Chapter 10 - EMMA DISAPPEARS
Alessandro read the note once.
Then he folded it and placed it inside his jacket.
Behind him, Sophia stumbled from the passage.
“Where is she?”
He did not answer quickly enough.
Sophia saw the blanket.
A sound left her that Alessandro would remember for the rest of his life.
Not a scream.
Something lower.
Something torn from the deepest place a mother could be wounded.
She ran toward the road.
Alessandro caught her.
“Let me go!”
“You cannot follow them on foot.”
“They took my baby!”
“I know.”
“You promised!”
The words struck harder than the bullet in his shoulder.
You promised.
Emma had asked whether he would come back.
He had believed promises were fulfilled by intention.
Now he understood they were measured only by outcome.
Sophia hit his chest.
“You said she would be safe!”
“I will bring her home.”
“You do not know that!”
Alessandro held her wrists.
“No. But they do not know what I am willing to destroy.”
He ordered Matteo to track every vehicle leaving the estate. The black car used stolen plates and disappeared beneath a bridge seven miles away.
Vittorio and Luca remained inside the mansion under guard.
Vittorio denied involvement.
Luca said nothing.
Alessandro entered the study carrying the ledger.
Luca sat beside the fireplace.
“Where is Emma?”
“I do not know.”
“You had access to the passage.”
“Yes.”
“You watched the cottage.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To protect Sophia.”
“You photographed a sleeping child.”
“Carlo’s men used the chamber after they discovered it. The earliest photographs are mine. The later ones are not.”
Alessandro placed a pistol on the table.
“Give me one reason to believe you.”
Luca looked suddenly old.
“Because Emma is my granddaughter.”
The room became still.
Sophia, standing in the doorway, stopped breathing.
“What?” she whispered.
Luca turned toward her.
“Marco Rossi was my son.”
Sophia shook her head.
“No.”
“He was born after I left his mother. She never told him my name.”
“You are lying.”
“I paid for his schooling through anonymous accounts. I followed his career. I knew when he married you.”
“Then why did you not protect him?”
Luca’s eyes filled with shame.
“I tried too late.”
Alessandro stepped closer.
“Did Vittorio order Marco’s death?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I was in the room when Carlo reported it.”
Sophia crossed the room and slapped him.
The sound echoed.
Luca accepted it.
“You watched us suffer.”
“Yes.”
“You watched Emma live in that cottage.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me being poisoned.”
“I was gathering proof.”
“My daughter is gone because men like you always gather proof while women and children pay the price.”
Luca lowered his head.
Alessandro picked up the pistol.
“Where would Carlo take her?”
“Belladonna is a distraction.”
“The note says Belladonna.”
“Vittorio owns it openly. He would never choose a place that points to him unless he wanted you elsewhere.”
“Elsewhere from what?”
“The harbor.”
Luca stood with difficulty.
“Midnight shipment. Pier seventeen. Weapons hidden beneath medical supplies.”
“The same method used twenty-seven years ago.”
“Yes.”
“They want the ledger destroyed before the containers leave.”
“More than that. They want you dead and blamed for attacking Belladonna. While the council fights over succession, Vittorio disappears with the shipment money.”
Sophia gripped the table.
“Where is Emma?”
Luca’s voice broke.
“Carlo has a warehouse beneath the old St. Catherine’s ferry terminal.”
The nursing home.
Dr. Voss.
Lucia Rossi.
Every thread led to the same place.
Alessandro checked the time.
Ten thirty-eight.
He had eighty-two minutes.
He divided his loyal men into three teams.
One would surround Belladonna without entering.
One would secure Pier seventeen.
Alessandro would go to the ferry terminal with Sophia.
“No,” he told her.
“She will be afraid.”
“You will stay in the vehicle.”
“She will call for me.”
“You are weak.”
“I am her mother.”
There was no argument against that.
Rain began as they approached the abandoned terminal.
The building stood beside the river like a dead animal, windows broken, roof sagging.
Alessandro entered through the lower loading bay.
Sophia followed despite his order.
Inside, they found a child’s shoe.
Pink.
Wet.
Sophia picked it up.
“Emma!”
A speaker crackled overhead.
Carlo’s voice filled the warehouse.
“You came early, little wolf.”
Alessandro aimed toward the rafters.
“Show yourself.”
“Place the ledger on the floor.”
“Show me the child.”
A spotlight turned on.
Emma sat tied to a chair on a platform above the river.
Her mouth was covered.
Behind her stood Dr. Elias Voss holding a syringe.
Sophia cried out.
Emma struggled.
Carlo appeared on the opposite walkway.
His wounded shoulder was bandaged.
“You always were sentimental beneath the suit,” he said.
“Let her go.”
“Bring the ledger.”
Alessandro held it up.
Carlo smiled.
“Your mother died for that book.”
“No. She died because cowards feared what was inside it.”
Carlo’s face hardened.
“You know nothing about that night.”
“Then tell me.”
“She begged Giovanni to leave the family. He refused. Vittorio ordered me to stop her from reaching the police.”
“You shot her.”
Carlo smiled.
“No.”
Alessandro froze.
“Who did?”
Carlo looked toward Sophia.
“Ask her mother.”
Dr. Voss pressed the needle closer to Emma’s neck.
“One minute,” Carlo said. “Then the child sleeps forever.”
Alessandro stepped onto the walkway.
He carried the ledger in one hand.
His gun remained holstered.
Halfway across, Sophia whispered behind him.
“Emma, close your eyes.”
The child did.
Sophia raised Carlo’s discarded flare gun from beneath her coat.
She fired into the ceiling.
Burning magnesium exploded.
The warehouse filled with white light.
Alessandro drew his pistol.
Gunfire erupted.
The platform beneath Emma broke loose.
The chair slid toward the edge.
May you like
Alessandro ran.
Emma fell into the river.
