The Lie Between Us
822 Words
I hated that I wanted to believe him.
That was the most dangerous part.
Not the secrets.
Not the enemies.
Not even the fact that my entire life had been built on pieces of a truth I never knew.
It was Alessandro.
Because every time I discovered something terrible about him, he gave me a reason to question it.
And every time I thought I understood him...
I found another layer.
A darker one.
---
The silence after Victor left was unbearable.
Alessandro stood near the window, his back turned toward me.
For the first time, he looked tired.
Not powerful.
Not untouchable.
Just tired.
"You were working for them."
My voice broke the silence.
He didn't deny it.
"I was part of the family business."
"That is not an answer."
He closed his eyes for a moment.
"No."
I waited.
Finally, he turned around.
"When I was twenty-two, I was still my father's son."
The words were quiet.
"I had a position. A name. Access to information."
"And Sofia?"
"She was someone who discovered what that information meant."
I looked at him.
"Did you know what your family was doing?"
A long pause.
"Not everything."
The answer hurt because it sounded honest.
"What did you know?"
Alessandro looked away.
"Enough to know something was wrong."
"Yet you stayed."
His jaw tightened.
"Yes."
"Why?"
For a moment, I saw the answer before he spoke.
Regret.
"Because I was afraid."
That surprised me.
Alessandro De Luca.
Afraid.
"I thought I could control it."
He laughed quietly, without humor.
"I thought being close to power meant I could change things."
"And you couldn't."
"No."
His honesty was painful.
"I couldn't."
I looked down.
"So my mother trusted a man who was part of the world she was running from."
"Yes."
"And you expect me to trust you?"
"No."
I looked at him.
"No?"
"No."
He stepped closer.
"I expect you to question me."
That wasn't what I expected.
"I expect you to be angry."
A pause.
"But I won't insult you by asking you to forget what I was."
The room became quiet.
Because that was the first time Alessandro wasn't trying to protect his image.
He was letting me see the damage.
---
"Tell me about the night she disappeared."
The words came out before I could stop them.
Alessandro froze.
I knew immediately.
This was the question he had been avoiding.
"Elena..."
"No."
My voice became stronger.
"I need to know."
He looked at the photograph of my mother on the desk.
Then he sat down.
"I was supposed to meet her."
My heart tightened.
"You were there?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"The night she disappeared."
I held my breath.
"Then why did you tell me you didn't know what happened?"
"Because I didn't."
"Explain."
His hands tightened.
"Sofia was supposed to leave the country."
"Why?"
"Because she had enough evidence to expose Victor."
"And you helped her?"
"Yes."
"Then what happened?"
His expression changed.
Pain.
"I arrived too late."
The words were barely audible.
"Too late for what?"
"Too late to stop them."
A cold feeling moved through me.
"Who?"
He looked at me.
"I don't know."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No."
His answer was immediate.
"I don't expect anything from you."
I hated that he always answered like that.
Like he had already accepted losing me.
"What did you find?"
"A car."
My heart stopped.
"Her car?"
"Yes."
"Was she inside?"
"No."
A silence.
"Only the letter."
"The letter you gave me?"
"Yes."
I looked at him.
"Then why did you keep it?"
His eyes met mine.
"Because Sofia wrote one last thing."
"What?"
His voice became softer.
"She wrote that if I couldn't protect her..."
A pause.
"I had to protect you."
I looked away.
Because suddenly I understood.
The guilt.
The promise.
The reason he had spent sixteen years carrying something that wasn't his fault.
But another question remained.
"Alessandro."
"Yes?"
"If you were there..."
I swallowed.
"Why didn't you save her?"
For the first time...
he had no answer.
And that frightened me more than any lie.
---
That night, I couldn't sleep.
Too many truths.
Too many questions.
I walked through the hallway, unable to quiet my thoughts.
Then I saw something.
A shadow near the garden.
Someone standing outside.
Watching the house.
Watching me.
My body froze.
Before I could move, my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
One message.
You are looking for the truth about your mother.
My hands became cold.
Another message appeared.
Ask Alessandro what happened after he found Sofia's car.
I stared at the screen.
Then the final message arrived.
Ask him why he lied about being alone that night.
I looked toward the garden.
The figure was gone.
But the message remained.
And for the first time...
I wondered if Alessandro De Luca had been hiding something worse than his family's secrets.
I wondered if he had been hiding his own.
- Writer
