CHAPTER 4
896 Words
Chapter 4: A Past That Refuses to Die
Elena barely slept that night.
She lay awake in the dim glow of the moonlight, staring at the ceiling, her mind spinning with questions she couldn’t answer. Every word Luca had spoken echoed in her head, and the journal—her father’s journal—sat on the nightstand beside her, taunting her with its secrets.
Her father had lied.
Not just about small things, but about everything. He had pushed her away, let her believe she was unwanted, unloved. But now, she knew the truth—it had never been about her. It had been about the darkness surrounding him, the enemies he had made, and the secrets he was willing to keep, even if it meant breaking his own daughter in the process.
She turned on her side, reaching for the journal with hesitant fingers. The leather was worn, the pages soft with age. She traced the indentations of his handwriting, feeling like she was touching a part of him she had lost long ago.
Taking a deep breath, she flipped to the next entry.
Elena can never know the truth. If she does, they’ll come for her. Just like they came for her mother.
Her breath caught in her throat.
Her mother.
Elena’s hands trembled as she read the words again, her heart hammering against her ribs. She barely remembered her mother—just flashes of laughter, the scent of roses, the warmth of her arms before she was suddenly gone. Her father had always told her she died in an accident. A tragic, unavoidable accident.
But now… now he was saying someone came for her?
She clutched the pages tighter, her vision blurring with unshed tears. Why did he lie about this too? Why had he let her grow up thinking her mother’s death was just an unfortunate twist of fate when, in reality, it had been something much darker?
“Elena.”
Her heart lurched at the voice.
She turned sharply, her breath ragged, to see Luca standing at the doorway, his face cast in shadow.
“How the hell did you get in here?” she asked, her voice hoarse from the storm of emotions raging inside her.
Luca stepped inside, his presence filling the room like a silent warning. “Your door was unlocked.”
Her jaw clenched. “That doesn’t mean you can just walk in.”
He didn’t flinch at her anger. Instead, his gaze flickered to the journal in her lap, and she saw the knowing look in his eyes. He knew what she had just read.
“They killed her, didn’t they?” she whispered, her voice barely holding together.
Luca hesitated, and for the first time, she saw something in him she hadn’t noticed before—regret.
“Yes,” he said, his voice low. “Your mother didn’t die in an accident. She was murdered.”
Elena sucked in a shaky breath, the words hitting her like a bullet straight to the chest.
Murdered.
Her mother had been murdered. And no one had ever told her.
Rage built inside her, thick and suffocating. She shoved the journal aside and stood abruptly, her hands clenched into fists. “Why didn’t anyone tell me? Why did my father let me believe—” She cut herself off, shaking her head. “No. No more lies. I want the truth. All of it.”
Luca sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. “Your father thought keeping you in the dark would protect you. He thought if you didn’t know, they wouldn’t see you as a threat.”
Her laugh was bitter, broken. “Well, that worked out so well, didn’t it?”
Luca’s gaze hardened. “It worked for a while. But now? Now they know who you are. And they know you’re looking for answers.”
A shiver ran down her spine. “Who are they?”
Luca hesitated. “Powerful people. People your father made deals with. People who don’t like loose ends.”
She felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff, staring down into an abyss she wasn’t sure she’d survive. “And I’m a loose end?”
His silence was her answer.
Elena’s chest rose and fell in deep, uneven breaths. She felt like her whole world was crumbling beneath her feet. Everything she had believed about her past, her family, her own existence—it was all a lie.
But amidst the pain, a new feeling was rising within her.
Determination.
If they thought she was a loose end, if they thought she was going to disappear like her mother—they were wrong.
She lifted her chin, her voice steady despite the storm raging inside her. “Then tell me what I need to do.”
Luca’s gaze darkened. “Once you go down this path, there’s no turning back.”
She swallowed hard. “I don’t want to turn back. I want the truth. And I want justice.”
A long silence stretched between them.
Then Luca nodded, his expression unreadable. “Then we start now.”
Elena took a deep breath, bracing herself for whatever came next.
Because for the first time in her life, she wasn’t running from the past.
She was chasing it.
And she wouldn’t stop until she found the truth.
---
- Writer
