Chapter 5 - The Name Her Mother BuriedElena laughed.
Professor Gaines allowed no makeups.
Under normal circumstances, Elena would have been furious.
Instead, she was sitting on the floor of a fortified mansion helping a seven-year-old girl build a castle from cereal boxes while armed guards inspected every vehicle entering the property.
Normal circumstances felt far away.
Lily drew a door on the cardboard castle.
Then she drew a black circle beside it.
“What is that?” Elena asked.
“A camera.”
Elena looked up.
“Where was there a camera?”
Lily froze.
Elena kept her voice casual.
“In the warehouse?”
Lily shook her head.
“The room before.”
Elena slowly put down the marker.
“There was another room?”
Lily nodded.
This was new.
Every interview had assumed she had been taken directly to the warehouse.
Elena didn't push.
Instead, she took another cardboard panel.
“What did the room look like?”
Lily drew.
A small square.
One window.
A bed.
A television.
Then something beside the wall.
A lion.
“What is that?”
“A gold lion.”
Elena frowned.
“Like a statue?”
Lily nodded.
“My daddy has one.”
Elena turned toward the door.
Adrian was standing there.
He had heard everything.
“Where?” Elena asked.
Adrian's face had gone pale.
“My father's hunting lodge.”
The investigation moved within minutes.
The Moretti hunting lodge sat eighty miles north in Pine Ridge County.
According to Adrian, almost nobody used it anymore.
Except family.
And Victor.
Adrian insisted Elena remain behind.
Elena refused.
“You said she remembers things around me.”
“I also said someone wants you dead.”
“Then keep me somewhere you can see me.”
His jaw tightened.
“You enjoy arguments.”
“I enjoy surviving.”
Two SUVs left shortly after noon.
Lily remained with Rosa under heavy protection.
At the lodge, snow covered the roof.
The front door showed no forced entry.
Inside, however, evidence was everywhere.
A child's juice box.
A blue ribbon Elena recognized from Lily's hair.
Medication packaging.
And beside the fireplace stood a gold lion statue.
Adrian stared at it.
“This was my father's.”
Elena walked into the small bedroom.
Her stomach tightened.
There were restraints beneath the bed.
She stepped backward.
Adrian saw them.
Something dark entered his expression.
“Elena.”
“What?”
“Go outside.”
“Why?”
“Because you shouldn't see what happens if we find someone here.”
Before she could answer, a noise came from downstairs.
A crash.
Adrian's guards moved.
Someone ran through the rear door.
“Stop!”
Elena reached the porch in time to see a figure disappearing between the trees.
Adrian pursued.
She stayed behind.
Mostly.
Then she noticed tire tracks near an old garage.
The door was locked.
Elena walked closer.
A faint sound came from inside.
Bang.
Bang.
She called for help.
No answer.
Everyone was chasing the fleeing man.
Elena grabbed a metal shovel and smashed the garage window.
“Hello?”
“Help!”
A man's voice.
She unlocked the door from inside.
A man lay tied behind an old pickup.
Elena recognized him immediately.
Victor.
His face was bruised.
His hands were bound.
“Please,” he gasped. “Get me out.”
Elena hesitated.
“You kidnapped Lily.”
“No!”
“She recognized you.”
“She recognized my cologne because the man who took her stole my jacket!”
Elena stared.
Victor coughed.
“Someone framed me.”
Adrian returned five minutes later.
Seeing Victor changed him instantly.
He grabbed him by the collar.
“Where is my daughter's other shoe?”
“I don't know.”
“You had access to this lodge.”
“So did your uncle.”
Adrian stopped.
“What?”
Victor looked terrified.
“Dominic.”
Adrian released him.
“My uncle lives in Florida.”
“No. He came back three weeks ago.”
“Impossible.”
“I saw him.”
Adrian's security chief shook his head.
“There are no travel records.”
“Because he came through Harbor Point on a private boat.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
Victor continued.
“I caught one of the accountants moving money through shell companies. Before I could tell Adrian, they grabbed me. They used my access card. My coat. My car.”
“Who?”
Victor hesitated.
Then whispered.
“Dominic Moretti.”
Adrian stared at him.
“My uncle has been out of the business for twenty years.”
Victor laughed bitterly.
“No. He has been waiting twenty years.”
They took Victor back to the estate.
DNA from the lodge restraints did not match him.
Security records revealed his access card had been duplicated.
The case against him began collapsing.
But Elena remained uneasy.
“Why did Lily panic when she saw him?”
Victor answered himself.
“Because when they took her, the man wore my coat.”
He looked devastated.
“She smelled my cologne.”
Adrian believed him.
Elena wasn't ready to.
That night, she sat beside Lily.
“Sweetheart, I need you to remember something.”
Lily squeezed her stuffed rabbit.
“The man who took you—did you see his face?”
“No.”
“Did he speak?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Lily's eyes filled with tears.
“He said Daddy made his family disappear.”
Elena's pulse quickened.
“Anything else?”
“He said I was going to help bring them back.”
Elena found Adrian in his office.
“What family disappeared?”
His face closed immediately.
“I don't know.”
“Don't lie to me.”
“I'm not.”
“Lily remembered something.”
She told him.
Adrian sat down slowly.
For the first time, Elena saw genuine confusion.
Then recognition.
“Twenty-two years ago,” he said.
“What?”
“My uncle Dominic had a son.”
“Had?”
“Marco. He died.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
“And Dominic blamed your father?”
“He blamed everyone.”
Elena sat opposite him.
“Maybe Marco didn't die.”
Adrian stared.
“Why would you say that?”
“Because Lily said the kidnapper talked about bringing a family back.”
Adrian shook his head.
“Marco's body was identified.”
“By whom?”
“My father.”
The room went silent.
Elena felt the shift.
A dead son.
A powerful father.
A bitter uncle.
A family built on secrets.
“Adrian,” she said quietly, “what if your father lied?”
His eyes met hers.
Before he could answer, the office phone rang.
Adrian picked it up.
His expression changed.
He hit speaker.
A distorted voice filled the room.
“You found the lodge.”
Adrian stood.
“Dominic.”
The caller laughed.
“You always were slow, nephew.”
“What do you want?”
“What your father stole.”
“My father is dead.”
“Exactly.”
Adrian's knuckles whitened around the phone.
“Leave Lily out of this.”
“She was never the real target.”
Adrian looked at Elena.
The voice continued.
“The girl who found her was.”
Elena's blood went cold.
Adrian stepped closer to the phone.
“Why?”
There was silence.
Then:
“Ask Elena what her mother's real name was.”
The line disconnected.
Elena stopped breathing.
Adrian turned toward her.
“My mother's name was Sofia Cruz.”
“No,” a voice said behind them.
Rosa stood in the doorway.
Her face had lost all color.
“No, Elena.”
May you like
She looked as if she had seen a ghost.
“Your mother's name was Sofia Moretti.”
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