All Chapters of The Silence Between Our Vows: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

The hospital looked different at night.The windows of San Carlo glowed against the darkness, but the old wing remained almost completely black.Zara sat in the passenger seat while Adrian parked across the street.Neither of them spoke.The photograph rested between them.Room 12 — 4:27 a.m.Adrian checked the time.3:51 a.m.“We have thirty six minutes.”Zara nodded.“Are you sure we should be doing this?”“No.”She looked at him.“But we’re going anyway.”A faint smile touched his lips.“That sounds like you.”They got out of the car.The hospital’s main entrance was still open, but they avoided it.Adrian led her around the back toward the old wing.A rusted side door stood beneath a broken security light.He pulled a key from his pocket.Zara stared at him.“Where did you get that?”“My father.”“Of course.”He unlocked the door.The smell of dust and disinfectant hit them immediately.The corridor was silent.Too silent.Their footsteps echoed as they walked.Room numbers passed

Zara stared at the photograph. Two newborn babies. One girl. One boy. And beneath them, the sentence that had turned her entire understanding of Adrian upside down. The other became Adrian Moretti. “No,” Adrian whispered. Zara looked at him. “You said that isn’t possible.” “It isn’t.” “Then someone is lying.” “Someone has been lying to us for twenty-five years.” The hidden room suddenly felt unbearably small. Adrian took the photograph again and studied it carefully. “This isn’t me.” “How do you know?” “I have photographs from when I was a baby.” “So?” “My birthmark.” He pointed to the baby boy’s shoulder. There was a tiny dark mark just beneath his collarbone. “I don’t have that.” Zara stared at the photograph. “Then why does it say you became Adrian?” “I don’t know.” A noise came from the corridor. They both froze. Adrian slipped the photograph into his pocket. “Come on.” They climbed through the hidden passage and emerged behind an old storage room. Adr

The door above them creaked open.No one moved.Zara could hear her own heartbeat.Daniel’s hand tightened around hers.“Stay behind me.”Adrian stepped forward.“That’s my job.”Daniel looked at him.“Not this time.”Another sound came from above.Slow footsteps descended the wooden stairs.One.Two.Three.Then a man’s voice floated through the darkness.“Daniel.”Zara felt every muscle in her body tense.The voice was calm.Almost amused.“It’s been a long time.”Daniel’s face had gone completely pale.“Leonardo.”Valentina backed away from the staircase.“No.”A figure appeared at the bottom.An older man stepped into the dim light.His hair was silver now, his face lined with age, but there was no mistaking him.The man from the photograph.The man everyone believed had vanished.Leonardo Moretti.He smiled.“You all look surprised.”Adrian raised the weapon.“Stay where you are.”Leonardo glanced at it.“Put that down.”“Why?”“Because if I wanted you dead, Adrian, I wouldn’t ha

Rain fell steadily over Isabella’s grave.Zara stared at the letter in Adrian’s hands.Daniel is the father of only one of you.The words seemed impossible.“Which one?” she whispered.Nobody answered.Daniel stood several feet away, his face buried in his hands.Adrian looked at him.“You knew.”Daniel slowly lowered his hands.“I suspected.”“That’s not an answer.”“I didn’t know which one.”Zara stood.“Then how could you raise me?”Daniel looked at her with tears in his eyes.“Because I was told you were mine.”“By who?”He looked at Valentina.Zara’s stomach dropped.“You?”Valentina nodded.“I was the one who brought you to Daniel.”“Why?”“Because your mother asked me to.”Leonardo shook his head.“She didn’t ask you to switch the children.”Valentina looked at him.“I didn’t switch them.”“Then who did?”Valentina’s lips parted.But no words came.A rustle came from behind the graves.Everyone turned.A figure stepped out from the darkness.Zara froze.It was Alessandro.Adria

Rainwater slid down Zara’s face as she stared at the old man.For a moment, nobody moved.Nobody breathed.The word hung in the air between them.Granddaughter.Zara looked at Adrian.Then at Alessandro.Then back at the man standing beside Valentina.“No.”Her voice was barely audible.The old man smiled.“I was wondering how long it would take you to say that.”Adrian stepped forward.“You’re dead.”His grandfather looked almost amused.“So I’ve been told.”Leonardo’s face had lost all color.“You died in 2003.”“No.”The old man shook his head slowly.“Someone died in 2003.”Zara felt cold despite the rain.“Who?”“A man with my name.”Alessandro moved closer to Adrian.“You let us bury someone else?”“I let the world believe I was gone.”“Why?”The old man’s eyes moved toward Zara.“Because there were things I still needed to finish.”Zara’s stomach tightened.“Like killing my mother?”Silence.The smile disappeared from his face.“Your mother was a complication.”Adrian’s express