Chapter 678

Inside Lorenzo’s villa, Ella’s fever had been quite the ordeal. She finally woke groggily around six in the evening. Lorenzo stood by the window on a phone call. After glancing at his watch, his voice turned icy as he spoke to the person on the line, “Everything’s confirmed.”

“Tell Mrs. Turner I must meet with her.”

He hung up the phone. He turned to look at Ella and met her misty, bewildered eyes. “You’re awake,” he said.

Ella nodded weakly. Lorenzo approached the bed and pressed a hand to her forehead. “Your fever’s mostly gone.” Dealing with a woman running a high fever had been no small hassle.

Ella gazed up at him. “Was that call about my mother?” The mention of her mother brought a flicker of worry to her expression. After everything that had happened, she’d come to fully realize her world had been turned upside down, with no one to help her. Dark Portal was such a complicated organization.

Lorenzo nodded. “Yes.”

Ella asked, “What did they say?” He studied her silently, hesitating. Ella’s heart was in her throat at his reluctance. After a moment, Lorenzo spoke carefully, “Don’t worry too much. The conflict between her and Dark Portal isn’t life-threatening. Dark Portal can’t harm her.”

“What do you mean?”

Lorenzo replied, “It’s just… complicated.”

“Complicated?”

“Yes.” Lorenzo nodded. Some matters Dark Portal had sealed away were indeed difficult to uncover, but he’d managed to piece things together.

“How complicated?” Ella asked.

“Your father is the father of Dark Portal’s current leader.”

Ella blinked. “What?” Ella couldn’t believe that her father was the father of Dark Portal’s leader.

“You must be mistaken.”

Chapter 678

This had to be a joke. As far back as Ella could remember, she’d believed her father was dead.

“It’s not a mistake,” Lorenzo confirmed.

Ella was stunned. She had a hard time processing it.

“So that means the current leader and I are…”

“Siblings.”

Ella’s mouth twitched. “Wait, you’re telling me I suddenly have a father back from the dead and now a brother too?” She’d been an only child her whole life, enjoying all the privileges. Now she was being told she had siblings.

Lorenzo added, “Not just one brother. You also have two younger sisters.”

Ella felt completely defeated. It was more than one.

“Then why did he take my mom away? And at the airport, he looked like he wanted me dead!”

No wonder Lorenzo said it was complicated. It was way more than complicated!

Lorenzo added, “Your mother likely took half of Dark Portal’s map when she left.”

Ella asked, “Half a map?”

Lorenzo confirmed with a hum.

Ella asked, “What about that man?” By “that man,” she meant her father, as Lorenzo had put it. Though she trusted Lorenzo’s intel, Ella’s instincts warned this wasn’t so simple. From Lorenzo’s tone, it seemed that the man hadn’t treated her mother well.

Lorenzo paused. “About that man…”

He glanced at Ella, eventually deciding to tell her everything. With Dark Portal’s current turmoil and Ella’s newly revealed ties, the situation demanded transparency.

“When your mother took over Dark Portal, the organization was crumbling from within and under external threats. Your father retreated to the shadows for his own reasons.”

Ella pressed, “Why?”

“He had someone he wanted to protect above all else.”

Ella froze. Someone he wanted to protect most… “The mother of those three siblings?”

Lorenzo nodded. “Yes.”

Ella was silent. That man had hidden in the shadows to protect another woman while pushing her mother into the line of fire.

“Your mother didn’t know about that woman when she first took charge. During her leadership, conflicts arose constantly. She was injured multiple times. The worst nearly cost her pregnancy with you. That was when she discovered the truth.”

Chapter 678

Ella listened quietly to the tangled history. Just hearing her father was tied to Dark Portal’s leader had been shocking enough. Now learning what her mother endured made her chest constrict with painful breaths. She couldn’t imagine the despair her mother must have felt.

“So my mother left with me after that?” she asked.

Lorenzo nodded. “Yes. She took a part of Dark Portal’s most vital assets.” He meant the half-map.

Lorenzo said, “All these years, she’s been in Long Harbor while Dark Portal hunted her.”

Of course, they would hunt her. She’d taken something irreplaceable.

Ella looked at Lorenzo, suffocated by the revelation. “And now?”

“Now your father wants that half-map back. As for your mother…”

He paused, choosing his words carefully. “She’s gathered former loyalists and is likely establishing her own faction. This is her most critical moment.”

Starting her own faction showed just how much the conflict had escalated. Ella’s chest ached violently.

Lorenzo glanced at her. “It’s a complicated situation. Your mother probably wants to keep you out of it.”

“What’s that man’s stance now?”

Lorenzo responded, “He shouldn’t know about your existence yet, and he loves his current wife.”

Of course, he loved that woman. He’d had three children with her.

Ella closed her eyes against the sting.

“Can’t I see my mother just once?” The thought of her mother facing this alone was unbearable.

At that moment, her heart swelled with courage she’d never known before. All her previous fears were crushed by the aching love she felt for her mother.

“She won’t see you,” Lorenzo said gently. After a beat, he added, “She likely doesn’t want your father to know you exist.”

That was Andrea’s true defiance, ensuring that man never learned of Ella.

Ella lowered her gaze, fire kindling in her eyes, the instinctive fury of a child wanting to protect their mother.

Meanwhile, Sofia had finally tracked down Luca. Before she could speak a word, Luca took one look at her and bolted.

Infuriated, Sofia yelled, “Luca, you liar! Are you even a woman?”

Sofia thought angrily, “You were pretty good at fooling me before. Why are you running now?”

Sofia chased after her like crazy, but she wasn’t as agile as before. Last night was… rough. Her thighs still ached terribly.

“Leave me alone,” Luca said. “Those things are gone.”

“You heartless witch!” Hearing the items were lost made Sofia chase harder, desperate to throttle Luca.

Luca darted out of the banquet hall like a rabbit, and Sofia followed closely behind. But upon exiting, Sofia collided headfirst into a man’s chest with a dull thud, her brain buzzing.

Sofia clutched her head. “Hey, watch where you’re going.”

She looked up and saw Richard.

“What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you,” Richard said.