Chapter 7 - The Betrayal Inside the Mansion
"Put the gun down, Vincent."
Dante's voice was controlled.
Vincent shook his head.
"I can't."
"After fifteen years?"
"I have a family."
"So do I."
For a moment, the room became unbearably quiet.
Then Vincent's eyes shifted toward me.
"Give us the girl."
Dante moved in front of me.
"No."
Vincent sighed.
"You don't understand. Victor has already taken everything. The accounts, the warehouses, the council's support. He only needs Olivia."
"Why?"
"Because she's the last person who can prove Daniel was murdered."
My stomach tightened.
Dante glanced at the documents on the table.
"Where is the evidence?"
Vincent didn't answer.
Suddenly, Orion lunged.
His massive body struck Vincent's arm, sending the pistol sliding across the floor.
A second guard rushed into the room.
Dante grabbed Vincent and forced him against the wall.
"Who else is working for Victor?"
Vincent struggled.
"You can't stop him."
Dante's expression was frighteningly calm.
"Try me."
The guards secured Vincent and removed him from the room.
I was shaking.
Dante turned toward me.
"Are you hurt?"
I shook my head.
He reached for my shoulders, then stopped as if remembering that I might not want him touching me.
I stepped forward and hugged him.
For a moment, he stood completely still.
Then his arms came around me.
"Thank you," I whispered.
His voice was low.
"You shouldn't have had to experience this."
Later that evening, Dante revealed what Vincent had confessed.
Victor had arranged Daniel's murder and attempted to kill Isabella. My mother had managed to escape with me, but she had discovered evidence linking Victor to the crime.
She had hidden the original recording inside the Moretti estate.
The recording was made on the night Daniel disappeared.
And the only person who knew its exact location was someone who had worked in the estate for decades.
An elderly housekeeper named Margaret.
Dante arranged for her to be brought to the mansion.
When she arrived, she immediately recognized the locket around my neck.
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Little Isabella's girl."
I approached her.
"You knew my mother?"
Margaret nodded.
"She loved you more than anything."
"Why did she never tell me the truth?"
"Because she was afraid."
Margaret looked at Dante.
"Your uncle didn't just kill Daniel. He had help from someone inside this family."
Dante's expression darkened.
"Who?"
Margaret swallowed.
Then she whispered a name.
"Your mother."
I stepped backward.
"What?"
Margaret hurried to explain.
"Not Eleanor. Your biological mother. Isabella."
She revealed that Isabella had been forced to cooperate with Victor because he threatened to kill her infant daughter.
She had signed a false statement blaming Daniel for a crime he never committed.
But before she disappeared, she recorded a confession.
Margaret knew where it was hidden.
"In the nursery," she whispered. "Inside the little wooden horse."
The same rocking horse Orion had scratched beneath.
Dante immediately ordered his men to retrieve it.
But when they arrived at the old estate, the nursery was already empty.
The rocking horse was gone.
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And on the wall, someone had written a message in black paint:
COME ALONE, OR THE GIRL DIES.
