Chapter 11 - The Woman Behind The Messages
The security room was colder than usual.
Not because of the temperature.
Because everyone inside knew something impossible had happened.
My mother’s medical tablet.
The device she used every day.
The device everyone believed was only connected to her treatment records.
Was the same device sending messages from inside my estate.
I stood in front of the screen.
The evidence was there.
Dates.
Times.
Access records.
Messages.
All connected to my mother’s room.
But something felt wrong.
Very wrong.
Because I knew my mother.
I knew her better than anyone.
She spent four years trapped inside her own body.
Four years unable to move.
Unable to speak.
Unable to defend herself.
And now everyone wanted me to believe she was secretly sending messages and manipulating events.
No.
I refused.
“What exactly were the messages?”
Matteo stepped forward.
“They were sent to an unknown number.”
“Show me.”
The screen changed.
The first message appeared.
He knows about Ewan.
The second.
He found the ledger.
The third.
Stop him before he reaches the truth.
I stared.
My blood ran cold.
Because whoever sent these messages knew everything.
They knew about Ewan.
They knew about the ledger.
They knew I was getting close.
But the final message was different.
The final message was sent only hours ago.
Gabriel cannot know the truth about his mother.
I looked at the screen.
Then at Matteo.
“Who had access to this tablet?”
He hesitated.
“Only authorized medical staff.”
“Names.”
He handed me a list.
I read it.
Nurses.
Doctors.
Assistants.
Then one name.
Adrian Voss.
Of course.
Again.
The same name.
The same shadow.
The same person appearing every time we reached the truth.
“Find him.”
Matteo nodded.
“He already disappeared.”
I turned.
“What?”
“He left Chicago.”
“How?”
“Private aircraft.”
I stared.
“Whose aircraft?”
Matteo looked uncomfortable.
“Vandermark.”
The room went silent.
Celeste.
Again.
---
I found Celeste in the library.
She was sitting beside the fireplace.
No makeup.
No perfect dress.
No carefully prepared expression.
For the first time, she looked exhausted.
Like she had finally stopped pretending.
“You knew Adrian helped you escape.”
She looked up.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was afraid.”
I walked closer.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to understand.”
“I understand betrayal.”
Her eyes moved.
A small reaction.
“You think I betrayed you.”
“Didn’t you?”
Silence.
That was her answer.
“You entered my life because of Ewan.”
“Yes.”
“You investigated my family.”
“Yes.”
“You hid the truth.”
“Yes.”
Every admission hurt more than any lie.
“Then tell me something.”
I stopped in front of her.
“Was any of it real?”
Celeste looked away.
The question was not about the secrets.
Not about the betrayal.
It was about us.
Finally, she whispered:
“Yes.”
I hated that answer.
Because it was the one I wanted.
And the one I feared.
“I loved you before I knew who you were.”
I said nothing.
“I met you because of a mission.”
She looked at me.
“But I stayed because you were not what everyone said.”
“What did they say?”
“That Gabriel Moretti was a monster.”
A bitter smile appeared.
“And?”
“You are.”
The words surprised me.
Then she continued.
“But you are also the man who paid for Ray Calder’s son’s tuition.”
I looked at her.
“How do you know that?”
“I watched you.”
The answer should have angered me.
But it didn’t.
“You saw that?”
“Yes.”
“And you still lied?”
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was trying to protect my family.”
I froze.
“Your family?”
Celeste stood.
“My father.”
The room became silent.
“Your father is involved.”
“Yes.”
“Then why protect him?”
“I’m not.”
She stepped closer.
“I am trying to stop him.”
That was not the answer I expected.
“Explain.”
Celeste took a breath.
“My father was never the person controlling everything.”
“Then who?”
She looked at me.
“The person who created the entire plan.”
A pause.
“The person who has been moving everyone like pieces on a board.”
“Who?”
Her voice became almost a whisper.
“Your mother’s doctor.”
I stared.
“Adrian?”
“Yes.”
“But you said he was helping you.”
“He was.”
“Then why?”
“Because Adrian was not working for my father.”
She looked toward the window.
“He was working for someone else.”
My expression hardened.
“Who?”
Celeste did not answer immediately.
Then she said:
“The same person who ordered Ewan’s death.”
I waited.
“The same person who has been controlling your organization for years.”
“Name.”
She closed her eyes.
“Gabriel.”
“What?”
“You know the person.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Her voice shook.
“Because that person is the reason you are alive.”
I stared at her.
“What does that mean?”
Celeste looked directly at me.
“The person who killed Ewan…”
She paused.
“Was not trying to destroy your family.”
A longer pause.
“They were trying to replace it.”
---
That night, I entered my mother’s room.
She was awake.
Waiting.
I placed the tablet on the table.
Then I asked:
“Mom.”
Her eyes moved toward me.
“Did you send these messages?”
Immediately.
She shook her head.
No.
I believed her.
Not because she was my mother.
Because I saw fear.
Real fear.
I took her hand.
“Who used your tablet?”
Her fingers trembled.
She reached for the notebook.
I opened it.
She wrote one sentence.
Someone comes into my room every night.
My heart stopped.
“Who?”
Her hand shook.
She wrote:
Someone I trusted.
I waited.
Then she wrote another word.
One name.
The same name that had appeared everywhere.
The same name that had followed us through every secret.
Adrian.
But then she wrote something else.
Something that changed everything.
Adrian is not the mastermind.
He is afraid of someone too.
I stared at the page.
A person above Adrian.
Above Celeste.
Above Vincent.
Someone who controlled everyone.
My mother looked at me.
Then slowly wrote:
Your brother knew.
I froze.
“Knew what?”
Her hand moved.
Slowly.
Painfully.
But clearly.
Ewan knew who was behind everything.
And he left the answer with the one person nobody would suspect.
I looked at her.
“Who?”
My mother’s fingers stopped.
Then she pointed toward herself.
My blood turned cold.
“Me?”
She nodded.
Then she wrote:
I was supposed to tell you six years ago.
A noise came from the hallway.
A floorboard.
Someone outside the door.
I turned.
The door slowly opened.
And standing there…
May you like
Was the last person I expected to see.
Ewan Moretti.
