who had given her everything.

Could he have been involved in her mother’s disappearance?

She shook her head.

“No.”

Vincent looked at her.

“Nora…”

“No. My father would never have hurt her.”

Nobody spoke.

Then Ethan slowly reached into his pocket again.

He removed a second pH๏τograph.

It showed her father standing outside a warehouse.

Beside him was a much younger Vincent.

And between them stood Alby.

On the back, someone had written a date.

The date was eleven years ago.

Three days before her father’s death.

Nora turned the pH๏τograph over.

Beneath the date were six handwritten words.

The agreement was never about money.

She looked at Vincent.

“What agreement?”

Vincent stared at the pH๏τograph.

For the first time, the mafia boss seemed genuinely afraid of the answer.

Then he said:

“Your father didn’t just hide you from my family, Nora.”

He looked directly into her eyes.

“He made a deal that could destroy everything I built.”

END OF PART 4

PART 5 — THE DEAL HER FATHER MADE WITH THE MAFIA BOSS