Chapter 10 - The Funeral TrapDamian did not take Lily from the hospital.
He wanted them to believe he had.
When Beatrice and Mateo reached the private floor, they found three guards unconscious and Lily’s bed empty.
The stuffed rabbit lay on the pillow.
Beatrice grabbed it.
A note had been pinned to one ear.
PREPARE THE FUNERAL.
Then a small sound came from the bathroom.
“Bee?”
Beatrice ran inside.
Lily was hiding beneath the sink.
Damian had entered the room but fled when the hospital alarm activated. Lily had remembered what Beatrice taught her at the school.
Stay low.
Stay quiet.
Find a lock.
“I didn’t let him take me,” she whispered.
Beatrice held her.
“No, you didn’t.”
Leo woke later that afternoon.
His first words were not about pain, Damian, or his companies.
“Lily?”
“Safe,” Beatrice said.
His eyes found her.
“You?”
“Also safe.”
He tried to sit up.
The monitors protested.
“Damian was here.”
“He escaped.”
Leo closed his eyes.
“He will return.”
Mateo entered with Evelyn.
“We have roadblocks, airport checks, and every private investigator in the city looking for him.”
“He has survived this long because he knows our systems,” Leo said. “Stop using them.”
Beatrice looked at the note.
“Prepare the funeral.”
Leo followed her gaze.
“He believes the only way to take control now is to prove I cannot lead.”
“You are alive.”
“For the moment.”
A plan began to form.
It was dangerous.
Leo approved immediately.
Two days later, Rossi Maritime announced that Leo Rossi had died from complications following the warehouse shooting.
Chicago reacted before sunrise.
News vans gathered outside the estate. Business partners sent flowers. Enemies celebrated in private clubs.
A closed casket arrived beneath black umbrellas.
Leo watched his own funeral from a hidden room inside the mansion.
He was pale and weak, but standing.
“You should be in bed,” Beatrice said.
“I have attended worse meetings.”
“This is not a meeting.”
“No. Meetings usually have fewer flowers.”
Beatrice almost smiled.
The funeral reception filled the mansion with politicians, executives, socialites, and men who had feared Leo too much to look him in the eye while he lived.
Now they walked through his home like tourists.
Lily remained in the protected west wing with federal agents.
Only Beatrice, Mateo, Evelyn, and two doctors knew Leo was alive.
The plan was simple.
Damian needed access to Leo’s personal vault. After Leo’s death, a biometric lock would reset and allow the designated family successor to submit a claim.
Damian would come.
Victoria was moved from the hospital to federal custody that morning.
Her transport never arrived.
The vehicle was found abandoned under an overpass.
Beatrice learned this ten minutes before the funeral began.
“She is coming too,” she said.
Leo checked the weapon beneath his jacket.
“Victoria is unpredictable.”
“She will go after Lily.”
“She cannot reach the west wing.”
“She locked Lily in a cellar inside your guarded estate.”
Leo looked at her.
“You are right.”
Beatrice wore a dark blue dress borrowed from Evelyn. It was the first formal dress she had worn in years.
She felt exposed without her maid’s uniform.
Leo seemed to notice her discomfort.
“You look different.”
“Is that a polite way of saying enormous?”
His expression hardened.
“Do not speak about yourself the way Victoria did.”
The words startled her.
“I was joking.”
“No, you were repeating something taught to you.”
Beatrice looked down.
Leo stepped closer despite the pain in his side.
“You broke through a reinforced door. You carried my daughter through fire. You stood in front of armed men. Nothing about you should be made smaller.”
Before Beatrice could answer, Mateo’s voice sounded through the earpiece.
“Movement near the east corridor.”
The funeral guests gathered in the grand ballroom.
At seven fifteen, the lights flickered.
At seven sixteen, a security alarm sounded near the vault.
Damian had entered through an old wine-delivery tunnel.
Leo moved toward the hidden staircase.
Beatrice caught his arm.
“You cannot fight him in your condition.”
“I do not need to fight him.”
“You always think you need to fight everyone.”
“That is usually correct.”
A crash came from the west wing.
Beatrice’s heart stopped.
“Lily.”
She ran.
The federal agents outside Lily’s room were unconscious. The door stood open.
Inside, Victoria held Lily beside the window.
She wore a black dress and diamonds.
“You attended my funeral once,” Victoria said. “Now I am attending his.”
Lily struggled.
Victoria pressed a small blade against her coat.
“Let her go,” Beatrice said.
“You took my life.”
“You nearly took hers.”
“Leo was supposed to love me.”
“You cannot force love by hurting everyone who receives it.”
Victoria’s face twisted.
“You think he loves you?”
Beatrice remained silent.
Victoria laughed.
“You are a hiding place. A soft chair for his damaged daughter. When this is over, he will remember what you are.”
Beatrice stepped closer.
Lily looked at her.
Beatrice gave the smallest nod.
The child suddenly went limp.
Victoria lost her grip.
Lily dropped to the floor and crawled beneath the bed.
Beatrice charged.
Victoria swung the blade.
It cut Beatrice’s sleeve, but Beatrice caught her wrist and drove her backward into the wall.
Victoria clawed at her face.
“You disgusting animal!”
Beatrice held on.
Years of carrying laundry, lifting furniture, scrubbing floors, and moving through a world built without space for her had made her strong.
Victoria had never understood that.
Beatrice twisted the blade free.
Federal agents entered and restrained Victoria.
Lily ran into Beatrice’s arms.
“Daddy is alive,” she whispered.
Victoria froze.
“What?”
A gunshot sounded beneath them.
Leo.
Beatrice gave Lily to an agent.
“Stay here.”
She ran toward the vault.
Damian stood in the underground chamber with Mateo at gunpoint.
Leo faced him from the opposite side.
“You faked your death,” Damian said.
“You always believed funerals too easily.”
“You will not shoot me. Not while I hold him.”
Mateo’s face remained calm.
Leo’s hand was steady, but blood had begun soaking through the bandage beneath his shirt.
Damian saw it.
“You can barely stand.”
“I only need one shot.”
Damian backed toward the emergency exit.
Beatrice entered behind him.
He heard her and turned.
That was the mistake.
Mateo struck his weapon aside.
Leo fired.
The bullet hit Damian’s leg.
He fell, but rolled behind the vault door before anyone could reach him. He activated the emergency seal.
Steel separated the chamber.
An alarm sounded.
Damian’s voice came through the intercom.
“The vault tunnel leads to the river.”
Mateo tried the controls.
“He locked them.”
Leo leaned against the wall.
“Where does it exit?”
“Pier Seventeen.”
Beatrice remembered her father’s records.
“North Harbor.”
Damian’s voice returned.
“I left one final gift at the pier.”
A monitor activated.
It showed tanker trucks beside the river.
Explosive charges covered the nearest vehicle.
Hundreds of funeral guests remained inside the estate above them.
May you like
Damian laughed through the speaker.
“Come find me before Chicago watches the Rossi empire burn.”
