One showed Adrian outside Bellini's Café.
Another showed him entering the apartment building near the harbor.
The third showed Elena.
Dominic placed it in the center of the table.
"This woman has recently become involved in matters concerning the family."
Adrian's face remained still.
"Her name is Elena Romano."
"Do you know her?"
"Yes."
"How well?"
"Well enough to know she has nothing to do with our business."
Dominic sighed.
"That's precisely what concerns me."
Adrian looked at him.
"Explain."
"Your father had enemies. Some of them are still alive. Some have children. Some have spent years waiting for an opportunity to damage this family."
Dominic tapped the photograph.
"And now this girl appears, carrying documents connected to a man who tried to destroy your father."
Adrian did not respond.
Dominic continued.
"Matteo Bellandi."
Several men exchanged glances.
The name had not been spoken publicly in years.
"Are you suggesting she's working with him?" Adrian asked.
"I'm suggesting that you may have been manipulated."
"By whom?"
Dominic lowered his voice.
"By someone who understands your weaknesses."
Adrian looked around the table.
"Is that what this meeting is about?"
Dominic spread his hands.
"It's about protecting the family."
"No. It's about convincing these men that a woman who works in a café is a threat."
"She's not an ordinary woman."
"Neither am I."
Dominic's smile disappeared.
For the first time that evening, the two men looked less like relatives and more like opponents.
Adrian stood.
"Until we establish what happened twenty-six years ago, no one is to approach Elena."
Dominic looked at him.
"You cannot give orders about a matter you don't understand."
"I just did."
One of the older men cleared his throat.
"Perhaps we should postpone this discussion."
Adrian turned toward him.
"Perhaps."
Then he looked at Dominic.
"But understand something, Uncle."
He leaned forward slightly.
"If anyone touches her, I will consider it an attack against me."
Dominic's expression remained composed.
"You're making a very dangerous choice."
Adrian adjusted his jacket.
"I've made worse."
He left.
Behind him, Dominic waited until the doors closed.
Then he picked up Elena's photograph.
"He's going to be difficult," one of the men said.
Dominic looked at the picture.
"No."
He placed it back on the table.
"He's going to be predictable."
***
At the villa, Elena discovered a letter hidden inside her mother's notebook.
It had been folded into a small square.
The paper was yellowed.
The handwriting was unmistakably Sofia's.
My Elena,
If you are reading this, then the truth has finally found you.
I wanted to tell you everything.
I wanted to explain why we moved, why I never spoke about your father, and why I sometimes became frightened when someone knocked at the door.
But I was afraid.
Not of dying.
I was afraid of what would happen to you after I was gone.
Your father was not a perfect man. He made mistakes. He trusted people who did not deserve his trust. He believed that the truth could wait until the danger passed.
It never did.
I need you to understand something.
You were never a mistake.
You were never a secret I regretted.
You were the only good thing that came from a terrible time.
If you find Matteo, don't ask him why he left first.
Ask him what he was trying to protect.
And if you ever meet Adrian Moretti, remember that children do not inherit the sins of their parents.
They inherit the consequences.
I hope you will be kinder to him than the world was to his father.
Love,
Mom.
Elena read the letter twice.
Then she placed it against her chest.
She had spent the entire day thinking about the people who had lied to her.
But her mother's final words were not about anger.
They were about understanding.
A sound came from the hallway.
Elena looked up.
"Luca?"
No answer.
She stood.
The lights flickered.
Then the telephone on the side table rang.
She approached it carefully.
"Hello?"
A man's voice answered.
"Elena?"
She recognized the voice immediately.
It was the old man from the café.
Samuel.
"Where are you?"
"Listen to me. You need to leave the house."
"Why?"
"They found me."
Elena looked toward the windows.
"Where is Adrian?"
"He's on his way back."
"Samuel, what's happening?"
The old man's breathing was uneven.
"Dominic knows about the original record. He's not trying to hide the past anymore."
"What does he want?"
A pause.
Then Samuel spoke.
"He wants you to believe Matteo abandoned you."
Elena tightened her grip on the telephone.
"Did he?"
"No."
The line crackled.
"Your father came back for you."
"What?"
"He came back the night you were born. Lorenzo arranged an ambush. Matteo was wounded, and Vittorio believed he had been killed."
"Then why didn't he return?"
"Because he was told you were dead."
Elena closed her eyes.
For twenty-six years, she had believed her father had died at sea.
Now she was discovering that he had spent decades believing he had lost her.
"Where is Samuel?" a different voice asked through the telephone.
Elena froze.
Someone else had taken the phone.
"Who is this?"
The answer was quiet.
"Someone your uncle would prefer you never meet."
The line went dead.
***
Adrian reached the villa eleven minutes later.
He found the front door open.
The security lights were on.
A chair had been overturned in the hallway.
"Luca!"
No answer.