Chapter 5 – THE FIRE AND THE ESCAPE

Smoke began to curl beneath the steel frame of the vault door.

Oliver coughed, clinging to my leg. “Emma, it smells like a campfire.”

“Don’t panic,” Elena said. The older woman didn’t look frightened. She looked annoyed.

She walked over to the medical bed and pressed a hidden button underneath the mattress. The entire wall behind the bed hissed and slid to the left, revealing a dark, ascending dirt tunnel.

“Isabella made sure there was a backdoor,” Elena said. “She knew Serena would try to burn us out eventually.”

“Where is Isabella?” I asked, coughing as the smoke grew thicker. “The chart says she’s in a coma.”

Elena grabbed a large duffel bag from the floor and slung it over her shoulder.

“She was,” Elena said grimly. “For six months. The crash nearly killed her. But she woke up four months ago. She delivered the twins in this very room.”

“Then where are they?”

“Safe,” Elena said, her eyes flashing. “And tomorrow, she’s taking them far away from the Syndicate. That train ticket was a decoy. A trap for Serena’s father.”

Reversal. Isabella wasn’t running scared. She was hunting.

“We have to help Matteo,” I said. “Carlo’s men have him pinned in the drawing-room!”

“Matteo is a big boy,” Elena said, grabbing her shotgun. “My job is to protect Oliver. Now move.”

We rushed into the dirt tunnel. The air was cool and smelled of pine. After climbing for what felt like hours, we pushed through a wooden hatch and tumbled out into the freezing night air.

We were deep in the woods at the edge of the estate.

Behind us, the Ricci mansion was ablaze. Flames licked at the night sky, consuming the grand windows.

My heart shattered. Matteo was in there.

“We can’t leave him!” I cried.

Before Elena could answer, a black SUV roared through the trees, skidding to a halt on the dirt path right in front of us.

The doors flew open.

Matteo stepped out. His suit was torn, his face smeared with soot, and he was bleeding from a cut above his eye.

But he was alive.

Oliver screamed and ran toward him. “Daddy!”

Matteo caught his son, burying his face in Oliver’s neck. He closed his eyes, holding the boy so tightly I thought he might never let go.

“I’ve got you, buddy,” Matteo whispered. “I’ve got you.”

He looked up at Elena.

“Hello, Matteo,” Elena said quietly.

“You hid her in my own house,” Matteo said, his voice a mix of awe and anger. “For eleven months, my wife was living beneath my feet.”

“It was the only place Carlo wouldn’t look,” Elena replied. “She didn’t trust you, Matteo. She thought you were working with Serena.”

“I would never hurt her.”

“She knows that now,” Elena said, tossing him the duffel bag. “That’s why she left you the letters. She’s waiting for you.”

“Where?”

Elena pointed to the duffel bag. “Open it.”

Matteo unzipped the bag. Inside were stacks of cash, fake passports, and a small, rusted iron key.

Matteo picked up the key. He stared at it, recognition washing over his face.

“The old boathouse at Lake Como,” he whispered.

“She’s there,” Elena confirmed. “With your daughters.”

Matteo’s eyes filled with tears. He looked at me.

“Emma. Get in the car.”

We piled into the SUV. Matteo slammed on the gas, tearing through the woods away from the burning mansion.

But as we hit the main highway, Matteo’s phone buzzed.

It was a video call from an unknown number.

Matteo answered it and put it on the dashboard.

The screen flickered.

It wasn’t Carlo.

It was Serena.

She looked terrifyingly calm. Behind her, tied to a wooden chair with a gun to her head, was a beautiful woman with dark hair.

Isabella.

“Did you really think a decoy train ticket would fool me?” Serena smiled. “I know about the boathouse, Matteo. I’ve always known. If you want to see your wife alive, you come alone.”

Serena tilted the camera down.

Sitting in two car seats on the floor were two tiny, sleeping infants.

“Oh, and Matteo?” Serena whispered. “Bring the boy. Or I’ll drown the twins.”

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