Chương 6
Adrian turned.
“You knew?”
Daniel looked exhausted.
“I suspected.”
“That is not an answer.”
“No.”
Daniel nodded.
“It’s not.”
For the first time, he seemed tired of defending himself.
“I was twenty-nine when I started working there.”
Nobody interrupted.
“I thought I was lucky.”
His voice became quieter.
“I came from a family that never had money, and suddenly I was sitting in rooms with people who could buy buildings without checking their accounts.”
He gave a small, bitter smile.
“I thought being close to powerful people meant I was becoming important.”
Elena watched him.
This was the first time Daniel seemed less like a witness and more like a person.
“I saw things I didn’t understand.”
“Like what?” Adrian asked.
“Payments.”
“From who?”
“Different names.”
“Where did they go?”
Daniel looked at him.
“That’s the problem.”
Adrian waited.
“They always came back to the same place.”
Nobody spoke.
“Moretti Holdings.”
Elena frowned.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Daniel nodded.
“Exactly.”
The confusion was part of the design.
The money moved in circles.
People became distracted by the movement and never looked at the destination.
Adrian took the photograph again.
“Where is this building?”
Daniel looked at it.
“I don’t know.”
Elena studied the image.
There was something familiar.
Not the building.
Something behind it.
A faded sign.
A small symbol near the entrance.
She moved closer.
“Wait.”
Everyone looked at her.
She pointed.
“That mark.”
Adrian leaned over.
“What about it?”
Elena touched the photograph.
“I’ve seen it before.”
“Where?”
She looked at the bracelet.
Then at the picture.
Then suddenly remembered Lucia sitting in the clinic room, drawing something on a piece of paper while pretending she was only making notes.
“She drew this.”
Adrian stared.
“What?”
“Lucia.”
Elena’s voice became uncertain.
“She drew that symbol.”
“When?”
“Near the end.”
The room went silent again.
Elena felt the weight of everyone looking at her.
She hated it.
She had spent years avoiding attention.
Now every hidden piece of Lucia’s life seemed to lead back to her.
“I thought it was nothing,” Elena said.
Adrian stepped closer.
“What else did she draw?”
Elena looked at him.
“I don’t remember.”
A pause.
Then she corrected herself.
“I remember one thing.”
“What?”
“She wrote an address.”
Adrian’s breathing changed.
“Where?”
Elena looked toward the envelope.
“The letter.”
She opened it again.
Near the bottom, beneath Lucia’s message, was a small line Elena had not noticed.
Not because it was hidden.
Because she had been too focused on the words.
A number.
A street name.
A location.
Adrian read it.
His face went pale.
“What is it?” Madison asked.
He looked at everyone.
“It’s my father’s old private office.”
And for the first time that day, nobody had to ask whether Lucia was trying to be found.
They knew she was.
Adrian kept staring at the address.
Nobody moved.
The number on the page looked ordinary.
That was the unsettling part.
It was not a dramatic message.
Not a warning written in bold letters.
Not some impossible clue that announced itself.
It was just a location.
A place that had existed quietly for years while everyone searched everywhere else.
“My father’s office was closed after he died,” Adrian said.
His voice sounded distant.
Elena watched him.
“You’re sure?”
He looked at her.
“Yes.”
“Then why would Lucia send us there?”
Adrian folded the paper carefully.
The question seemed to hurt because he did not have an answer.
“She knew something was there.”
Daniel shook his head.
“Or she knew someone wanted us to think something was there.”
Everyone looked at him.
Daniel lifted his hands slightly.
“I’m saying we need to be careful.”
Adrian gave a humorless laugh.
“Careful.”
He looked around the empty ballroom.
“My sister disappeared.”
His eyes moved to Madison.
“My wedding just collapsed.”
Then to Daniel.
“And you spent six years hiding information.”
Finally, he looked at Elena.
“And she was carrying the only thing Lucia left behind.”
Elena felt the words.
Not as an accusation.
More like Adrian was trying to understand how many pieces of his life had existed outside his knowledge.
“I didn’t hide anything,” Elena said.
Adrian looked at her.
“I know.”
The answer surprised her.
“I mean it,” he continued.
“You didn’t know what you were holding.”
She looked down.
That almost made it worse.
Because for six years she had carried the responsibility anyway.
“I should have opened the letter.”
Adrian shook his head.
“Why didn’t you?”
Elena looked toward the windows.
The sunlight had changed again.
The city was beginning to move toward evening.
“I promised her.”
“You promised someone who disappeared?”
“Yes.”
The answer came immediately.
Adrian studied her.
Most people would have called that foolish.
Maybe it was.
But there was something about Lucia that made promises feel different.
“She was scared,” Elena said.
“And you believed her.”
Elena nodded.
“I did.”
Adrian looked at the bracelet.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Madison quietly said, “We can’t go there.”
Everyone turned.
Adrian looked at her.
“Why?”
She hesitated.
Because she knew she had already said too much.
Because the truth was becoming impossible to contain.
“Because the office isn’t empty.”
Adrian’s expression changed.
“You said it was closed.”
“It is.”
“Then who is there?”
Madison looked away.
“Elena, you should leave.”
The sudden change in direction caught everyone off guard.
Elena frowned.
“What?”
Madison stepped closer.
Her voice lowered.
“You were never supposed to be involved.”
Elena almost laughed.
Almost.
After everything that had happened, the idea that she could simply step away felt unreal.
“Six years ago, your friend came to my clinic.”
Madison looked at her.
“She trusted me.”
“She was trying to survive.”
“So was I.”
The words came out sharper than Elena intended.
The room went quiet.
Madison looked hurt.
Not angry.
Hurt.
Elena immediately regretted the tone.
But she did not take it back.
May you like
She had spent years being polite when she wanted to scream.
“I lost my job because of what happened,” Madison said softly.
