Chapter 3 - Beneath the Chapel
The chapel smelled of dust, cold stone and old flowers.
Adrian entered slowly.
The portraits of dead Morettis watched from the walls.
At the front stood the altar.
Behind it was Elena's memorial.
A silver frame.
A photograph.
A single white candle.
Adrian hadn't entered this room in three years.
Now someone had used it as a hiding place.
“Search everything.”
Guards spread out.
One found a loose stone beneath the altar.
Another discovered a narrow staircase.
Adrian descended.
The tunnel beneath the chapel was old.
It had been built during Prohibition, when the Moretti family used the property to move contraband without being seen.
At the bottom, they found Vincent.
He sat tied to a chair.
Blood ran down his forehead.
Adrian stopped.
“Who did this?”
Vincent looked up.
His face was bruised.
“You came.”
“Who?”
Vincent laughed weakly.
“You think I poisoned you.”
“You did.”
“No.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“The wine was poisoned.”
“Yes.”
“You handled it.”
“Yes.”
“You disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“You had photographs of my wife, my daughter, Hannah and Ellie.”
Vincent closed his eyes.
“I didn't take them.”
Adrian raised his gun.
“Then explain.”
Vincent stared at him.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“From whom?”
“Your brother.”
Adrian froze.
“My brother is dead.”
Vincent's expression changed.
“No.”
The word echoed through the tunnel.
“No, Adrian.”
Adrian's breathing stopped.
“My brother died when I was twenty-three.”
“That is what they told you.”
Adrian grabbed Vincent by the collar.
“Who?”
Vincent whispered a name.
“Marco.”
Adrian released him.
Marco Moretti.
His older brother.
The man supposedly killed in Sicily twenty-eight years earlier.
The man whose funeral Adrian had attended.
The man whose death had transformed Adrian from a reckless young heir into the ruthless man everyone feared.
Adrian shook his head.
“Impossible.”
Vincent coughed.
“Marco survived.”
“How?”
“I don't know.”
“Where is he?”
Vincent looked toward the tunnel entrance.
“He's here.”
A gunshot exploded.
The guard beside Adrian dropped.
Everyone turned.
More shots.
Stone shattered.
Adrian grabbed Vincent and dragged him behind a pillar.
“Move!”
The guards returned fire.
Then silence.
Adrian waited.
Nothing.
He looked at Vincent.
“Where is he?”
Vincent pointed deeper into the tunnel.
“There's another exit.”
Adrian followed.
They found a steel door.
Open.
Beyond it was a narrow passage leading toward the water.
A boat engine roared outside.
Adrian stepped onto the dock.
A black speedboat disappeared into the fog.
On the dock lay a single object.
A child's pink hair clip.
Adrian recognized it immediately.
Lily used to wear one exactly like it.
He picked it up.
His hand began trembling.
Vincent saw his face.
“He wants you to believe he's bringing the past back.”
Adrian stared into the fog.
“No.”
He closed his fist around the clip.
“He wants me angry.”
“Why?”
Adrian's eyes hardened.
“Because angry men make mistakes.”
Behind them, a guard shouted.
“Sir!”
Adrian turned.
The guard held a phone.
“We found this in Bellini's room.”
Adrian took it.
A video played.
It showed Hannah entering the estate that morning.
Then Ellie.
Then Adrian speaking to the child in the basement.
The video ended with a message.
YOU SAVED THE WRONG MAN.
Adrian stared at the screen.
A second message appeared.
NEXT TIME, THE GIRL DIES.
Adrian's expression went cold.
He handed the phone to his security chief.
“From this moment forward, Ellie Carter never leaves my sight.”
Vincent stared at him.
“Adrian…”
“What?”
“You're making the same mistake your father made.”
“What mistake?”
“Protecting someone you love by turning them into your weakness.”
Adrian looked toward the mansion.
Through the fog, one tiny light remained visible.
Ellie's bedroom.
He had never known the child for more than a few hours.
Yet the threat against her filled him with a rage he hadn't felt since Lily died.
“I already lost one daughter.”
May you like
His voice was barely audible.
“I won't lose another.”
