Chapter 5 - THE NIGHT THE ESTATE WENT DARK
Emergency lights glowed red along the hallway.
Matteo grabbed his radio.
“North gate.”
Static.
“North gate, respond.”
Nothing.
Lorenzo turned toward Nora.
“Where is the music box?”
“My room.”
“Matteo.”
“I’ll send men.”
“No.”
Nora grabbed Lorenzo’s arm.
“Not without me.”
His gray eyes dropped to her hand.
“This is not the time.”
“You don't know what it looks like.”
“Describe it.”
“Blue. Wooden. Painted stars.”
“Good.”
“No. Brody was paranoid. If something is hidden inside it, there may be a trick.”
Lorenzo stared.
Nora continued.
“And if your men smash it because they think they hear something loose, whatever is inside could be destroyed.”
Another explosion sounded outside.
Closer.
Lorenzo swore.
“Stay beside me.”
They moved through the servants’ hallway with Matteo and two guards.
The estate had become a different place in red emergency light.
Doors slammed.
Staff members shouted.
Somewhere glass shattered.
Nora held one hand beneath her belly as she hurried.
Lily kicked hard.
“Slow down,” Lorenzo said.
“If I slow down, you’ll carry me.”
“If necessary.”
“I weigh more than I look.”
“I’ll survive.”
Despite fear, she almost smiled.
They reached the staff wing.
Nora’s door was open.
She stopped.
“I closed that.”
Matteo moved first.
He checked the room.
“Clear.”
Nora entered.
Her mattress had been flipped.
Drawers emptied.
Clothes scattered.
Someone had searched the room.
“The music box.”
She moved to the closet.
Gone.
Nora’s heart sank.
“No.”
Lorenzo turned to Matteo.
“Seal the house.”
“Already trying.”
Nora searched desperately.
The box had been on the top shelf.
Then she remembered.
Three days earlier she had moved it.
Mrs. Gable had ordered a room inspection, and Nora feared the old woman would throw it out as clutter.
She had hidden it inside a sack of baby clothes beneath the bed.
The sack was still there.
Nora dropped to her knees.
Lorenzo immediately said, “Don’t.”
“I’m pregnant, not made of glass.”
“You’re six months pregnant in a house under attack.”
“Seven months next week.”
“That does not improve the sentence.”
She pulled out the bag.
The music box was inside.
“Found it.”
A gunshot cracked somewhere downstairs.
Lorenzo's expression changed.
“Give it to me.”
Nora held it.
“No.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“That is a terrible reason.”
“This belonged to Lily before she was even born.”
“Nora.”
She looked at him.
“Brody gave it to me.”
His face softened slightly.
“Then let me protect it.”
Something about that sentence made her trust him.
She handed it over.
Matteo spoke into his radio.
“This is Ricci. Report.”
Static.
Then a voice.
“South wall breached. Four intruders contained. Unknown number still outside.”
Lorenzo opened the music box.
A tiny ballerina rose.
The melody played.
Nothing unusual.
Nora reached over.
“Brody always turned the key twice before opening it.”
Lorenzo tried.
Nothing.
“Maybe I'm wrong.”
She took it.
Her finger found a tiny dent beneath the base.
She pressed.
A panel popped open.
Inside was a microSD card wrapped in plastic.
Matteo stared.
“Jesus.”
Nora whispered, “Brody.”
Lorenzo removed the card.
He handed it to Matteo.
“Secure it.”
Matteo tucked it into a case inside his vest.
Another voice came over the radio.
“Lorenzo, we have movement at the east wing.”
Everyone froze.
Giovanni.
Lorenzo turned.
“Papa.”
They ran.
Nora followed despite his order to stay behind.
Halfway up the stairs, pain tightened across her abdomen.
She stopped.
Not labor.
She told herself it was not labor.
Stress.
Exhaustion.
The baby.
“Nora?”
Lorenzo had turned back.
“I’m fine.”
“You're holding your stomach.”
“She kicked.”
He looked unconvinced.
“Go.”
They reached room 4B.
The door was open.
One guard lay unconscious in the hallway.
Nora’s blood ran cold.
Lorenzo entered with his weapon drawn.
Giovanni’s wheelchair was empty.
“No.”
The word came out of Lorenzo like something breaking.
Matteo checked the bathroom.
“Gone.”
A rear service door stood open.
Snow blew into the corridor.
Lorenzo stared outside.
Wheelchair tracks cut through the snow toward an old greenhouse passage.
“They took him.”
Nora shook her head.
“How could they move him that fast?”
“Service lift.”
Matteo grabbed his radio.
“Close east perimeter.”
A guard responded.
“East cameras are down.”
Lorenzo moved toward the passage.
Nora followed.
He turned.
“No.”
“Giovanni trusts me.”
“And that is why you stay here.”
“He may panic.”
“He survived five years unable to tell anyone he was being drugged. He will survive another five minutes.”
Nora stopped.
Lorenzo stepped closer.
“I cannot protect my father if I’m watching you too.”
The words stung.
Then she understood.
He wasn't dismissing her.
He was frightened.
For both of them.
Nora nodded.
“Bring him back.”
“I will.”
Lorenzo, Matteo, and the guards disappeared into the snow.
Nora stayed in room 4B.
For exactly forty-two seconds.
Then she heard something.
A low mechanical vibration beneath the floor.
She looked toward the old service elevator.
Giovanni had once pointed at it when she complained about Mrs. Gable.
At the time she thought he was indicating the laundry hall.
Now she wondered.
Nora approached.
The elevator doors were closed.
Beside them was an old brass panel.
One button.
BASEMENT.
She pressed it.
Nothing.
Then the doors opened.
Warm air rose from below.
Not cold.
Not outdoors.
Nora suddenly understood.
The wheelchair tracks outside were fake.
A diversion.
They had not taken Giovanni through the greenhouse passage.
They had taken him down.
She ran to the hallway.
“Help!”
No one answered.
The nearest guards had gone after Lorenzo.
Nora looked at the elevator.
Every sensible part of her brain said wait.
She thought of Giovanni alone.
Unable to shout.
Unable to fight.
She stepped inside.
The elevator descended.
The basement was dark.
Nora heard voices.
One belonged to Mrs. Gable.
She had escaped security.
Another was male.
“You should have killed him years ago.”
Nora froze behind the service door.
Mrs. Gable replied, “Marco wanted him alive.”
“Why?”
“Insurance against Lorenzo.”
Nora eased forward.
Giovanni sat in his wheelchair near the wine cellar.
A man stood behind him holding a pistol.
Mrs. Gable faced them.
Nora recognized the man from a framed security photo Lorenzo's staff had shown during the lockdown.
Calvin Ross.
Assistant groundskeeper.
He had worked at the estate for three years.
Another Bellanti infiltrator.
Mrs. Gable said, “Where is the card?”
Ross answered, “Not in her room.”
“Then she has it.”
Nora stepped backward.
A floorboard creaked.
Both heads turned.
Mrs. Gable smiled.
“There she is.”
Nora ran.
She reached the elevator.
The doors would not close.
Ross grabbed her from behind.
Nora screamed.
“Let me go!”
He twisted her arm.
Pain shot through her belly.
Then something warm ran down the inside of her leg.
She froze.
Not blood.
Water.
Her water had broken.
Mrs. Gable looked down.
“Oh, how inconvenient.”
Nora stared in horror.
“I’m only twenty-nine weeks.”
Ross dragged her toward the wine cellar.
Giovanni’s eyes widened.
His hand began shaking violently.
Mrs. Gable leaned close to Nora.
“Tell us where the ledger is.”
Nora could barely breathe.
“I don't know.”
“You found something.”
“No.”
Another contraction seized her.
She doubled over.
Ross almost dropped her.
Giovanni forced his hand off the wheelchair arm.
His finger struck a metal tray.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
Loud.
Mrs. Gable turned.
“Stop.”
Giovanni hit it harder.
Metal against metal.
Nora understood.
He wasn't panicking.
He was making noise.
Warning someone.
Mrs. Gable raised her hand and slapped him.
Nora screamed.
“Don't touch him!”
Giovanni's head snapped sideways.
Then a voice came from the stairwell.
Low.
Furious.
“Take your hand off my father.”
Lorenzo stood at the bottom of the stairs.
Behind him were Matteo and three armed men.
Mrs. Gable slowly turned.
Lorenzo saw the red mark on Giovanni’s face.
Then he saw Nora doubled over, water soaking the hem of her uniform.
His expression became something Nora would never forget.
“Matteo.”
One word.
Everyone moved.
Ross released Nora and reached for his gun.
He never got it clear.
Matteo tackled him against the wall.
The guards seized Mrs. Gable.
Lorenzo crossed directly to Nora.
“What happened?”
“My water.”
His face changed.
“No.”
“She’s too early,” Nora whispered.
Another contraction hit.
She grabbed his shirt.
“Lorenzo, she’s too early.”
For the first time that night, fear appeared naked on his face.
He lifted Nora into his arms.
“Then we get you to a doctor.”
“The roads—”
“I don’t care about the roads.”
“The storm—”
“I don’t care.”
He looked at Matteo.
“Bring my father.”
Then Lorenzo carried Nora toward the stairs as she clung to him.
Behind them, Giovanni watched.
His son had returned to save him.
May you like
But in that moment, Lorenzo Moretti was carrying the woman who had saved Giovanni first.
And upstairs, the storm had become so severe that even the Moretti helicopters could no longer fly.
