Chapter 19 - THE LAST SECRETAdrian's mother denied everything.
But Elena was gone.
For three days, no one could find her.
Then Valeria noticed something.
The message had been sent from an old phone.
Not Elena's.
Adrian's mother had owned it.
She had given it to Elena years earlier.
Valeria studied the message.
"She didn't write this."
Adrian frowned.
"How do you know?"
"The punctuation."
He stared.
Valeria continued.
"Elena never uses periods."
Adrian blinked.
"You know that?"
"I read thousands of her messages."
He stared at her.
"Why?"
"Because I was trying to understand her."
Valeria zoomed in on the message.
"There is another problem."
"What?"
"The message was sent from the old house."
Adrian's face changed.
They drove there immediately.
The underground archive was empty.
But a hidden door stood open.
Inside was a small room.
And there was Elena.
Alive.
Sitting beside a woman.
Adrian's mother.
He froze.
"Mom?"
His mother stood.
Elena looked at him.
"I wanted you to know the truth."
Adrian stared.
"About what?"
His mother took a deep breath.
"I did not hide Elena to protect her."
Adrian's face hardened.
"Then why?"
His mother looked at Valeria.
"Because I was the one who killed your father."
The room went silent.
Adrian stepped backward.
"No."
His mother began crying.
"Your father was going to kill Elena."
"What?"
"He had discovered that she was not his biological daughter."
Adrian froze.
His mother continued.
"He planned to abandon her."
"So you killed him?"
"I stopped him."
Adrian's face twisted.
"You murdered him."
"I saved my child."
The truth was horrifying.
Adrian's father had been a monster.
But his mother had still taken a life.
And then she had spent twenty years hiding the truth.
Valeria looked at Elena.
"Did you know?"
Elena nodded.
"I found out years ago."
"Then why did you disappear?"
Elena looked at Adrian.
"Because I wanted him to hear the truth from our mother."
Adrian closed his eyes.
The family he had spent his entire life trying to understand…
May you like
Had never been innocent.
But perhaps none of them were entirely guilty either.
