Chapter 6 - The Sister Elena Never Knew
Elena laughed.
It came out wrong.
Sharp.
Broken.
“No.”
Reynolds looked miserable.
“Elena—”
“My mother had one daughter.”
“That is what you were told.”
“No.”
She stood.
“My mother died when I was seventeen. I know my family.”
“You know the family she gave you.”
Elena wanted to hit him.
Instead, Adrian said quietly:
“Let him finish.”
Reynolds explained.
Elena’s mother, Teresa Castillo, had been sixteen when she gave birth to Isabella.
Poor.
Unmarried.
Terrified.
The baby was adopted privately by a wealthy Italian-American couple.
Years later, Teresa married and had Elena.
She never told either daughter.
“How did Isabella find out?”
“She needed genetic information during fertility treatment.”
Adrian looked sharply at him.
“Fertility treatment?”
Reynolds closed his eyes.
Another secret.
“Isabella wanted children.”
Adrian laughed once, painfully.
“We tried for years.”
“She learned she had a hereditary clotting disorder.”
That led her to biological records.
She found Teresa.
Then Elena.
But Teresa had already died.
Isabella never approached Elena directly.
“Why?”
“She was afraid of dragging her into Adrian’s world.”
So she watched from a distance.
Paid Elena’s clinic bills.
Protected her when Miguel disappeared.
Trained Titan using Elena’s scent from clothing donated at the clinic.
Elena felt violated and loved at the same time.
Two emotions that should not coexist.
Yet did.
Adrian stared at a photograph of Isabella.
“She had a sister.”
“Yes.”
“And never told me.”
Reynolds looked at him.
“She planned to.”
“When?”
“After she brought Vincent down.”
Of course.
Always later.
Secrets survived on later.
Then Dante returned with DNA results expedited through private channels.
Isabella’s preserved blood.
Elena’s sample.
Half sisters.
Probability overwhelming.
Elena sat beside Sophia.
“Then Isabella was my aunt?” Sophia asked.
Elena’s throat closed.
“Yes.”
Sophia thought carefully.
“The lady Titan loved.”
“Yes.”
“Then I think I would've liked her.”
Adrian turned away.
Nobody mentioned the tears in his eyes.
But the most important question remained.
Why did whoever kidnapped Miguel want Sophia?
Reynolds provided the answer accidentally.
“If Miguel copied Isabella’s ledger, he may have hidden the encryption key.”
“What key?” Dante asked.
“The ledger wasn't complete.”
Isabella had created a digital archive linking names, payments, police leaks, judges, witnesses, doctors.
It was encrypted.
She split access into two parts.
One part with Miguel.
The second?
“No one knows,” Reynolds said.
Sophia tugged Elena’s sleeve.
“Mommy.”
“What?”
“The song.”
“What song?”
“The one Daddy taught me.”
Elena froze.
Miguel had disappeared before Sophia was born.
“He never taught you a song.”
“Yes, he did.”
“No, baby.”
Sophia frowned.
“In the video.”
Elena stared.
“What video?”
Sophia described a cartoon rabbit on Elena’s old phone.
A file Elena thought was a children’s clip Miguel had downloaded before he vanished.
Sophia had watched it dozens of times as a toddler.
Elena still had the phone in a drawer.
They found it.
The “cartoon” lasted ninety seconds.
A rabbit crossed colored doors while a tune played.
Dante watched twice.
Then he understood.
“The colors form a sequence.”
Not entertainment.
A memory device.
A password.
Miguel had hidden the second encryption key inside a child’s video before disappearing.
Sophia knew the song by heart.
That was why they wanted her.
Not because she was valuable as a hostage.
Because she was the only person likely to remember the sequence.
Adrian looked at Elena.
“We will not use her.”
Sophia looked offended.
“But I know the song.”
“No.”
“What if it helps Daddy?”
Adrian’s face changed.
Elena understood his conflict.
Then Sophia started humming.
Dante entered the sequence into the encrypted archive.
Green.
Yellow.
Blue.
Blue.
Red.
Yellow.
The screen unlocked.
Thousands of files appeared.
Names.
Accounts.
Locations.
Then one folder:
MORETTI SUCCESSION.
Adrian opened it.
Inside was a legal document signed eight years earlier.
If Adrian died without biological children, control of the Moretti holdings transferred to Vincent.
Adrian stared at it.
“So that's why.”
But another file sat beneath it.
PATERNITY — CONFIRMED.
Adrian opened it.
A DNA report appeared.
Father:
Adrian Moretti.
Child:
Sophia Castillo.
Elena screamed:
May you like
“That’s impossible.”
And Adrian looked at Sophia as though the entire world had just changed.
