Trusting Him Was A Mistake

~ Alina’s POV

I moved with the bag in my hand, tightly clutched, making sure I wouldn’t lose it. When I stepped out of the building, my eyes fell on a pitch-black silhuoette standing just a few feet away from my car. My eyes widened as I stared at his calm composture. I moved a few feet forward and when our eyes met, my breath caught and my body went numb.

~ Flashback

I hurriedly collected the files and copied the digital records into my personal pen drive. When I looked around and was sure that there was no one around, I rushed. I moved swiftly and logged out before walking out of the building with trembling legs and a mind filled with spiralling thoughts.

When I reached my apartment, I locked the door and scattered the files on the floor before picking up my laptop and placing it beside the files. With a deep breath, I tied my hair in a bun and sat down on the floor, laying out all the files clearly in front of me and opening the digital records on my laptop. This specific moment made me realise that I should be grateful I was a tech genius and knew how to take care of my digital footprints.

I watched through all the digital records and realised that someone was manipulating them, changing them from time to time as if to alter the history itself. My breath caught in my throat when I read that their identities had been changed to “Russo“ after the accident to give them the history someone wanted.

But it ended there, and I realised I had to go back to the archives to find out more, to find out who was behind all of this, to find out who my parents actually were.

With a new goal in mind, I wrapped up everything and decided to investigate further on my next shift, even though a heavy pit settled in my stomach, warning me of the danger it contained.

~ The Next Day

“Alina! How are you?“ Marco, the coworker who worked the morning shift, held his hand out, and I took it, trying to keep up a positive appearance.

“I’m good, and you?“ There was a tremble in my voice when I spoke. I cleared my throat and passed him a smile so he wouldn’t get suspicious and ask me questions I didn’t want to answer.

“Everything alright?“ He raised his brows, and I nodded, assuring him that everything was fine even though the world was crumbling under my feet. He nodded and bid goodbye as he made his way out of the building. I punched in and went straight to the desk, eager to find more clues, to find something that would lead me to definite answers.

As I moved through multiple files, I noted down the ones that restricted my access, just like when I tried to access the Russos’ file. Once I had enough names, I moved to the desk and altered the complete access from every cabinet and moved swiftly before anyone came and tried to interject.

I hadn’t even noticed how long it had been when I took out the files and started investigating them. If there was something common in all of them, it was one thing: patterns.

Similarly, other families and estates had their records altered just like how Russo were substituted with the Morettis—my family. The repeated references to the city’s elite families and their legal histories and the properties that had an in-depth link to properties in Milan… a lot of it didn’t make sense.

I sat down on the chair, head in between my hands as I tried to grasp all of the information I had just single-handedly discovered. If all of this were available here, why has no one made a move yet?

Then it hit me, I moved…as swiftly as a rabbit and tried to go through the access logs, but to my surprise, it had already been wiped clean. My breath hitched in my throat when the possibility was confirmed that some higher-up was definitely involved in tampering with records. But the only question was…why? Why would someone tamper with property records? They were one of the most common frauds anyone could ever do.

But then it hit me…what if they’re staged as property frauds?

I stood up and moved back to the files and it was then that I noticed something from the corner of my eyes. I subtly moved my head a bit to my right and realized that the CCTV camera had moved from its position and was now facing me.

A shiver ran down my spine when the realization settled in…this can’t be…

So, I did what I thought was best. I clocked out and drove to the place I knew will definitely have the answers I’m looking for. I drove past the old buildings of Florence, and for some reasons, they screamed at me to turn back. But now I was too deep in to do so.

I parked the car a bit far from the building to ensure I remained hidden and entered the building, glad it didn’t have as much security as the new building did. The archives in this building were older than most of the genreations alive here and it was the only place that could actually talk to me.

Glad I knew the layout of the building, I made my way straight to the file I wanted to find, “The Russos.“ I slid it out and almost groaned in annoyance when I realized that it had also been tampered with. The bold word “Official“ on the file was proof someone didn’t want me reaching into history but I wouldn’t stop here…not when I was so close.

So, I moved swiftly, making sure the building didn’t even remember I was ever here, or had any proof of my presence. Once I was satisfied, I hurriedly picked up the file I wanted and stashed it in my bag.