Chapter 3 - The Secret Beneath the Mansion
Darkness swallowed the room.
For three seconds nobody moved.
Then an alarm screamed through the mansion.
Marco reached for Vanessa.
She kicked the device beneath the desk and ran.
Luca caught her before she reached the door.
He grabbed her wrist.
“Where is my mother?”
Vanessa stopped fighting.
“You're too late.”
Luca's voice became dangerously quiet.
“Explain.”
“She already told someone else.”
“Who?”
Vanessa looked at me.
Then she smiled.
“Ask Sophie.”
I felt the blood drain from my face.
“I don't know anything.”
Vanessa laughed.
“That's what your mother said.”
Luca tightened his grip.
“My mother is alive.”
“For now.”
He shoved her against the wall.
“Where?”
Vanessa finally broke.
“Under the house.”
Everyone froze.
“What?”
“She discovered the tunnel.”
Luca's expression changed.
“The old tunnel?”
“Yes.”
“The one my father built?”
Vanessa nodded.
“Your father didn't build it.”
Luca released her.
“What do you mean?”
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
“He inherited it.”
From where?
I didn't ask aloud.
Luca did.
“From whom?”
Vanessa looked at me.
“Her.”
I felt dizzy.
“Who?”
“Your mother.”
The words made no sense.
“My mother never had anything to do with this family.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“She did twenty-nine years ago.”
Marco restored emergency lighting.
Luca turned toward him.
“Search the tunnels.”
Marco nodded.
Vanessa laughed again.
“You'll never find her.”
“Why?”
“Because there are three entrances.”
“And you know where they are?”
“I know where one is.”
“Tell me.”
Vanessa leaned close to him.
“The one beneath the chapel.”
Luca's eyes narrowed.
“There is no chapel.”
“Exactly.”
We followed him through the mansion.
Past the library.
Down a narrow staircase.
Behind a hidden panel stood an old stone corridor.
I had worked in the mansion for eleven months.
I had never known it existed.
The air smelled of damp earth.
Luca took a flashlight.
Marco moved ahead.
I followed.
After fifty yards, we found a wooden door.
Behind it was a chamber filled with boxes.
Old photographs.
Medical records.
Bank ledgers.
And newspaper clippings.
Someone had been hiding a history down there.
Luca searched rapidly.
Then stopped.
He picked up a newspaper.
The headline read:
LOCAL WOMAN VANISHES AFTER BABY'S DISAPPEARANCE.
My mother's name was beneath it.
Sophie Bennett had never known that her mother had been reported missing.
I looked at Luca.
“What is this?”
He handed me a file.
Inside was a hospital record.
Mother: Eleanor Bennett.
Child: Female.
Status: Transferred.
Transfer authorized by: R. Moretti.
I stared.
“R. Moretti?”
“My father's name.”
“Why would your father have my mother's medical records?”
“I don't know.”
Then I saw a second document.
An adoption agreement.
The name of the infant had been scratched out.
But beneath the ink, barely visible, was another word.
Sophie.
My knees nearly gave out.
Luca caught me.
“I’m sorry.”
I pulled away.
“Don't.”
“Sophie.”
“I don't want your pity.”
“It's not pity.”
“Then what is it?”
His eyes met mine.
“I'm trying to understand how your life became connected to mine.”
A sound came from deeper inside the tunnel.
A cry.
We ran.
At the end of the corridor was a locked iron gate.
Behind it, someone was calling.
“Luca!”
His mother's voice.
Luca broke the lock.
Mrs. Moretti sat against the wall, shaken but alive.
He dropped to his knees beside her.
“Mom.”
She touched his face.
“I knew you'd come.”
I stood several feet away.
She looked at me.
“Bring her here.”
I approached slowly.
Mrs. Moretti reached for my hand.
“Your mother saved my life.”
I couldn't speak.
“Twenty-nine years ago,” she continued, “your mother worked at the hospital where Luca was born.”
Luca looked stunned.
“I was born there?”
“Yes.”
His mother looked at him.
“Your father was already involved in criminal business. He wanted an heir he could control. When I discovered he intended to use our family as a front for a much larger organization, I tried to leave.”
“And Eleanor?”
“She helped me.”
The tunnel seemed to disappear around us.
“She was my friend.”
“Why didn't I know?”
“Because your father threatened to kill both of us.”
Mrs. Moretti looked at me.
“He took your mother’s newborn daughter.”
My breath caught.
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“He said the baby could be used as leverage.”
Luca's jaw clenched.
“But you got her back.”
“No.”
Mrs. Moretti closed her eyes.
“Eleanor did.”
She explained that my mother had managed to steal me from a private room and hide me with a nurse.
But before she could escape, Luca's father discovered what happened.
Eleanor disappeared.
The nurse was murdered.
And the records were altered.
“Then how did I survive?”
“A woman named Clara Bennett took you.”
“My aunt?”
Mrs. Moretti nodded.
“She changed your surname.”
I felt tears burn my eyes.
“Why didn't anyone tell me?”
“Because the people who knew the truth were being hunted.”
Luca looked at his mother.
“Vanessa knew?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Mrs. Moretti hesitated.
“Because she was there.”
A cold silence fell.
“Where?”
“At the hospital.”
Luca's face hardened.
“She was a nurse?”
Mrs. Moretti nodded.
“She was part of your father's organization.”
Suddenly every lie made sense.
Vanessa had not entered Luca's life by accident.
She had waited.
She had studied the family.
She had learned the secrets.
And she had been getting closer to the truth for years.
But there was still something neither of us understood.
Why did she want me alive?
Mrs. Moretti reached into her coat and pulled out a small key.
“Because your mother left something for you.”
She placed it in my palm.
A silver key.
“What does it open?”
“The last room in the house.”
Luca frowned.
“There is no last room.”
“There is.”
His mother looked at him.
“Your father built it for one purpose.”
“What purpose?”
“To hide the evidence that could destroy everyone.”
The tunnel walls suddenly shook.
A distant explosion thundered through the house.
Marco rushed in.
“Boss!”
“What happened?”
“The mansion's west wing is on fire.”
Luca stood.
Mrs. Moretti gripped his arm.
“Don't go there.”
“Why?”
“Because Vanessa wanted you to.”
Luca looked at her.
His mother whispered:
May you like
“She never wanted to steal the wheelchair.”
“She wanted everyone to see Sophie holding it.”
