Chapter 11 - Leo Remembered What Everyone Else Forgot
The drive back felt endless.
Dominic barely spoke.
He called everyone.
Security.
Police.
Investigators.
Sofia.
Rafael.
Rafael didn't answer.
That seemed to confirm the worst.
“Maybe he's hurt,” I said.
Dominic kept driving.
“You don't believe that.”
“I don't know what I believe anymore.”
Neither did he.
Sofia met us at the house.
Her eyes were swollen.
“I turned away for five minutes.”
Dominic hugged her.
It was the first time I had seen him embrace anyone.
“This isn't your fault.”
“The cameras shut down.”
“How?”
“Internal access.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“Rafael.”
A security officer approached.
“We found something.”
In the nursery, Leo's blanket was gone.
So was a small stuffed lion.
Nothing else.
On the floor lay a note.
YOU WANT THE BOY, BRING THE ORIGINAL DRIVE.
Dominic stared at it.
“They think we still have it.”
“We do,” I said.
He looked at me.
Copies existed elsewhere.
But the physical drive from Orelio remained locked in his safe.
“They want evidence.”
“Yes.”
“Then we give it.”
Dominic shook his head.
“Elina—”
“It's a piece of plastic.”
“It may be the only leverage we have.”
“Leo is your son.”
His eyes flashed.
“I know.”
“Then stop thinking like Dominic Moretti.”
He stared at me.
“Think like his father.”
The anger left his face.
He nodded.
“We give it.”
The drop location arrived twenty minutes later.
An abandoned railway depot.
Dominic prepared to go alone.
I refused.
“No.”
“He reaches for me.”
“Elina.”
“If he's frightened, he'll come to me.”
“This is not a restaurant.”
“I know.”
“You could get hurt.”
“So could he.”
Dominic looked at me for a long time.
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why are you doing this?”
I didn't have to think.
“Because he's family.”
Something broke open in Dominic's expression.
He looked away.
“Fine.”
We arrived just before midnight.
The depot was dark.
Rafael's car was parked outside.
Dominic saw it.
His face closed.
We entered.
“Rafael!” Dominic shouted.
Movement.
Then Rafael emerged.
He was holding Leo.
Alive.
Safe.
My knees almost collapsed.
Leo saw me.
“El!”
It wasn't a full word.
But it was close enough.
He reached.
I ran.
Rafael handed him to me immediately.
Leo buried his face against my neck.
I cried.
Dominic grabbed Rafael by the coat.
“What did you do?”
“Listen.”
“You took my son!”
“To save him.”
Dominic froze.
“What?”
Rafael looked toward the entrance.
“Someone inside your security team was working for Marco.”
“Who?”
“Daniel.”
Dominic knew the name.
His face changed.
“The night supervisor?”
“Yes.”
Rafael continued.
“I intercepted him entering Leo's room. I couldn't reach you. The communications system had been compromised.”
“So you took Leo.”
“I knew whoever was helping Marco would track your official vehicles. I used my car and brought him here.”
“What about the note?”
“Not mine.”
Dominic released him.
“Then whose?”
A sound came from the darkness.
Footsteps.
Daniel appeared.
Two men behind him.
“There you are.”
Dominic moved in front of us.
Daniel smiled.
“Marco was arrested because of you.”
“He was arrested because of himself.”
“Give me the drive.”
Dominic held it up.
“You get this. We walk away.”
Daniel's eyes moved toward Leo.
“That was the agreement.”
Rafael shifted.
I held Leo tighter.
His fingers grabbed my locket.
Then something strange happened.
Leo looked toward the old railway control room.
He pointed.
“Ba.”
My heart stopped.
He had made that same sound at Orelio when pointing to Elena's hidden compartment.
“What is it?” I whispered.
He pointed again.
Rafael noticed.
“There is another exit behind the control room.”
Dominic understood immediately.
The next moments blurred.
An alarm suddenly sounded outside—Rafael had triggered an emergency signal remotely.
Daniel turned.
Dominic threw the empty drive case across the room.
The men moved toward it instinctively.
“Now.”
Rafael pushed open the control-room door.
We ran.
Not fighting.
Not heroes.
Just people choosing the living over pride.
Police vehicles were arriving outside.
Daniel and the others were trapped between exits.
We reached the road.
Dominic pulled Leo from my arms and held him tightly.
His son cried once.
Then relaxed.
For the first time in nearly a year, Leo rested calmly against his father's chest without fighting.
Dominic froze.
So did I.
Leo touched his father's face.
“Da.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
A tear moved down his cheek.
Rafael turned away to give him privacy.
I didn't.
Because some moments deserved witnesses.
Dominic kissed Leo's forehead.
“I've got you.”
Leo stayed.
No screaming.
No reaching for someone else.
Just father and son.
Maybe Leo had never rejected Dominic.
Maybe grief had made both of them afraid to hold on.
Dominic looked at me over Leo's head.
And I understood something.
Leo didn't think I was Elena anymore.
He knew me.
He had called me El.
And he knew his father too.
For the first time, we weren't living inside Elena's shadow.
We were becoming a family of our own.
But one mystery remained.
The original drive Daniel had demanded wasn't actually the one we recovered from the portrait.
Dominic had switched it before we arrived.
And when we opened the real drive again the following morning, we found one encrypted folder everyone had missed.
It contained a single file.
FOR ELINA — FROM ELENA.
May you like
My sister had left one final secret for me.
---
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