Chapter 5
I crossed the room but stopped before touching her.
That was harder than anything I had done that night.
Elena looked like she wanted to run and collapse into me at the same time.
Fear had trained her body before love could answer.
So I waited.
“Is it really you?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
She stared at Adrian behind me.
Then recoiled.
I stepped between them immediately.
“He doesn’t come closer.”
Her breathing slowed slightly.
Only slightly.
Emma entered with a blanket.
Elena looked at her.
“You got the bird?”
Emma nodded.
“I opened the dome.”
Elena started crying.
Not loudly.
Like someone whose body had forgotten how much sound was safe.
I crouched several feet away.
“How long have you been down here?”
She swallowed.
“Not always here.”
I looked at Adrian.
He lowered his eyes.
Elena continued.
“At first they moved me between rooms.”
“They?”
Adrian’s face tightened.
I caught it.
“Who else?”
Elena looked at me.
“Your uncle Matteo.”
My chest went cold.
Matteo Bellandi died two years earlier.
One year after Elena’s supposed death.
The man I had mourned as my father’s last loyal brother.
“What did Matteo want?”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Control.”
Of course.
Always.
“When your father died, Matteo expected you to depend on him.”
“I didn’t.”
“No.”
A weak smile touched her mouth.
“You depended on me.”
I understood before she finished.
Matteo could not control me while Elena remained beside me.
So he removed her.
“Adrian?”
She looked toward my cousin.
“He helped.”
Adrian finally spoke.
“I kept her alive.”
Elena flinched.
I stood.
He saw something in my face and stepped back.
“You locked her underground for three years.”
“Matteo wanted her dead.”
“So you want gratitude?”
His voice rose.
“I stopped him!”
Elena looked at Adrian.
“No.”
Her voice was weak.
But sharp.
“You stopped him because a living prisoner was useful.”
May you like
Adrian went silent.
And I realized Elena knew exactly why she had been kept alive after Matteo died.
