Chapter Six — The Voice in the Darkness

“Hello, daughter.”

Lena stopped breathing.

The woman's voice echoed through the mansion's security speakers, calm and unmistakably familiar. It was the same voice she had heard moments ago, the voice that had called her daughter as though nineteen years of separation meant nothing.

The lights remained off.

Somewhere downstairs, a security alarm continued to ring.

Lena gripped the front of Damian's jacket.

“Who is that?” she whispered.

Damian didn't answer immediately. His attention was fixed on the security monitor, which had begun flickering back to life.

“Security room, respond,” he ordered into his phone.

Static.

He tried again.

Nothing.

Then the woman's voice returned.

“Damian, darling. It's been a long time.”

His expression hardened.

“Isabella.”

Lena's fingers tightened around his jacket.

“You know she's alive?”

“I know that voice.”

“That isn't what I asked!”

Before he could answer, the monitor flashed.

A woman's face appeared.

Dark hair. Pale skin. Familiar eyes.

The woman in the old photograph.

Isabella Romano.

She looked older than she did in the picture, but there was no mistaking her identity.

Lena stared at the screen, searching the woman's face for something she could recognize as her own.

Isabella smiled sadly.

“Look at you. You've grown so much.”

“Stop,” Lena said.

Her voice trembled, but she forced herself to continue.

“You don't get to appear out of nowhere and call me your daughter. Who are you?”

Isabella's smile faded.

“My name is Isabella Romano. I gave birth to you nineteen years ago.”

Lena shook her head.

“No. My mother is—”

She stopped.

The woman who had raised her had never given birth to her. The documents in the blue room had made that clear.

Still, knowing something and hearing it spoken aloud were two different things.

“Where have you been?” Lena asked.

Isabella glanced away from the camera.

“Somewhere I couldn't reach you.”

“Why?”

“Because the people who wanted you dead were the same people who could make sure I never saw you again.”

Damian moved toward the monitor.

“Who took you, Isabella?”

Her eyes shifted toward him.

“You still ask questions as though you expect honest answers.”

“Answer me.”

“And you still believe giving orders makes you powerful.”

“I'm not playing games with you.”

“Neither am I.”

For a moment, the woman's expression softened.

Then she looked at Lena again.

“Your father is alive, sweetheart.”

Lena's heart lurched.

“Which father?”

Isabella's face changed.

“The man who gave you life.”

Lena stepped forward.

“You know where he is?”

“I know he's alive. I don't know where he's being held.”

“Being held by whom?”

“Someone who wants the Romano empire.”

Damian's expression grew darker.

“That's not possible.”

Isabella gave a bitter laugh.

“Still refusing to believe what you don't want to hear?”

“My father controls the empire.”

“Your father is dead, Damian.”

The words struck the room like a gunshot.

Lena turned toward him.

“Your father is dead?”

Damian didn't answer.

Isabella continued.

“Your uncle has been lying to you for years. He didn't simply inherit power. He took it. And now he wants the last person who can challenge his claim.”

Lena felt cold.

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you are the last legitimate heir to the Romano family fortune.”

Damian stepped closer to the screen.

“Where is my father?”

Isabella shook her head.

“I don't know.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“I expect you to understand that I've spent nineteen years trying to find him.”

“Then why appear now?”

Isabella looked directly at Lena.

“Because someone has discovered that she's alive.”

The monitor flickered.

A second screen switched on.

A photograph appeared.

Lena recognized the man immediately. He was the stranger who had appeared in the old photograph beside Richard Carter and Isabella.

Beneath the image was a line of text.

SUBJECT IDENTIFIED: ADRIAN ROMANO.

Damian's face changed.

“Adrian.”

Lena looked at him.

“Your cousin?”

He nodded.

Isabella's voice became urgent.

“Listen carefully. Adrian knows about the marriage contract. He knows Lena has signed it. And he knows that if she becomes the legal controller of the Romano shares, his claim to the empire becomes much weaker.”

Lena swallowed.

“So he wants to kill me?”

“He wants control of you,” Isabella replied. “What happens after that depends on whether you cooperate.”

Damian reached for the microphone.

“Where are you? I'll send someone to bring you here.”

“No.”

“Isabella—”

“I won't put Lena in danger by leading him to her.”

“You've already contacted us.”

“And now I have to leave.”

The image began to distort.

Lena rushed toward the monitor.

“Wait! Please!”

Isabella paused.

For the first time, the confidence left her face.

Lena's eyes filled with tears.

“I need to know why you left me.”

Isabella stared at her.

“I didn't leave you, Lena.”

“Then why wasn't I with you?”

“Because I believed it was the only way to keep you alive.”

The monitor went black.

The lights returned a second later.

The alarm stopped.

Lena stood motionless.

Her biological mother had appeared, revealed that her father was alive, accused Damian's cousin of taking over the family empire, and disappeared before Lena could ask another question.

She turned toward Damian.

“Tell me the truth.”

He looked at her.

“About what?”

“Your father. You said nothing about him being dead.”

“Because I don't know if he is.”

“But Isabella said—”

“My uncle told everyone my father died nineteen years ago. No body was ever recovered.”

Lena stared at him.

“Then how did your uncle take control?”

“He claimed that my father had signed over his shares before his disappearance.”

“And you believed him?”

“I was a child.”

The answer silenced her.

For the first time, Lena understood that Damian's secrets weren't necessarily proof that he had betrayed her. Some of them had been forced upon him, too.

But she still had questions.

“Why didn't you tell me about Adrian?”

“Because I didn't know he was connected to your father's death.”

“Do you now?”

Damian's jaw tightened.

“I have suspicions.”

Lena stepped back.

“I'm tired of suspicions.”

“So am I.”

“Then let's find evidence.”

He studied her for a moment.

“You're not going to let this go, are you?”

“Not until I know who I am.”

Damian nodded slowly.

“Then we start with your father.”

His phone suddenly rang.

He answered.

“Speak.”

A man's voice came through the speaker.

“Sir, we've restored the security system. We found the source of the transmission.”

“Where?”

“An external server. The signal was routed through several locations, but we've traced the last connection to an abandoned hotel near the eastern highway.”

Damian glanced at Lena.

“Any sign of Isabella?”

“No, sir. But there's something else.”

“What?”

“We found a vehicle registered to Richard Carter parked outside the hotel.”

Lena froze.

Her father's car.

The same car that had supposedly been taken away after his death.

“Is anyone there?” she asked.

The guard hesitated.

“Yes, Miss Carter.”

“Who?”

“I'm afraid I can't confirm that yet.”

Damian ended the call.

Lena grabbed her coat.

“Take me there.”

“Lena—”

“That's my father's car. If there's even a chance he's alive, I'm going.”

Damian watched her for several seconds.

Then he reached for his keys.

“Stay beside me. Whatever we find, don't approach anyone until I tell you it's safe.”

Lena nodded.

As they hurried toward the entrance, Damian's phone vibrated again.

An unknown number.

One message.

Bring Lena alone if you want to see her father alive.

Damian showed her the screen.

Lena's face drained of color.

She looked at him.

“It's a trap.”

“Yes.”

“Are we going anyway?”

Damian slipped the phone into his pocket.

“We're going to find your father.”

He opened the door.

“But we're not playing by their rules.”

And somewhere across the city, Adrian Romano watched a live image of their car leaving the estate.

He smiled.

“Good,” he murmured.

“Bring her to me.”