Chapter 4 – THE TRAITOR IN THE MANSION

The rain hammered against the tin roof of the abandoned warehouse.

“Your father?” I repeated, my voice barely a whisper. “But… he gave me the letter today. He told me Vanessa was lying. Why would he expose her if they were working together?”

Luca stared at the child’s crayon drawing, his thumb tracing the jagged lines of the man with the cane.

“Because he wasn’t exposing Vanessa to save my mother,” Luca said, the horrifying realization setting into his bones. “He was exposing Vanessa to save himself.”

Rosa covered her mouth with her trembling hands. “Antonio… he knew?”

“He didn’t just know, Mom,” Luca said bitterly. “He orchestrated it. Twelve years ago, my father was losing control of the syndicate. Carlo Bellini had the money, the men, the power. My father couldn’t defeat him, so he joined him.”

“He let them take me?” Rosa sobbed, the betrayal breaking her heart all over again.

“Worse,” Luca continued, his mind connecting the devastating puzzle pieces. “He helped them. And yesterday, when he realized Vanessa was becoming too powerful, too reckless with the wedding approaching, he panicked. He knew if Vanessa took total control, she would eliminate him. So he retrieved the ledgers to blackmail her. And he used Emma to deliver the letter to me, playing the victim, making Vanessa look like the sole villain.”

The silence in the car was suffocating.

The man who had handed me the envelope in the study, the man who had looked at me with such sorrowful, kind eyes, was the architect of his own wife’s imprisonment.

“We have to go to the police,” I said, my voice shaking. “We have to show them the drawing, tell them everything.”

Luca shook his head. “The Bellinis own half the judges in this city. A child’s drawing and the testimony of a housemaid won’t hold up. We need the physical ledgers. We need to find my father before Vanessa does.”

Suddenly, the gray sedan’s radio crackled with static.

Luca had tuned it to the private emergency frequency used by the Moretti security teams.

A panicked voice cut through the static.

“All units, this is Daniel at the main estate! We have a code red! I repeat, code red!”

Luca grabbed the radio mic. “Daniel, this is Luca. What’s happening?”

“Boss! Thank God!” Daniel yelled over the sound of shouting in the background. “Vanessa just breached the front gates. She has a dozen armed men. They’re tearing the house apart looking for your father.”

“Where is he?” Luca demanded.

“He locked himself in the panic room beneath the library. But Vanessa’s men are setting up breaching charges. Boss, they’re going to blow the door in less than ten minutes.”

Luca cursed in Italian. He threw the radio mic onto the dashboard.

“If she gets into that panic room, she kills my father and destroys the ledgers,” Luca said, shifting the car into gear.

“You can’t go back there,” Rosa pleaded, grabbing his arm. “She has an army, Luca! They will kill you!”

“I don’t have a choice,” Luca said, his eyes hard and determined. “If I don’t stop her tonight, we will spend the rest of our lives running.”

He looked in the rearview mirror. His eyes met mine.

“Emma. I need you to do exactly as I say.”

My heart pounded. “Okay.”

“Two miles from here is a safehouse. Only I know the address. It’s registered under a dummy corporation. I am going to drop you, my mother, and Mia there. You lock the doors. You do not open them for anyone except me. Do you understand?”

I nodded frantically. “Yes. But what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to end my engagement,” he said coldly.

Ten minutes later, Luca pulled the sedan into the narrow driveway of an unassuming brick townhouse in a quiet residential neighborhood. He ushered us inside, punching a code into the heavy steel door.

The inside of the house was modern, sterile, and completely secure.

“Stay away from the windows,” Luca instructed, kissing his mother’s forehead. He knelt down and hugged Mia tightly. “I’ll be back soon, sweetheart.”

He stood up and looked at me. He reached out and gently touched my injured hand, his thumb brushing against my wrist.

“Keep them safe, Emma,” he whispered.

“Please be careful,” I choked out.

He offered a small, reassuring smile, turned, and walked out the door. The heavy deadbolt clicked into place.

We were alone.

I immediately locked the secondary deadbolt and pulled the heavy blackout curtains shut. Rosa collapsed onto the leather sofa, holding Mia against her chest, exhaustion finally overtaking her fragile body.

I went to the kitchen to find a first aid kit. My hand was screaming in pain, and I needed to re-wrap it before infection set in.

I found a white box under the sink. As I unwrapped the bloody bandage, my phone buzzed on the counter.

It was my mother’s home nurse, Sarah.

I answered quickly. “Sarah? Is everything okay with my mom?”

The voice on the other end was not Sarah.

“Hello, Emma.”

My blood froze in my veins.

“Vanessa,” I breathed.

“You really thought you could hide from me, you pathetic little maid?” Vanessa’s voice dripped with venom.

“How did you get this phone?” I demanded, my hands shaking so violently I dropped the gauze.

“I sent some friends to visit your lovely mother,” Vanessa said lightly. “She’s quite fragile, isn’t she? Her heart monitor is beeping very fast.”

“Don’t you touch her!” I screamed, tears welling in my eyes. “She has nothing to do with this!”

“She has everything to do with this, because you are currently babysitting my daughter,” Vanessa hissed. “I know Luca dropped you somewhere before he came back to the mansion to play hero. Here is the deal, Emma.”

I couldn’t breathe.

“You have exactly twenty minutes to bring the old woman and the child to the address I just texted you,” Vanessa said coldly. “If you don’t, I will instruct my men to pull your mother’s oxygen tube. And I will listen to her suffocate.”

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