CHAPTER 2 "He Thought He Lost His Ex... He Didn't Know He Had Walked Into a 25-Year-Old Secret."
Daniel crossed the ballroom with the confidence of a man who had always believed every room belonged to him.
By the time he reached Ellie and Dante, the music had stopped.
No one wanted to interrupt what looked less like an argument...
And more like history rewriting itself.
"Ellie."
Daniel's voice cracked.
"What is this?"
Ellie met his eyes for the first time in three months.
Once...
Seeing him had made her heart race.
Now...
She only remembered sleepless nights, unpaid bills, and every excuse he had made before leaving.
"You already know."
Daniel laughed bitterly.
"No."
He pointed toward Dante.
"I know this man doesn't marry strangers."
Dante answered calmly.
"You're correct."
Daniel smiled.
"So tell everyone the truth."
Instead...
Dante reached into his jacket.
He removed an old leather wallet.
From inside it...
He unfolded a faded photograph.
The edges were worn.
The colors nearly gone.
He placed it into Ellie's hands.
Her fingers began trembling.
It showed a little girl sitting on her father's shoulders.
The little girl was Ellie.
She recognized the blue jacket immediately.
Her father's favorite.
Then she noticed something else.
Someone standing behind them.
A young man.
Tall.
Dark hair.
Only partly visible because the photograph had been torn.
She looked up.
Then back at Dante.
Then back to the picture.
The eyes.
The same eyes.
The same expression.
Impossible.
"You..."
Dante nodded once.
"I was there."
The ballroom fell silent again.
Daniel frowned.
"What is this supposed to prove?"
Dante ignored him.
Instead he asked Ellie quietly,
"Do you remember the fire?"
Fragments rushed back.
Smoke.
Sirens.
Her father carrying her outside.
A stranger helping them.
A young man covered in blood.
Then nothing.
"My father said someone saved us."
"He lied."
Ellie's heartbeat quickened.
"Why?"
"Because your father saved me."
Daniel scoffed.
"Enough with the fairy tale."
Dante slowly turned toward him.
"My father ordered your future father-in-law to destroy my family."
The room stiffened.
"I survived."
"My parents didn't."
Daniel's confidence disappeared.
"What does that have to do with Ellie?"
Dante answered with terrifying calm.
"Everything."
He looked at Ellie.
"Your father hid evidence that would have sent powerful men to prison forever."
Ellie whispered,
"My father was just a mechanic."
"No."
"He only wanted you to believe that."
Before anyone could speak...
The ballroom lights suddenly went dark.
Every chandelier.
Every spotlight.
Everything.
People screamed.
Security reached for radios.
Then...
One enormous screen above the stage flickered to life.
Black-and-white surveillance footage appeared.
A date flashed across the bottom.
Twenty-five years earlier.
Inside the grainy video...
A little girl clung to her father's arm.
Beside them stood a frightened teenage boy.
Dante.
Then the footage froze.
One face was highlighted.
Daniel's father.
The ballroom erupted.
Someone shouted,
"Oh my God..."
Then a deep male voice echoed through hidden speakers.
"If you're watching this..."
"...I'm already dead."
Ellie recognized the voice instantly.
May you like
Her father's.
END OF CHAPTER 2...
Related Stories
