CHAPTER 7 – THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED
CHAPTER 7 – THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED
The explosion hurled us across the maintenance room.
Concrete crashed onto the old piano, shattering the keys.
Dust swallowed everything.
Gunfire erupted through the smoke.
Victor tackled Leo behind a fallen support beam while Dante pulled me to the ground.
"Stay down!"
Dark figures emerged from the haze.
Black tactical uniforms.
No insignia.
No hesitation.
The Black Council.
They had found us.
Dante returned fire with terrifying precision.
Years of surviving betrayal had taught him one thing—
Never waste a bullet.
Within minutes, the attackers began retreating.
Not because they were losing.
Because they had accomplished their mission.
The letter was gone.
One of them had stolen Elena's original message during the chaos.
Only the final page remained in Dante's hand.
The page naming his brother.
They escaped through an underground rail tunnel.
Victor chased one of them and managed to tear away his mask.
The man couldn't have been older than twenty-five.
Scared.
Desperate.
More frightened of his employers than of Dante.
Dante lowered his gun.
"Talk."
"They'll kill my family."
"I can protect them."
The young man laughed bitterly.
"No one protects anyone from the Council."
Dante took one step closer.
"My wife."
The man's expression changed.
"Is she alive?"
A long silence.
Finally...
"Yes."
Every heartbeat in the tunnel seemed to stop.
"Where?"
"I don't know the exact location."
"Don't lie."
"I'm not."
He swallowed hard.
"I only know she is called Asset Blue."
Blue.
The same color Leo always associated with safety.
The same color as my dress at the wedding.
The same color Elena had used throughout her clues.
Before anyone could ask another question...
A single gunshot echoed.
The young man's eyes widened.
Blood spread across his chest.
A sniper.
Hidden somewhere above.
He collapsed before revealing anything else.
The Council had silenced their own man.
That night, Dante gathered every surviving member of the Moretti family.
No bodyguards.
No lawyers.
Only blood relatives.
He placed Elena's final page on the table.
"I have one question."
Silence.
"Who helped Alessandro fake his death?"
No one answered.
Then an elderly woman stood.
Dante's aunt Sofia.
For years she had been the quietest member of the family.
"I did."
The room exploded with outrage.
She never flinched.
"I believed Alessandro wanted peace."
"What did he really want?" Dante asked.
She closed her eyes.
"Power."
Twelve years earlier, Alessandro had discovered an international criminal network hidden behind legitimate corporations.
Instead of destroying it...
He took control.
The Black Council wasn't just a criminal organization.
It was an alliance of corrupt politicians, bankers, judges, intelligence officers, and crime syndicates across several countries.
Elena had accidentally uncovered their financial records.
That was why she disappeared.
Not because of Dante's enemies.
Because she knew too much.
And Leo...
Leo had witnessed the night they took her.
His extraordinary memory had preserved one thing they couldn't erase.
May you like
The four-note melody.
Their secret recognition signal.
