Chapter 6 - The House Goes Dark
The mansion dropped into darkness so complete that Emma screamed.
Alejandro moved before he thought.
He grabbed the child and pulled her against his chest.
Elena found them by touch.
“Emma?”
“I’m here!”
Emergency lights should have activated immediately.
They did not.
Tomas’s voice came from the other side of the study.
“Backup was disabled.”
“By who?” Alejandro asked.
“If I knew, we’d have lights.”
A crash sounded in the hallway.
Then footsteps.
Fast.
Not security formation.
Someone running.
Alejandro handed Emma to Elena.
“Stay behind the desk.”
“No,” Elena whispered.
“Please.”
That single word made her obey faster than an order would have.
Alejandro and Tomas moved into the hall.
A flashlight beam cut across the far staircase.
Then disappeared.
“West corridor,” Tomas said.
They followed.
Behind them, Emma whispered, “Mama.”
“What?”
“My rabbit.”
“Forget the rabbit.”
“I left him in the study.”
“Elena,” Alejandro called softly, “do not move.”
Too late.
A second beam appeared from the service passage behind them.
Someone had circled around.
The figure rushed toward Elena.
She shoved Emma behind a marble column.
The stranger grabbed Elena’s arm.
She fought back.
Alejandro turned.
“Let her go.”
The person ran instead.
Tomas chased.
Alejandro stayed with Elena and Emma.
He hated the choice.
Four years earlier, he would have chased the threat.
Tonight, he protected the people still in front of him.
Minutes later, the backup lights flickered on.
Tomas returned alone.
“Lost him through the service stairs.”
“Him?”
“Build looked male.”
“Face?”
“Covered.”
Emma emerged from behind the column.
She was holding something.
A button.
Black horn.
Gold thread still attached.
“He dropped it.”
Tomas took it.
Not staff uniform.
Not security.
Formal tailoring.
Gabriel wore black horn buttons with gold thread.
So did half the Moretti leadership at formal events.
Again, evidence that pointed everywhere.
They returned to the study.
Emma recovered her rabbit.
Then she noticed something on the floor beside the bookcase.
A small piece of paper.
She picked it up.
“Don’t touch—” Elena began.
But Emma had already unfolded it.
There were only six words.
ASK LUCA WHAT WAS UNDER THE CHAPEL.
Alejandro stared.
The Moretti family chapel sat at the edge of the estate.
It had been locked since his father’s funeral.
Luca had hated the place.
Or pretended to.
At four in the morning, Alejandro, Tomas, Gabriel, and Elena crossed the wet lawn with armed security.
The chapel smelled like stone and dust.
They searched for an hour.
Nothing.
Then Emma, who had refused to stay behind and had been carried there asleep against Elena’s shoulder, woke up.
She looked at the old floor mosaics.
“Rabbit.”
Alejandro frowned.
“What?”
She pointed.
One mosaic tile showed a white rabbit beneath Saint Francis.
Luca’s childhood nickname for Elena had been Rabbit because she ran when embarrassed.
Elena went still.
Together, they pressed the tile.
A section of wooden paneling clicked open.
Inside was a narrow compartment.
A metal box waited there.
Alejandro opened it.
Passports.
Cash.
A sealed envelope addressed to Elena.
And a photograph.
The photograph showed Luca standing beside a man outside Bellweather Imports.
The man’s face was clear.
Tomas dropped the picture.
Because the man beside Luca was Tomas’s father.
May you like
A man who had supposedly died twelve years ago.
