Chapter 11 - Isabella
Isabella Moretti was seventy-one.
My sister.
Technically half-sister.
A woman I had never met.
She had spent most of her life under the name Isabel Hart.
Schoolteacher.
Widow.
No criminal record.
No fortune.
No idea why strangers periodically watched her home.
Until Vittorio found her.
My father approached secretly.
Told her the truth.
She wanted nothing from the Morettis.
No money.
No name.
But she agreed to help expose Silas's network.
That made her dangerous.
Silas captured her months before my father's death.
We assumed she was dead.
Sofia knew otherwise.
“How?”
“Vittorio received recordings.”
Blackmail.
Silas kept Isabella alive because her DNA and signature were required to access parts of the Covenant.
But Vittorio died before he could rescue her.
“Where?”
Sofia didn't know.
Hannah did.
She remembered one location from Silas's archive.
A decommissioned coal facility outside Hollow Falls.
We went.
This time federal agents came too.
No private war.
Silas had too many records and too many compromised people.
At the facility, we found rooms.
Files.
Computers.
And Isabella.
Alive.
She looked at me through reinforced glass.
Then smiled.
“You have Vittorio's angry face.”
I almost laughed.
We got her out.
Hannah embraced her.
Mother and daughter.
Except—
Isabella pulled back.
“Who are you?”
Hannah froze.
“Mom?”
Isabella looked confused.
“I don't have children.”
Everything stopped.
Hannah stared at Sofia.
“What?”
Sofia looked equally shocked.
Silas had lied again.
Hannah wasn't Isabella's daughter.
Then whose?
Isabella explained.
She had been told she was infertile.
Never pregnant.
Never adopted.
No daughter.
The DNA records connecting Hannah to Isabella had been fabricated.
Why?
Because Silas needed Hannah to believe she belonged to the Moretti bloodline.
He needed her emotionally invested.
But why?
Marco found the answer in the facility database.
Hannah Carter's real mother:
Margaret Bennett.
Silas's sister.
Hannah was Silas's niece.
He had used his own family.
Frank wasn't Hannah's biological father either.
He had adopted her after Margaret disappeared.
Frank had known.
Again.
Another secret.
Hannah sat down.
“I don't know who I am.”
Elena touched her shoulder.
“You're the woman who raised my son.”
Simple.
True.
Maybe enough.
Then Isabella looked at Eli.
“That's Dante's boy?”
I nodded.
She smiled.
“Vittorio would have hated that you found him without permission.”
I smiled despite myself.
Then agents discovered a hidden room.
Inside were recent photographs.
Not of me.
Not Eli.
Lucia—
No, wrong child.
A series of children.
Dozens.
Different states.
Different families.
Silas had never stopped collecting leverage.
Then Marco found a live surveillance feed.
One camera showed Silas.
He sat inside an office.
Another location.
Beside him stood Frank.
My stomach dropped.
Frank had disappeared from the lodge during our rescue operation.
We thought he was under guard.
He wasn't captured.
He walked freely.
Hannah stared at the screen.
“Dad?”
Silas smiled into the camera.
Frank sat beside him.
Then Frank looked directly into the lens.
And said:
“I'm sorry, Hannah.”
May you like
Silas wasn't the only traitor.
Frank Carter had been working with him.
