Chapter 4 – THE LIE IN THE LOCKED BEDROOM

The barrel of Luca’s gun was perfectly steady.

He didn’t look like the grieving employer who had shown Rosa mercy hours earlier. He looked like a father who had just lost his child, ready to execute whoever was responsible.

“Luca, please,” I cried, taking a slow step backward. “Vanessa is lying. She framed me. She took Mia!”

“Don’t move,” Luca warned. His voice sent a chill straight into my bones.

He pulled out his phone with his free hand and hit a button on speakerphone.

“Vanessa,” Luca barked. “I have Claire.”

Vanessa’s voice crackled through the speaker. She sounded out of breath, frantic, like a terrified victim.

“Thank God, Luca! She cornered me in the nursery! She had a knife. She grabbed Mia and said she was going to use her to get money out of you!”

I stared at the phone in pure disbelief.

“She’s lying!” I screamed.

“I managed to lock myself in the guest bathroom, Luca,” Vanessa cried, ignoring me. “But she took Mia down the back stairs! You have to stop her!”

Luca hung up. He looked at me, his eyes burning with lethal intent.

“Where is my daughter?”

“Mr. Moretti, look at me!” I pleaded, dropping to my knees. “I don’t have a weapon! I don’t have Mia! I just found this on her floor!”

I held up the silver engagement bracelet I had found.

Luca’s eyes snapped to the jewelry. He recognized it instantly.

“Vanessa lost that in the struggle,” Luca said coldly.

“No, Luca!”

Rosa’s voice echoed down the hallway.

The older woman rushed to my side, placing her body between me and Luca’s gun.

“Rosa, step away from her,” Luca ordered.

“I will not!” Rosa shouted fiercely. “Are you blind, Luca? Why would Claire kidnap your daughter and then run back to the room she was taken from?”

Luca hesitated. The logic pierced through his blind rage.

Rosa pointed a shaking finger at him.

“Frank tried to warn you about that woman! Vanessa locked Isabella in a trunk, she killed my husband, and now she is trying to murder your daughter so she can steal this family’s fortune!”

Luca lowered the gun slightly.

“What fortune?” he asked. “I already control everything.”

I reached into the deep pocket of my apron and pulled out the thick, red-wax-sealed envelope we had found in the bus locker.

I slid it across the carpet toward him.

“Frank found this,” I said, my voice shaking. “It’s your father’s real will. Vanessa has been trying to destroy it.”

Luca stared at the envelope. He slowly lowered the gun, picking up the heavy paper.

He broke the red wax seal with his thumb.

He pulled out the document and read the first few lines.

The color drained from his face completely.

“My God,” Luca whispered.

“What does it say?” Rosa asked.

Luca looked up, his dark eyes filled with absolute horror.

“My father didn’t leave the syndicate to me,” Luca said, his voice cracking. “He left the entire legitimate empire, the properties, and the offshore accounts in a blind trust.”

He looked at me.

“For Mia.”

My stomach dropped.

“If Mia dies before her eighteenth birthday,” Luca continued, reading the legal jargon, “control of the trust defaults to the next of kin. My brother. Matteo.”

The pieces slammed into place.

Vanessa wasn’t just a gold digger. She had bought Matteo’s gambling debts to control him. If she killed Mia, Matteo would inherit billions. And Vanessa, holding his debts, would control Matteo. She would own the entire Moretti empire.

“Where is she?” Luca roared, the realization that he had left his daughter in the hands of a monster breaking his composure.

“She said she was locked in the guest bathroom,” I said, scrambling to my feet. “It’s a lie. She’s probably halfway to the airport with Mia.”

“No, she isn’t.”

We all spun around.

Standing at the top of the stairs, leaning heavily against the banister and clutching his bleeding forehead, was Daniel.

“She’s still in the house, Boss,” Daniel groaned, blood pouring down his face. “She hit me with a fire poker when I tried to stop her.”

Luca crossed the hall and grabbed Daniel by the shirt.

“Where did she take her, Daniel?”

“The old wine cellar,” Daniel wheezed. “She said if you didn’t give her the real will, she was going to flood it.”

Luca didn’t hesitate. He dropped Daniel and sprinted down the hallway toward the servant stairs.

I ran after him, Rosa right behind me.

We flew down three flights of stairs, past the kitchen, and into the dark, damp stone corridors beneath the estate.

The heavy iron door to the old wine cellar was bolted shut from the outside.

Luca grabbed the heavy iron latch and yanked it open with terrifying strength.

He burst into the room, raising his gun.

But the room wasn’t flooded.

And Vanessa wasn’t there.

Sitting in the center of the cold stone floor, tied to a chair with thick rope, was Mia.

She was sobbing, her tiny face red and terrified.

“Daddy!” Mia screamed.

Luca dropped his gun and ran to his daughter, falling to his knees and tearing the ropes from her small wrists.

“I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you,” Luca wept, burying his face in her neck.

I let out a sob of relief, stepping into the room.

But as I stepped onto the stone floor, my shoe hit something hard.

I looked down.

It was a small, black timing device. Wires trailed from it, running into the dark corners of the wine cellar.

The timer read: 00:15.

Fourteen seconds.

Vanessa hadn’t brought Mia here to flood the room.

She brought her here to bury her.

“Luca!” I screamed, grabbing his shoulder. “It’s a bomb!”

TITLE: The Timer In The Wine Cellar

Share