Chapter 19 - The Last Secret Of The Moretti Family
I stood in front of the screen long after the image disappeared.
Nobody spoke.
Because everyone understood what that meant.
Adrian Voss was not running.
He wanted me to find him.
He wanted me to walk into that room.
The same way every person connected to this nightmare had wanted me to make a choice.
My grandmother.
Vincent.
Celeste.
Everyone had been moving pieces.
Everyone had been protecting something.
Everyone had been hiding something.
But Adrian was different.
He did not want protection.
He wanted control.
And now he had the one thing that could destroy him.
The original ledger.
The truth.
---
“Gabriel.”
Ewan’s voice pulled me back.
I looked at him.
“We cannot go alone.”
I almost smiled.
“That is what everyone says.”
“Because this time it is true.”
I looked at my brother.
Six years.
Six years believing he was gone.
Six years believing I was carrying his memory alone.
And now he was standing beside me.
The person I lost.
The person who knew me before I became this.
“You should hate me.”
His expression changed.
“What?”
“You watched me become someone you never wanted me to be.”
Ewan shook his head.
“No.”
“You knew I was becoming exactly what they wanted.”
“Yes.”
“Then why?”
He stepped closer.
“Because I knew you were still there.”
I looked away.
“I was not.”
“Yes.”
His voice became firm.
“You were.”
A pause.
“The fact that you are angry proves it.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“A monster does not care if it becomes a monster.”
The words hit harder than I expected.
Because maybe that was the thing everyone had missed.
I was not trying to become better because I was perfect.
I was trying because I knew I had lost myself.
---
We prepared before midnight.
No army.
No public confrontation.
No war in the streets.
That was what Adrian wanted.
Chaos.
Fear.
People destroying each other.
We would not give him that.
Matteo gathered only the people we trusted.
The ones who had stayed when everything fell apart.
Celeste stood near the entrance.
Her arm was healed.
But the damage between us was still there.
“You do not have to come.”
She looked at me.
“Yes.”
“Celeste.”
“No.”
Her voice was calm.
“You spent years protecting everyone else.”
She stepped closer.
“Tonight someone protects you.”
I looked at her.
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“You betrayed me.”
“Yes.”
“But?”
Her eyes softened.
“But I never stopped loving you.”
The honesty hurt.
Because I wanted to hate her.
It would have been easier.
But love was never simple.
Not in my family.
Not in my world.
Not anymore.
---
The old office was located beneath the abandoned Moretti warehouse.
A place my father used before the empire expanded.
A place nobody visited.
A place Adrian knew too well.
When we arrived, the doors were already open.
That was expected.
Inside, the lights were on.
Adrian was waiting.
Sitting behind my father’s desk.
The ledger placed in front of him.
He smiled.
“Gabriel.”
I entered.
“You wanted me here.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you deserve the truth.”
I looked at the ledger.
“You mean your version.”
“No.”
He touched the old book.
“The real version.”
I stepped closer.
“Then start talking.”
Adrian leaned back.
“Your father was not the beginning.”
I said nothing.
“He was not the end either.”
“Then what was he?”
“A man who realized too late that the world he built was stronger than him.”
“And Ewan?”
“Your brother discovered everything.”
“And you?”
Adrian smiled sadly.
“I tried to fix it.”
I almost laughed.
“You destroyed my mother.”
“I protected her.”
“You erased my memories.”
“I protected you.”
“You manipulated everyone.”
“Yes.”
The answer was immediate.
That surprised me.
“You admit it?”
“Because I did what I had to do.”
The same words.
Everyone used the same words.
I had no choice.
I had to protect them.
I had to save them.
I had to control them.
I looked at him.
“You are all the same.”
His smile faded.
“What?”
“You all think hurting people is acceptable if you call it love.”
Silence.
For the first time…
Adrian looked uncomfortable.
---
He opened the ledger.
Inside were pages of names.
Transactions.
Orders.
Evidence.
“The organization was never the problem.”
I looked down.
“Then what was?”
“The people who believed they deserved to own it.”
“And you?”
“I believed I deserved to save it.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“You wanted control.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His eyes changed.
Because finally…
The truth appeared.
“Because I watched your father destroy everything trying to be a good man.”
He looked at me.
“I watched Ewan die because he believed honesty mattered more than survival.”
“And?”
“And I decided someone had to be strong enough to make the decisions nobody else could.”
I stared.
“You became worse than them.”
He looked away.
“Maybe.”
---
Then the warehouse lights turned off.
Everyone moved.
A second later…
Gunfire erupted outside.
Not from us.
From another group.
Adrian looked surprised.
For the first time.
“What is happening?”
I looked at him.
“You tell me.”
He stood.
“That is impossible.”
Then the office door opened.
A man entered.
Older.
Wounded.
But alive.
Vincent.
Adrian froze.
“You.”
Vincent looked at him.
“Yes.”
The entire room became silent.
Adrian stepped back.
“You were supposed to be dead.”
Vincent smiled.
“That was the point.”
I looked between them.
“You know each other.”
Vincent nodded.
“He was the one.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
“Careful.”
Vincent ignored him.
“He was the person controlling everything.”
I looked at Adrian.
“You said you were trying to save us.”
Adrian remained silent.
Vincent continued.
“He was never trying to save the Moretti family.”
A pause.
“He was trying to replace it.”
Adrian suddenly moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
He grabbed the ledger.
But before he could leave…
Someone stepped into the doorway.
My mother.
Supported by Ewan.
Everyone froze.
She had not walked in years.
But she was standing.
And in her hand…
Was a small recorder.
Adrian’s face lost all color.
Because he knew.
He knew what it was.
My mother looked at him.
Then pressed play.
A recording filled the room.
Adrian’s own voice.
The truth.
The real truth.
The orders.
The manipulation.
The entire plan.
For six years…
My mother had waited for this moment.
Adrian stared at her.
“You.”
My mother looked at him.
And spoke her first clear words in four years.
“You should have made sure I could never wake up.”
Nobody moved.
Because everyone understood.
The final witness had arrived.
May you like
And this time…
Nobody could silence her.
