UPSIDE DOWN

~ 38 ~

Sylvie

I thought I'd seen everything this house had to offer.

The long, echoing corridors. The rooms that always smelled like salt and memories. The carved windows that let the wind in but somehow kept the truth out.

But this- this door at the end of the cellar.

I'd walked past it a hundred times. Never once stopped. Never once asked. Until today.

Andrea doesn't say a word as he punches in the code. The lock hisses. A subtle, deliberate sound. Like secrets exhaling.

It opens.

Stone steps descend into shadows, lit only by flickering overhead lights that buzz like they're whispering warnings. 

My brothers are all behind me, Aurelio, Francesco, Matteo, Luca. All silent. All tense.

This isn't just some base. This is a graveyard for truths. And I'm about to dig up all of them.

The room below is cold. Not temperature-wise. But the kind of cold that seeps into your spine.

Screens line the walls, maps, files, weapons. Digital boards marked with red strings and pins. Names. Photos.

Mine included.

I grip the wheels of my chair tighter.

"I need you to listen," Andrea finally says. His voice has never been this steady. It's like he's built it brick by brick, just to keep from falling apart.

"I'm listening," I manage, even though my chest feels too tight to breathe.

He nods, then begins.

"The man you knew as your stepfather, he wasn't who you thought he was. You already know that now. But what you don't know is why he was there. Why he was placed in your life."

"He was assigned," Aurelio cuts in. "By Viktor. Years ago. Before you were even old enough to ask why you looked nothing like your 'dad.' His job was to keep an eye on you. Report back to Viktor if anything changed. If you started remembering things you shouldn't."

I blink. "Remember what?"

Andrea kneels in front of me. "You're Viktor's daughter, Sylvie. And your mother, she wasn't just some innocent woman who got caught in all this. She knew. She knew who he was. She was involved."

My throat goes dry.

"She helped traffic information. She forged IDs, laundered money, she even smuggled medical supplies for one of the labs Viktor ran. It wasn't just about drugs. It was bigger. Genetic testing. Organ trade. People you don't even know existed."

I shake my head slowly. "But she got out, right? When she took me and disappeared?"

Aurelio answers this time, voice grim. "She tried. But by then she was already in too deep. And when she fled, Viktor sent your stepfather. Not to love you. To monitor her. And you."

"She thought disappearing with you would save you both," Andrea murmurs. "But she had something he wanted, your blood."

I flinch.

"My what?"

"Viktor believed you were the key to something. That your DNA could unlock something, medical, or supernatural, we don't know. We're still investigating. But whatever it was, he was obsessed. And the accident?"

He looks me in the eye. "It was real. But it might not have been as accidental as we thought."

The ground beneath me crumbles.