Chapter 11 - Unlocking the Past
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While Damian slept on the cabin’s single bed, Norah sat at the heavy wooden table, booting up a secure laptop Damian kept stored in the safehouse.
She couldn't sleep. Her mind was racing. If she was a Beluchcci, why had her mother abandoned her at an orphanage?
She accessed the Beluchcci Group's private archives through a backdoor VPN she had secretly set up months ago to work from home. She began digging into the old files from thirty years ago.
It took hours of bypassing internal security walls, but she finally found the hidden directory labeled Isabella.
She opened the file. It was a digital copy of a diary. Her mother’s diary.
Norah read through the entries, tears blurring her vision. Isabella hadn't abandoned her out of malice. Isabella had fallen in love with a man from the Romano family. When the Beluchcci patriarch found out, he ordered a hit on the lover. Isabella had gone into hiding, giving birth to Norah in secret.
I have to give her away, the final entry read. If my father finds her, he will use her. If the Romanos find her, they will kill her. The only way she survives is if she becomes nobody.
Norah closed the laptop, a profound sense of grief washing over her. Her mother had died shortly after leaving her at the orphanage, killed in a hit-and-run that the police had never solved. Norah knew exactly who had ordered it.
"You found something," Damian’s raspy voice broke the silence.
Norah turned. Damian was standing in the doorway, clutching his side.
"My mother was trying to protect me," Norah said, her voice cracking. "From your grandfather. From the Romanos. From this entire world."
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Damian walked over, resting a heavy hand on her shoulder. "My grandfather was a monster. I spent the last ten years trying to clean up the syndicate, trying to turn our operations legitimate. But the old blood won't let go."
"Then we force them to let go," Norah said, looking up at him with a newfound fire in her eyes. "We open the safe."
