Chapter 6 - The Rabbit With the Secret
Rosa screamed Lily’s name even though Lily could not hear her.
Hands shoved. Bodies collided. Rich guests became animals in the dark, pushing toward doors that would not open. Emergency lamps pulsed red, turning faces into masks. Somewhere, glass shattered. Somewhere else, a man cursed as he fell.
Rosa clawed through the crowd.
“Lily!”
No answer could come.
No little hand found hers.
Terror became a physical thing inside her chest.
Alessandro’s voice cut through the chaos. “No one moves!”
This time, people obeyed.
Not because they were calm.
Because his voice carried the promise of consequences.
The emergency lights steadied. Red gave way to dim gold as backup generators groaned awake. The ballroom appeared piece by piece. Guests against walls. Guards at exits. Vivian near the stage, breathing hard.
And Rosa alone.
“No,” Rosa whispered. “No, no, no.”
Alessandro turned toward her.
One look at her face was enough.
“Lily?”
Rosa could not speak. She shook her head.
The entire mansion changed again.
If Alessandro had been dangerous before, now he was something else. He did not rage. He did not threaten. He became absolute.
“Lock every door,” he ordered. “Search from roof to cellar. No guest leaves. No staff leaves. If anyone opens a gate, shoot the tires.”
Vivian watched from the stage, and for the first time that night, Rosa saw fear in her eyes.
Not guilt.
Fear.
Because Lily missing meant Luca was still inside.
Or someone worse was.
Rosa grabbed Alessandro’s sleeve. “Find my daughter.”
“I will.”
“Do not tell me that like a promise men make when they do not know what else to say.”
His eyes met hers. “Mrs. Delgado, I do not make promises for comfort.”
Enzo hurried over. “Kitchen corridor camera went dark seven seconds before the blackout. East stairwell too. Someone planned the blind spots.”
“Luca knows the system,” Alessandro said.
Rosa felt sick. “He took her?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
Alessandro’s jaw flexed. “If Luca took her, she is leverage. If Vivian’s father’s men took her, she is evidence. If the shooter took her, she is—”
“Do not finish that sentence.”
He did not.
Rosa forced herself to breathe. Then she remembered.
“Hopper.”
Alessandro frowned.
“Her rabbit. She had Hopper. There’s a seam in the back pocket. I sew her emergency card in there. My phone number. Address. She knows to show it if she is lost.”
Alessandro looked at Enzo. “Find the rabbit.”
They split.
Rosa ran toward the kitchen, because a mother’s body knows where her child was last safe. Alessandro followed without argument.
The service hall was dim, smelling of roasted meat, lemon polish, and panic. Staff members huddled by the pantry under guard. Rosa pushed past them.
A young dishwasher named Mateo grabbed her arm. “Rosa, I saw someone!”
She spun toward him. “Who?”
“A woman in a black dress. Not staff. She carried Lily like she was asleep.”
Rosa’s knees nearly failed.
“Which way?”
“Toward the old wine cellar.”
Alessandro looked sharply at Enzo, who had appeared behind them.
“The cellar has a tunnel,” Enzo said. “Sealed years ago.”
“Not sealed from Luca,” Alessandro said.
They ran.
Down a narrow staircase. Past stone walls sweating with cold. Past racks of wine worth more than every apartment Rosa had ever lived in. The deeper they went, the quieter the mansion became, until only footsteps and breathing remained.
At the bottom, they found Hopper.
The stuffed rabbit lay on the stone floor near a rusted cellar gate.
One ear torn.
Rosa dropped to her knees and picked it up as if it were a wounded body.
“No,” she breathed.
Alessandro crouched beside her. “May I?”
Rosa clutched Hopper, then forced herself to hand him over.
He examined the rabbit’s back seam. “You stitched this?”
“Yes.”
“This has been opened recently.”
Rosa frowned through tears. “What?”
He carefully pulled apart the loose thread. A folded emergency card slipped out.
Behind it fell something else.
A tiny black memory drive.
Rosa stared. “That is not mine.”
Alessandro did not touch it for several seconds.
Then he looked at her with an expression that made the cellar colder.
“Did your husband ever handle this rabbit?”
Rosa’s mouth went dry.
“Miguel gave it to Lily the week before he vanished.”
Alessandro closed his eyes briefly.
Enzo whispered, “Boss.”
Alessandro stood with the drive in his palm. “Now I know why Miguel Delgado died.”
Rosa rose slowly. “What are you saying?”
“I am saying your husband may have left you more than a toy.”
They heard a small sound beyond the rusted gate.
Not a cry.
Not a footstep.
A tap.
Then another.
Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap.
Lily could not hear.
But she knew vibration.
Rosa rushed to the gate. “Lily!”
Alessandro grabbed the bars and pulled. Locked.
Enzo fired once into the old chain. The shot blasted through the cellar, and Rosa covered her ears, though Lily could not.
The gate swung open.
Beyond it stretched a narrow tunnel lined with brick.
At the far end, a tiny shape sat pressed against the wall.
Lily.
Rosa ran so hard she nearly fell. She dropped to the ground and gathered her daughter into her arms. Lily’s body was icy, her face streaked with tears, but she was alive.
Alive.
Rosa sobbed into her curls.
Lily patted her mother’s cheek, then signed with shaking fingers.
Bad lady carried me. I bit.
Rosa laughed and cried at the same time.
Alessandro knelt nearby. “Where did she go?”
Lily pointed down the tunnel.
Then she signed something that made Enzo swear.
Bad man opened wall.
Alessandro stood. “Luca.”
But Lily grabbed his sleeve before he could move.
She pointed at Hopper. Then at Alessandro. Then made a small square shape with her fingers.
Rosa wiped her face. “The card?”
“No,” Alessandro said softly. “The drive.”
Lily nodded.
Papa put secret in bunny.
Rosa went completely still.
“What did she say?” Enzo asked.
Rosa could barely speak. “She said Miguel put the secret in the rabbit.”
Alessandro stared into the dark tunnel where Luca had escaped.
“Then your husband did not die because of an accident,” he said.
May you like
He looked back at Rosa.
“He died because he found the truth before I did.”
