Chapter 5 - My Uncle Threatened My Mother's Life—But He Didn't Know I Had Already Discovered the Secret Room Beneath His HouseI refused to give Leo to Salvatore.
He gave me six hours.
I used those six hours to dismantle his operation.
Marcus traced his communications.
My father identified his safe houses.
Clara decoded Isabella's files.
By 4:00 a.m., we had twelve locations.
By 5:00, we found my mother.
Alive.
Terrified.
But alive.
She had been held in an abandoned property outside Boston.
When I entered the room, she looked at me.
Then she looked at my father.
She cried.
“You're alive.”
He nodded.
She slapped him.
Hard.
“You let me mourn you.”
“I had no choice.”
“You always had a choice.”
I stepped between them.
“Enough.”
My mother looked at me.
“Lorenzo, Salvatore isn't acting alone.”
“Who?”
She looked toward Clara.
“Her.”
Clara froze.
“What?”
My mother pointed at her.
“She was in the house the night Isabella died.”
Clara's face drained of color.
“I was.”
My mother continued.
“She wasn't a maid.”
Silence.
I looked at Clara.
“What are you?”
Clara took a slow breath.
“My sister worked for Salvatore.”
My gun lifted.
She didn't move.
“She was ordered to poison Leo.”
My heart stopped.
“But she refused.”
“What happened?”
“She was killed.”
Clara wiped her eyes.
“I came here to find out who ordered it.”
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if I told you who I was, you wouldn't trust me.”
“And now?”
“I don't know.”
My mother stared at her.
“She saved Leo.”
“Yes.”
“She protected Isabella.”
“Yes.”
Then my mother said something that shocked me.
“She's telling the truth.”
I lowered my gun.
My mother explained that Isabella had known Clara's real identity.
She had hired her intentionally.
The maid uniform had been part of the disguise.
Clara wasn't there to clean.
She was there to watch.
To protect.
To investigate.
My wife had trusted her.
That mattered.
Then Marcus entered.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We found Salvatore's main property.”
“Where?”
He handed me an address.
I recognized it.
The mansion had belonged to my grandfather.
It had been abandoned for decades.
We went there immediately.
Inside, everything looked untouched.
Dust.
Old furniture.
Broken windows.
Then we found the basement.
A steel door.
Behind it was a surveillance room.
Hundreds of monitors.
Photographs.
Documents.
My entire family had been watched.
My mother.
My father.
Matteo.
Isabella.
Me.
And Leo.
One screen showed the nursery.
Live.
I stared.
Someone was watching my son right now.
Marcus traced the signal.
“It comes from inside the mansion.”
I froze.
We returned.
The nursery camera was hidden inside a toy.
I destroyed it.
Then a message appeared on the monitor.
YOU'RE TOO LATE.
The screen went black.
A second message appeared.
THE BABY IS ALREADY MINE.
I ran to the nursery.
Leo was gone.
The crib was empty.
Clara screamed.
“No!”
I turned.
She was holding a small blanket.
Her face had gone white.
Then I heard something.
A cry.
Not from the nursery.
From the wall.
We tore open the panel.
A hidden passage.
Someone had taken Leo through it.
I ran into the darkness.
May you like
And at the end of the passage, I saw a man carrying my son.
Salvatore.
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