Chapter 13: The Woman Who Started It All
1042 Words
Aria couldn't breathe.
The letter shook in her hands.
The real enemy isn't me. It's your mother.
The words blurred before her eyes.
"No."
Her voice came out weak.
Broken.
"No... that's impossible."
Victor's handwriting was unmistakable.
Every letter.
Every stroke.
Every signature.
It was real.
And that terrified her.
Across the room, Luca's expression remained unreadable.
He took the letter from her and scanned it again.
Only a few lines had been written.
Yet every sentence felt like a bomb waiting to explode.
"What does it mean?" Aria whispered.
Luca folded the paper carefully.
"It means Victor wants us chasing ghosts."
"You think he's lying?"
"I think desperate people say anything when they're cornered."
Aria wanted to believe him.
She truly did.
But something about the letter felt wrong.
Victor knew he was being hunted.
If he wanted revenge, there were easier ways to hurt her.
Why leave a message like this?
Why mention her mother?
Unless...
A terrible thought crossed her mind.
"What if he's telling the truth?"
The room fell silent.
Luca didn't answer immediately.
That alone frightened her.
Because Luca never ignored possibilities.
Not even impossible ones.
Three hours later, Aria sat alone in her room.
She stared at an old family photograph.
It had been taken years ago.
Before debts.
Before Luca.
Before everything fell apart.
Her father smiled proudly beside her mother.
Young Marco stood in front of them.
And Aria...
Aria looked genuinely happy.
She touched her mother's image.
Elena Romano.
A loving wife.
A devoted mother.
The woman who worked two jobs after her father's death to keep the family alive.
The woman who cried every night thinking nobody noticed.
The woman who sacrificed everything for her children.
That woman couldn't be an enemy.
Could she?
The bedroom door opened.
Luca entered carrying two cups of coffee.
He handed one to her.
She accepted it silently.
For a while neither spoke.
Then Luca finally broke the silence.
"I ran Victor's message through every possibility."
Aria looked up.
"And?"
"He planned this."
Her stomach dropped.
"What do you mean?"
"The letter."
Luca sat beside her.
"He wrote it before disappearing."
"So?"
"So Victor wanted us to find it."
Aria frowned.
"He wanted us looking at your mother."
The realization hit hard.
Victor hadn't left the message out of panic.
He had left it intentionally.
Like a breadcrumb.
A trail leading somewhere.
The question was why.
"Do you think Mom is involved?"
Luca remained quiet.
Aria hated that silence.
"Tell me."
His gaze softened.
"I don't know."
That answer was somehow worse.
Because Luca always knew something.
If even he wasn't sure...
The situation was far more dangerous than she imagined.
The following morning brought another surprise.
One of Luca's men arrived carrying a sealed package.
"It was delivered anonymously."
Luca frowned.
"Check it."
"We already did."
The guard swallowed.
"No explosives."
"No tracking devices."
"No poison."
Luca took the package.
The box wasn't large.
Barely bigger than a shoebox.
Aria felt uneasy immediately.
Something about it felt wrong.
Dangerous.
Luca opened it.
Inside rested an old leather journal.
Nothing else.
Aria frowned.
"What is it?"
Luca flipped open the first page.
Then his expression changed.
"Where did this come from?"
The guard shook his head.
"No return address."
Aria walked closer.
The moment she saw the handwriting, her heart nearly stopped.
It belonged to her father.
Antonio Romano.
Her dead father.
"What..."
Her voice broke.
"No."
She grabbed the journal.
The first page contained a date.
Twenty-two years ago.
Years before she was born.
Her hands trembled as she read.
"If anything happens to me, this journal must never fall into the wrong hands."
A chill spread through her body.
The next sentence was even worse.
"Especially Elena."
Aria froze.
The room seemed to tilt.
Luca slowly took the journal from her.
Neither spoke.
Because both were thinking the same thing.
Why would her father hide something from her mother?
And why had this journal appeared now?
For the next hour they read together.
Every page revealed another secret.
Another lie.
Another hidden piece of the past.
Antonio Romano hadn't been an ordinary businessman.
Years ago, he had worked with several powerful crime families.
Including the Morettis.
Including Luca's father.
The revelation stunned Aria.
Her father and Luca's family had known each other long before she was born.
Long before the debt.
Long before the marriage arrangement.
Long before everything.
"This can't be real."
But the evidence was undeniable.
Names.
Dates.
Transactions.
Meetings.
Everything matched.
Then they reached a page that changed everything.
Antonio's handwriting grew shaky.
Uneven.
As if he had written while terrified.
"I made a mistake."
"Elena discovered the truth."
"If she talks, everyone dies."
Aria felt sick.
She kept reading.
"She promised she would stay silent."
"I don't believe her."
"If anything happens to me, then she finally chose a side."
The room became deathly quiet.
Aria stared at the page.
Unable to process it.
Her father had been afraid.
Not of gangsters.
Not of rivals.
Not of police.
Of her mother.
"No."
She shook her head.
"No."
Luca closed the journal.
"Aria."
"No."
Tears filled her eyes.
"Mom would never—"
The office door burst open.
A guard rushed inside.
His face was pale.
Boss.
Luca stood immediately.
"What happened?"
The man looked toward Aria.
Then back at Luca.
"We found Victor."
Aria's heart jumped.
"Where?"
The guard swallowed.
"At the harbor."
Relief flooded through her.
Victor was alive.
Maybe now they could finally get answers.
But then she noticed the guard's expression.
And fear returned instantly.
"What happened?" Luca asked.
The guard lowered his eyes.
"He's dead."
The words hit like a gunshot.
Aria froze.
Dead?
Victor was dead?
"No..."
Her knees nearly gave out.
Luca caught her before she fell.
"How?"
The guard's voice trembled.
"He was executed."
A cold silence followed.
Execution.
Not murder.
Execution.
Someone had wanted to send a message.
Someone powerful.
Someone ruthless.
"Was there anything else?" Luca asked.
The guard nodded slowly.
"Yes."
His face turned even paler.
"There was a message written in blood."
Aria's pulse thundered.
"What message?"
The guard looked directly at her.
Then spoke four words.
Words that made the blood drain from her face.
"Ask Elena Romano."
- Writer
