All Chapters of The Silence Between Our Vows: Chapter 71 - Chapter 76

“Hello, daughters.”Zara couldn’t move.The man stood at the bottom of the staircase as though he had simply walked into an ordinary room instead of appearing inside a hidden vault that had been buried for twenty five years.His face was older than it had been in the photograph.There were lines around his eyes now, silver threaded through his dark hair, and a faint scar ran from his temple toward his jaw.But Zara knew him.She had seen that face in photographs.She had seen it beside Isabella.Beside Lucien.Beside the woman who had once held her as a baby.Matteo.Her supposed father.The man she had just been told wasn’t her biological father.The man everyone claimed had disappeared twenty five years ago.Her lips parted.“Matteo?”His smile faded.“Yes.”Sophia took a step backward.“No.”Matteo looked at her.“Sophia.”She shook her head.“You’re dead.”“So are half the people in this agreement.”His voice was calm.“Death was the easiest way to hide.”Zara stared at him.“You

For several seconds, nobody moved.The wheelchair remained in the doorway, its wheels still turning slightly from the force that had pushed it forward. The man sitting in it looked older than Zara remembered, though the last time she had seen him had been through photographs, recordings, documents, and stories told by people who had spent years either fearing him or obeying him.Vittorio Bellini.Alive.His hands rested quietly over a dark walking cane across his lap. His silver hair was thinner than it had been in the photographs. His face had sharpened with age, and his skin carried the pale, almost translucent look of someone who had spent too long away from sunlight.But his eyes were exactly the same.Cold.Observant.Calculating.They settled on Zara as though everyone else in the room had disappeared.Zara felt Adrian move closer beside her.“Stay behind me,” he whispered.Vittorio smiled.It wasn’t a warm smile.It was the faintest curve of amusement.“You still do that.”Adri

Zara couldn’t move.The words had been simple.Almost too simple.And yet they had managed to tear apart everything she thought she knew.Alessandro was never your father.She looked at Vittorio.Then at the woman standing across from her.Elena.Elena Bellini.The missing child.The fourth heir.The girl who had supposedly been born beside her twenty-five years ago.Her sister.Her face.Her voice.The fourth key.Everything about her should have made Zara feel closer to the truth.Instead, she felt more lost than ever.“You’re lying,” Zara whispered.Elena shook her head.“I wish I were.”Zara turned toward Isabella.“Mom.”Isabella couldn’t meet her eyes.That was enough.Zara’s heart sank.“You knew.”Isabella’s lips trembled.“I knew Alessandro wasn’t your father.”The room seemed to tilt.Adrian stepped closer.“Then who is?”Isabella looked at him.“I don’t know.”Zara stared at her.“You don’t know who my father is?”“I knew who they wanted you to believe was your father.”“Th