CHAPTER 7 — THE DEAD WOMAN'S DIARY CHANGED EVERYTHING
Bullets slammed into the stone walls of the old lighthouse.
Glass exploded across the floor.
Bodyguards returned fire as Matteo shielded Sofia with his own body.
Karen's eyes darted around the room.
There had to be another way out.
Then she remembered the loose floorboard upstairs.
"The diary!" she shouted.
Matteo looked at her.
"What?"
"The metal box!"
Marco didn't hesitate.
"I'll get it."
Ignoring the gunfire, he sprinted upstairs.
A second later, another shot echoed through the lighthouse.
Silence.
Karen's heart stopped.
"Marco!"
Then footsteps thundered down the staircase.
Marco appeared, bleeding from his shoulder but smiling.
"I found it."
He held up a weathered steel box sealed with rusted latches.
Matteo took it with shaking hands.
Inside were dozens of handwritten journals, several old photographs, a flash drive wrapped in plastic, and a sealed envelope with only one sentence written across the front:
If Lorenzo is reading this... I survived.
Matteo froze.
His breathing became uneven.
For years he had mourned his wife.
For years he had blamed himself.
Now his hands trembled so violently that Karen gently took the letter and opened it for him.
Inside, Elena's handwriting was unmistakable.
My love... if this reaches you, it means I failed to come home.
She explained everything.
The boating trip had been a trap.
Someone had sabotaged the engine before they left the marina.
When the boat drifted toward hidden rocks, armed men boarded before it could sink.
She had been kidnapped—not killed.
The order hadn't come from a rival family.
It had come from someone inside the Moretti organization.
Someone who wanted Matteo alone.
Someone who wanted control of the empire.
At the bottom of the page was a single name.
Alessandro.
The room fell silent.
Matteo slowly closed his eyes.
Not from grief.
From betrayal.
His own brother had stolen five years of his daughter's childhood.
His own brother had convinced the world his wife was dead.
Sofia looked up at him.
"Daddy..."
"Is Mommy alive?"
Before Matteo could answer, Karen plugged the flash drive into Marco's encrypted tablet.
Several video files appeared.
The first recording began.
The screen showed Elena sitting inside a small cabin.
She looked thinner but determined.
"If you're watching this," she said, "I either escaped... or someone finally found the truth."
She lifted the camera toward a window.
Outside stood two armed guards.
"I've been moved between safe houses for years. Alessandro says Lorenzo will never stop looking for me... so he keeps moving me."
Karen's pulse quickened.
The video ended with Elena whispering one final sentence.
"I memorized every place they've taken me. One day... someone will find me."
Another file opened automatically.
A digital map.
Dozens of coordinates stretched across the East Coast.
Each marked with different dates.
Marco zoomed in.
"They're all abandoned properties once owned by shell companies."
Matteo immediately understood.
"They're hiding places."
Before anyone could speak, one coordinate began flashing red.
A live GPS signal.
Karen frowned.
"It wasn't flashing a second ago."
Marco's expression changed.
"Someone just activated it."
Matteo stared at the screen.
Either Elena had escaped...
Or someone was using her location to lure them into one final trap.
He looked around at his team.
"No matter what waits for us..."
"We're bringing her home."
But none of them noticed the tiny tracking device Alessandro's sniper had secretly attached to Marco's jacket during the firefight.
As the convoy left the island...
Alessandro watched their every move from a laptop inside a private helicopter.
He smiled coldly.
"They found the diary exactly as planned."
His lieutenant looked confused.
"You wanted them to find it?"
Alessandro nodded.
"Now they'll walk straight into the place I chose."
He closed the laptop.
"Prepare the warehouse."
May you like
"This time..."
"My brother won't leave alive."
