Chapter 7 – THE EMERALD BRACELET

Dust and plaster rained down from the ceiling of the study. The deafening roar of men breaching the foyer echoed down the hallway.

“Go!” Dominic commanded, shoving me toward the hidden tunnel door.

Julian dragged Arthur Bell up by his collar. “You’re coming with us, you piece of garbage. You’re our insurance.”

I pulled Lily into the dark tunnel, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. Julian shoved Arthur ahead of us, keeping his gun trained on the lawyer’s back.

Dominic didn’t follow. He stood in the doorway of the study, racking a shell into the antique shotgun. He looked back at me one last time, his expression unreadable, before he slammed the hidden panel shut, sealing us in the dark.

“Move!” Julian hissed, clicking on his flashlight.

We ran toward the bunker. Lily was crying silently, her hand clutching mine so tightly her nails dug into my skin.

When we reached the safe room, Dr. Harris had Salvatore sitting up. The old man looked better, his color returning, but his eyes were wide with fear.

“Where is my son?” Salvatore demanded.

“He stayed behind to hold them off,” Julian said, punching the code to lock the heavy steel door behind us.

He shoved Arthur into a metal chair in the corner. Arthur wiped blood from his mouth, chuckling darkly.

“He’s a dead man, Salvatore,” Arthur sneered. “Carlo D’Amato sent fifty men. Dominic is one man with a bullet in his shoulder. It’s over.”

“Shut your mouth,” I snapped, stepping toward Arthur. I was shaking with rage. The terror had burned away, leaving only a fierce, protective fire. “You ruined my life. You killed my husband. You put my daughter in danger.”

Arthur looked up at me, amused. “What are you going to do, Grace? Take my temperature?”

I didn’t hit him. I walked over to the medical cart, picked up a syringe, and calmly drew a clear liquid from a small vial.

“This is potassium chloride,” I said, my voice dead calm. “In small doses, it treats low potassium. In a concentrated dose pushed rapidly into an IV, it stops the heart instantly. It’s how we do lethal injections.”

Arthur’s smile vanished.

I stepped closer, holding the needle inches from his neck.

“I took an oath to do no harm,” I whispered. “But you aren’t a patient. You’re a monster. So tell me exactly how the D’Amato family plans to breach this bunker, or I swear on my husband’s grave, I will end you.”

Arthur stared into my eyes. He saw no hesitation.

“They… they don’t need to breach the bunker,” Arthur stammered, his bravado breaking. “Carlo doesn’t care about you or the old man. He wants the estate’s mainframe. The servers in the basement. It holds the deeds, the blackmail files, the entire Romano empire’s infrastructure.”

Julian cursed loudly. “The servers are directly beneath the study. If they take the servers, they take the city.”

“We have to help Dominic,” I said, dropping the syringe.

“We can’t,” Julian said. “The lockdown is engaged. We’re sealed in.”

Salvatore slowly stood up. His right leg dragged slightly, but his posture was straight. He walked over to the metal lockbox where Dominic had retrieved the journal.

He reached inside and pulled out a stunning, heavy emerald bracelet.

“Celeste thought she was stealing my voting rights,” Salvatore rasped, holding the jewels up. “She thought the paperwork Arthur forged was enough.”

Arthur looked confused. “I filed the paperwork myself, Salvatore. You’re legally incompetent. Your shares go to her.”

Salvatore smiled. It was a vicious, triumphant Romano smile.

“The shares aren’t in my name,” Salvatore said. “They haven’t been for three years.”

He turned to me and pressed the emerald bracelet into my hands.

“They are in the name of the woman who wears my late wife’s emeralds,” Salvatore said softly. “I transferred everything to a blind trust. The trust requires two keys to unlock. Dominic’s St. Jude medal…”

He pointed to the medal still clutched in my hand.

“…and the bracelet.”

I stared at the jewels in shock. “Why are you giving this to me?”

“Because my son loves you,” Salvatore said simply. “And because you are the only person in this room brave enough to do what comes next.”

Salvatore walked over to the bunker’s communication console. He hit a red override switch.

“The estate has a self-destruct protocol for the servers,” Salvatore said, his voice grave. “It floods the basement with incendiary gas. It will destroy the empire’s records, but it will also kill every D’Amato man in that house.”

“Including Dominic,” Julian realized in horror.

“I can isolate the study,” Salvatore said, typing furiously with his good hand. “I can vent the gas everywhere else. But someone has to manually trigger the ignition from the server room panel.”

He looked at me.

“The panel is outside the bunker door. If you trigger it, the blast doors will drop, sealing the house. But you have to wear the bracelet and the medal for the biometric scanner to recognize you as the head of the family.”

I didn’t hesitate. I put the St. Jude medal around my neck and clasped the emerald bracelet around my wrist.

“Mom, no!” Lily cried, grabbing my arm.

“I have to, Lily,” I said, kissing her forehead. “I’m not letting that man die up there.”

I stepped out of the bunker into the dark tunnel.

I found the glowing red panel on the wall. I pressed my hand against the glass.

I pulled the heavy lever down.

A deep, mechanical groaning echoed through the walls of the estate.

And then, the world caught fire.

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