who ?
780 Words
Alessandro didn’t move.
Didn’t blink.
The letter remained in Aurora’s trembling hands while the entire mansion seemed to fall into a suffocating silence.
Protect our daughter.
Our daughter.
Dante looked between them slowly now, his sharp mind already putting pieces together far faster than Aurora could.
“No…” Aurora whispered weakly. “No, that doesn’t make sense…”
Alessandro finally stepped forward.
Very carefully.
Like the paper might explode in his hands.
“Aurora,” he said quietly, “give me the letter.”
She hesitated.
Then handed it over.
Alessandro unfolded the remaining half of the burned page.
Most of the lower section had been destroyed by fire.
But not all of it.
His gray eyes scanned the words once.
Then hardened instantly.
Dante noticed immediately.
“What is it?”
Alessandro said nothing.
That alone terrified Aurora more than anything.
“Alessandro,” Dante repeated colder this time.
Slowly—
Alessandro handed him the letter.
Dante read it.
And for the first time since Aurora met him—
his composure cracked completely.
“What?” Aurora demanded shakily. “What does it say?!”
Neither man answered.
Aurora’s panic surged violently.
“STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!”
The stranger beside Alessandro finally spoke quietly.
“There’s more written on the back.”
Aurora grabbed the paper immediately and turned it over.
A second message.
Shorter.
Hurried.
Like it had been written moments before someone died.
If Richard finds out who she really is, he will kill her before her eighteenth birthday.
Aurora’s blood went ice cold.
Below that—
another line.
One that made Alessandro’s jaw tighten so hard it looked painful.
She can never know what her father was.
Aurora stared at the sentence.
Was.
Not is.
Her breathing became uneven.
“What does that mean…?”
Nobody answered.
Downstairs—
Richard screamed again.
This time louder.
Panicked.
“No! I TOLD YOU EVERYTHING!”
The stranger near the staircase looked down sharply.
Then back toward Alessandro.
“He’s breaking.”
Alessandro’s voice turned lethal.
“Bring him up.”
Aurora stepped back immediately.
“No—”
But it was too late.
Two men dragged Richard into the hall moments later.
Blood covered his face.
One eye swollen shut.
His expensive clothes ruined.
And the second he saw the locket in Aurora’s hand—
pure terror flooded his expression.
“No…” he whispered.
Alessandro walked toward him slowly.
Dangerously calm.
“You lied to me for eighteen years.”
Richard shook violently.
“I had no choice—”
“WHO WAS HER FATHER?”
The roar shook the entire hall.
Aurora flinched hard.
Richard’s eyes darted toward her.
For one brief second—
something almost like guilt appeared.
Then fear crushed it.
“You don’t understand what you’re asking,” Richard whispered hoarsely.
Dante grabbed him by the collar instantly.
“Answer him.”
Richard’s breathing turned frantic.
“She was never supposed to exist.”
Aurora froze.
“What?”
Richard looked directly at her now.
And somehow—
that terrified her more than the screaming downstairs.
“Your mother made one mistake,” he whispered. “One single mistake with the wrong man.”
Alessandro’s expression became murderous.
Richard laughed weakly through blood.
“You think I was dangerous?” he rasped. “I was protecting her.”
“From who?” Aurora whispered.
Richard looked at Alessandro.
Then Dante.
Then finally at Aurora again.
And his face lost all color.
“From your father.”
Silence.
Heavy.
Deadly.
Aurora’s chest tightened painfully.
“My father is dead.”
Richard smiled shakily.
“That’s what everyone hoped.”
The hall went completely still.
Even Dante stopped breathing for a second.
Aurora stared at him in horror.
“What are you talking about?”
Richard swallowed hard.
Then whispered the name.
And the reaction was immediate.
The stranger beside Alessandro stepped back sharply.
Dante cursed under his breath.
Alessandro went deathly still.
Aurora had never seen fear on his face before.
Until now.
Richard’s voice cracked.
“Your father was Nikolai Volkov.”
The name meant nothing to Aurora.
But everyone else looked horrified.
Absolute horror.
Dante spoke first.
Quietly.
Almost disbelieving.
“Volkov should’ve died twenty years ago.”
Richard shook his head violently.
“He survived.”
Aurora looked between them desperately.
“Who is that?!”
Nobody answered immediately.
Because suddenly—
somewhere outside the mansion—
car tires screeched across wet gravel.
Then came the sound of multiple doors opening.
The stranger near the staircase pulled a gun instantly.
Alessandro’s expression darkened into something cold enough to kill.
And then—
the mansion lights went out.
- Writer
