~Sometimes the truth isn't hidden to protect the guilty.
Sometimes… it's hidden to protect someone you love.
And tonight—
Ares was about to discover why Elara survived.
Rain poured over the city like a warning.
Inside the Valentino estate, tension filled the room.
Elara still stood frozen where she was.
Her mind replaying the same image again and again.
Volkov.
Standing in the doorway that night.
Watching her father die.
"I saw him," she whispered again.
Ares didn't doubt her.
But something about this story still didn't make sense.
Volkov was many things.
Cruel.
Ruthless.
Calculated.
But he was not careless.
If he had killed her father—
Why leave a witness alive?
Luca closed the laptop slowly.
"There's more in the file."
Ares looked at him.
"What."
"The police never closed the case."
Elara blinked.
"What?"
Luca turned the screen toward them.
"Official status: unsolved homicide."
Ares's eyes narrowed.
"That means something stopped the investigation."
"Exactly."
Elara's voice trembled.
"Who would stop a murder investigation?"
Ares answered quietly.
"Someone powerful."
Silence filled the study.
Because everyone in that room understood what that meant.
Money.
Influence.
Control.
Someone had buried the truth.
And whoever did it—
Was still protecting that secret.
Ares turned toward Elara again.
"When you saw Volkov… what was he doing?"
Elara tried to remember.
Her head started hurting again.
But fragments were coming back.
"I was hiding…"
Her voice was barely audible.
"Behind the stairs."
Ares stepped closer.
"And?"
"I heard my father arguing with someone."
"What were they saying?"
Elara shut her eyes tightly.
Trying to pull the memory out.
"Something about… documents."
Ares's attention sharpened instantly.
"What documents?"
"I don't know."
Her breathing became uneven.
"But my father kept saying…"
She swallowed hard.
"'You can't take her.'"
The words echoed through the room.
Luca frowned.
"Take who?"
Elara whispered—
"Me."
The air suddenly felt colder.
Ares went very still.
Volkov didn't want money.
He didn't want the business.
He wanted—
Her.
"Why would Volkov want you?" Luca asked.
Elara shook her head.
"I don't know."
Ares did something then that surprised both of them.
He walked to the large bookshelf behind his desk.
Opened a hidden compartment.
And pulled out a file.
Old.
Dusty.
Untouched for years.
Luca's eyes widened.
"You've had that this whole time?"
Ares didn't answer immediately.
Instead he opened the folder.
Inside were documents.
Reports.
Photographs.
And one single name repeated again and again.
Elara saw it.
Her heart stopped.
"Why… do you have files about my father?"
Ares finally looked at her.
Because the truth was complicated.
"Your father worked for me once."
Shock hit her instantly.
"What?"
"Before the accident."
"He was part of my security division."
Elara stared at him.
"You knew him?"
"Yes."
Her voice trembled.
"And you never told me?"
Ares's jaw tightened.
"Because I didn't know you were his daughter."
The room fell silent again.
But Luca was already flipping through the file.
Then he froze.
"Ares…"
"What."
"You need to see this."
He turned the page around.
It was a report.
Dated three days before the murder.
The headline read:
CONFIDENTIAL INVESTIGATION — SUBJECT: DAMIEN VOLKOV
Elara's stomach dropped.
Her father had been investigating Volkov.
Which meant—
The murder wasn't random.
It was revenge.
Ares spoke slowly.
"Your father discovered something."
Elara whispered—
"What?"
Luca read the final line of the report.
Then looked up in disbelief.
"According to this…"
"Volkov wasn't just hiding money."
Ares frowned.
"Then what?"
Luca swallowed.
"He was searching for someone."
Elara's chest tightened again.
"Who?"
Luca's voice lowered.
"A girl."
Silence.
A terrible realization formed slowly in Ares's mind.
Volkov had been searching for her…
Years before the murder.
Ares looked at Elara.
And for the first time—
He wasn't sure if she was just a victim of this story.
Or the center of it.
Because if Volkov had been hunting her for years—
Then there was only one terrifying possibility.
Elara wasn't just involved.
She was the key to something far bigger.
~Elara's father died protecting a secret.
A secret connected to Volkov…
And somehow—
That secret is Elara herself.