CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 11
Elena's Revenge
The phone call ended.
For several seconds, Alejandro continued staring at the dark screen.
No one in the room dared to speak.
The impossible had just happened.
Lucia Moretti—the woman believed to have died two decades ago—had not only revealed herself to be alive, but had invited them to meet her.
Elena broke the silence.
"She's setting a trap."
Alejandro nodded.
"I know."
"So we're not going."
He turned toward her, his expression calm but resolute.
"We are."
Within two hours, Castillo Estate had transformed into a command center.
Maps covered the walls of Alejandro's private office.
Security teams analyzed the signal from Lucia's encrypted call.
Cyber experts worked through the night.
Finally, one technician stood up.
"We traced the call."
Alejandro looked up.
"Where?"
The technician hesitated.
"The signal came from one of the old Castillo properties."
"The monastery?"
"No."
"The abandoned San Aurelio Psychiatric Hospital."
The room fell silent.
The hospital had been closed for nearly thirty years after a mysterious fire claimed dozens of lives.
Locals believed it was haunted.
Very few people ever entered the crumbling building.
It was the perfect place to hide.
Before leaving, Alejandro approached Elena.
"I need you to stay here."
She immediately shook her head.
"No."
"It's too dangerous."
"So was surviving three years in my own home."
Her voice was steady.
"I'm done hiding."
Alejandro looked into her eyes.
For the first time since rescuing her, he didn't see fear.
He saw determination.
The frightened woman who had apologized for spilling a bucket of water was gone.
Standing before him was Elena Castillo.
His wife.
His equal.
And perhaps the strongest person he had ever known.
After a long silence, he nodded.
"Then we go together."
Just before dawn, a convoy of black SUVs arrived outside the abandoned hospital.
The massive stone building towered over the surrounding forest.
Broken windows stared down like empty eyes.
The rusted iron gates stood open.
As if someone had been expecting them.
Alejandro signaled for his security team to spread out.
"No unnecessary shooting."
"We need Lucia alive."
The team acknowledged the order.
Alejandro and Elena entered the building side by side.
The hospital was eerily quiet.
Long corridors stretched into darkness.
Peeling paint covered the walls.
Old wheelchairs remained abandoned where they had been left decades earlier.
The air smelled of dust and damp concrete.
Then—
A speaker crackled overhead.
A familiar female voice echoed through the empty halls.
"Welcome home, Elena."
The words froze everyone in place.
Lucia continued.
"I've waited twenty-seven years to meet the woman who changed everything."
Alejandro looked toward the ceiling.
"Show yourself!"
Lucia laughed softly.
"Not yet."
"You still have one final lesson to learn."
Suddenly, lights flickered on throughout the corridor.
Photographs covered the walls.
Thousands of them.
Every stage of Elena's life.
Her first day of school.
Her graduation.
Her wedding.
Her honeymoon.
Even private family gatherings.
Someone had watched Elena long before she ever met Alejandro.
Elena slowly reached out and touched one of the photographs.
"When was this taken?"
Alejandro followed her gaze.
It showed Elena at eight years old, sitting beneath a large oak tree.
She had no memory of anyone photographing her that day.
On the corner of the picture was the familiar black rose.
Lucia's voice returned.
"You've always belonged to us."
The group reached the hospital's central atrium.
An enormous projector suddenly illuminated the far wall.
Lucia appeared on the screen.
Older than expected.
Elegant.
Composed.
Her silver hair framed a face marked by time but not weakness.
She smiled at Elena.
"You look so much like your mother."
Elena frowned.
"You knew my mother?"
Lucia nodded.
"We were raised together."
The revelation stunned everyone.
"You lied to us."
Elena's voice trembled.
"You kidnapped me."
"You stole my life."
Lucia's smile faded.
"I tried to save it."
Alejandro stepped forward.
"Enough."
"Where is Sofia?"
Lucia looked directly into the camera.
"Alive."
Every heartbeat in the room seemed to stop.
Elena covered her mouth.
Alejandro's voice became almost a whisper.
"Where?"
Lucia remained silent for several moments.
Then answered.
"Safe."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"No."
"You'll have to see her yourself."
At that moment, a hidden elevator opened at the end of the atrium.
The doors slid apart.
Inside stood a young woman.
She appeared to be about twenty-three years old.
She had dark hair.
Calm eyes.
And the unmistakable features of both Alejandro and Elena.
The resemblance was undeniable.
Elena's knees nearly gave way.
Alejandro instinctively caught her.
The young woman looked at them with quiet confusion.
"I know who you are."
Her voice was soft.
"They told me this day would come."
Elena whispered through tears.
"Sofia..."
The young woman hesitated.
"My name..."
"...is Sophia Moretti."
The surname struck Alejandro like a blow.
Moretti.
Not Castillo.
Lucia's voice echoed once more.
"She was raised under my protection."
"I gave her a name."
"I gave her an education."
"I kept her alive."
Elena stepped forward, tears streaming down her face.
"You took my daughter."
Lucia answered without emotion.
"I prevented others from killing her."
Sophia looked between them, clearly overwhelmed.
"I don't understand."
Lucia's image disappeared from the screen.
In its place appeared an old medical record.
The date matched the night Sophia had been born.
The attending physician's notes read:
Infant marked for termination under Black Rose Directive 01.
Removal authorized by Lucia Moretti.
A second handwritten note followed beneath it.
Order ignored. Child extracted alive.
Alejandro stared at the screen.
Lucia had kidnapped Sofia.
But according to the record...
She had also disobeyed Black Rose.
She had saved the child from an execution order.
Nothing was as simple as it seemed.
Suddenly, gunfire erupted outside the hospital.
Security radios exploded with frantic voices.
"Mr. Castillo!"
"We're under attack!"
"Multiple armed vehicles approaching!"
Alejandro immediately drew his weapon.
"Protect Elena and Sophia!"
Explosions shook the old building.
Concrete rained from the ceiling.
The lights flickered violently.
Sophia instinctively moved toward Elena.
Without thinking, Elena wrapped her arms around the young woman.
A mother embracing the daughter she had believed dead for twenty-three years.
For a brief moment...
Time seemed to stop.
Then a deafening blast tore through the atrium.
The projector shattered.
Smoke filled the room.
Through the haze, a new voice echoed across the speakers.
Cold.
Male.
Commanding.
"So..."
"Lucia finally betrayed us."
Alejandro's blood ran cold.
The mysterious Director had finally spoken.
And Black Rose had arrived to eliminate everyone.
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End of Chapter 11
Coming Next: Chapter 12 – The Fall of Black Rose, where Alejandro, Elena, Sophia, and Lucia are forced into an uneasy alliance as the true Director launches a final assault—and the decades-old conspiracy begins to collapse from within.
