Chapter 17-The Sister Who Chose The Enemy
The sound of the gun being loaded was louder than the alarms.
Louder than the wind outside.
Louder than my own heartbeat.
Because I knew that sound.
I had heard it before.
Not from a stranger.
Not from an enemy.
From someone standing close enough to touch me.
Someone I trusted.
Someone I loved.
Isabella.
My sister stood at the entrance of the hidden chamber.
Her hand was steady.
Her expression was broken.
And somehow that was worse.
If she had looked angry…
If she had looked cruel…
If she had looked like the villain everyone expected…
maybe it would have been easier.
But she looked like someone who had already lost.
“Elena…”
My name sounded painful coming from her mouth.
I stared at the gun.
Then at her face.
“Put it down.”
My voice was quiet.
Not because I wasn't afraid.
Because I was tired.
Tired of being afraid.
Tired of losing people.
Tired of discovering that every person who claimed to protect me had a secret waiting behind their back.
Isabella's fingers tightened around the weapon.
“I didn't want it to happen this way.”
A bitter laugh escaped me.
“Did you want it any other way?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“You don't understand.”
“No.”
I stepped forward.
“I don't.”
A pause.
“Because nobody ever lets me understand anything.”
The words hit her.
Good.
For once, I wanted her to feel what I felt.
Dante immediately moved beside me.
Not in front.
Beside.
But I noticed something.
His hand wasn't reaching for his weapon.
He wasn't treating Isabella like an enemy.
Not yet.
Because he saw what I saw.
She wasn't here to kill me.
She was here because she was afraid.
“Isabella.”
Dante's voice was calm.
“Explain.”
She looked at him.
“You still trust people too easily.”
A strange silence followed.
Because those words coming from her were almost cruel.
Dante's eyes narrowed.
“You're talking about trust?”
She flinched.
Because he was right.
She looked back at me.
“I never wanted to hurt you.”
“But you did.”
Silence.
“You brought Nolan into my life.”
“Yes.”
“You let him control me.”
Her eyes closed.
“Yes.”
“You watched me suffer.”
A tear fell down her cheek.
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
Because hearing someone admit your pain didn't make it disappear.
It made it real.
“Why?”
That one word contained fifteen years.
Isabella lowered the gun slightly.
“Because I had a choice.”
A pause.
“And I chose wrong.”
She slowly walked toward the table.
Then placed the gun down.
Everyone remained tense.
But nobody moved.
“I was nineteen when our family died.”
Her voice became softer.
“I thought I knew everything.”
She looked at the Belladonna chamber around us.
“I thought power meant control.”
A bitter smile.
“I was wrong.”
She looked at me.
“When the attack happened, I found out our family had enemies everywhere.”
“The council.”
“The Morettis.”
“The Vescaris.”
“The Order.”
Her voice shook.
“I was trying to save you.”
I crossed my arms.
“So you handed me to Nolan?”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“I handed you to someone I thought could protect you.”
“That is not protection.”
“I know.”
The honesty hurt.
“He was supposed to watch you.”
A pause.
“Keep you hidden.”
“And?”
Her eyes dropped.
“He changed.”
My anger rose.
“Changed?”
I stepped closer.
“He hurt me.”
“I know.”
“You knew?”
Her silence answered.
I felt something inside me break.
“You knew.”
Isabella cried.
“I found out too late.”
“No.”
My voice became cold.
“You found out and stayed quiet.”
She couldn't deny it.
Because it was true.
Dante stepped forward.
“Who gave Nolan the order?”
Everyone became silent.
Isabella looked at him.
“I don't know.”
Dante's expression hardened.
“You expect us to believe that?”
“I am telling the truth.”
“You have lied for fifteen years.”
“I know.”
A pause.
“But this time I am not.”
Dante stared at her.
Then something changed.
Because Dante understood something I didn't.
A person who lied to gain power behaved differently from a person who lied out of fear.
Isabella looked at me.
“There is one thing you need to know.”
I waited.
“Nolan was never the real threat.”
My stomach tightened.
“Then who was?”
She looked at the doorway.
Nobody was there.
But her expression changed.
Like she expected someone to appear.
“The person who created Nolan.”
A chill moved through me.
“What does that mean?”
Isabella whispered:
“He wasn't recruited.”
A pause.
“He was built.”
The room became silent.
Dante's eyes narrowed.
“Explain.”
Isabella looked at him.
“The Order doesn't find people.”
She swallowed.
“They creates them.”
I felt cold.
“What?”
“They take people with certain backgrounds.”
“Certain skills.”
“Certain weaknesses.”
“And they shape them.”
I remembered Nolan.
His charm.
His patience.
His ability to read me.
The perfect apologies.
The perfect lies.
The way he always knew exactly what to say.
My stomach turned.
“Nolan wasn't pretending to be someone else.”
Isabella looked at me sadly.
“He was trained to become exactly what you needed.”
The words hurt.
Because they explained everything.
Why he knew when to be kind.
Why he knew when to apologize.
Why he knew when to hurt me.
He wasn't just abusive.
He was calculated.
Dante's expression became deadly.
“Who trained him?”
Isabella looked toward the black box my father left behind.
“Open the second compartment.”
I frowned.
“There is no second compartment.”
“There is.”
She looked at me.
“Your father designed it for you.”
I approached the box.
My hands touched the bottom.
Nothing.
Then I remembered the family symbol.
I pressed my thumb against the engraving.
A hidden section opened.
Inside was a small device.
A recording.
Everyone froze.
Because my father's voice came from the speaker.
Older.
Tired.
But unmistakably him.
“My daughter.”
My breath caught.
“If you are hearing this…”
A pause.
“Then the people around you have failed to protect you.”
I looked at Dante.
Then Isabella.
Then my mother.
The recording continued.
“I need you to understand something.”
“The Order will not stop because they fear your power.”
A pause.
“They will stop because they fear your choice.”
The room became silent.
“Your greatest weapon is not your blood.”
“Not your inheritance.”
“Not your name.”
Another pause.
“It is your ability to choose who you become.”
I felt tears forming.
Because after all these years…
my father was finally speaking to me.
Not as an heir.
Not as a symbol.
As his daughter.
Then his voice changed.
More serious.
“If Dante Moretti is with you…”
Everyone froze.
Dante especially.
My father's next words came slowly.
“Trust him.”
The room went silent.
I looked at Dante.
My father trusted him.
But why?
The recording continued.
“Because the man who will betray you…”
A pause.
“Will not be the person holding a weapon.”
The speaker crackled.
“He will be the person who convinces you that you need one.”
Then the recording stopped.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Until Dante's phone rang.
He answered.
A few seconds later, his expression changed.
“What?”
Silence.
Then:
“That's impossible.”
I looked at him.
“What happened?”
He slowly lowered the phone.
His face was pale.
“The Order has released a statement.”
My heart tightened.
“What statement?”
Dante looked at me.
“They announced the new leader of their organization.”
A pause.
“And everyone in Chicago is watching.”
“Who?”
Dante's eyes moved toward the screen.
A news broadcast appeared.
A familiar face filled the screen.
A woman standing behind a podium.
Elegant.
Calm.
Powerful.
My blood turned cold.
Because I knew her.
Everyone did.
My mother.
Lucia De Luca.
The headline appeared beneath her face.
THE ORDER'S NEW LEADER REVEALED.
I stopped breathing.
Because beneath the headline was one sentence.
LUCIA DE LUCA TAKES CONTROL OF CHICAGO'S MOST POWERFUL ORGANIZATION.
My mother.
The woman who told me she saved me.
The woman who warned me about everyone else.
Was the person everyone feared.
And then she looked directly into the camera.
May you like
Like she knew I was watching.
And she smiled.
