Chapter 5 - THE OLD WINE CELLAR
The walls of my tiny bedroom felt like they were shrinking.
“My mother was a Romano?” I repeated, the words tasting like ash in my mouth.
“Elias Romano had an affair thirty years ago,” Mrs. Rossi explained quickly, her fingers frantically working the beads of her rosary. “When the baby was born, he paid her off and forced her into hiding. That baby was your mother.”
It all made terrible, violent sense.
Answer One: Victoria’s family killed my mother not because she was a nurse who saw too much, but to wipe out a rival bloodline.
Answer Two: They brought me into this house to eventually force me to open the biometric vault, before disposing of me too.
“We have to tell Alessandro,” I said, rushing toward the door.
Mrs. Rossi grabbed my arm. Her grip was surprisingly strong.
“No!” she hissed. “You can’t trust anyone. Not even Alessandro. If he finds out you have a legitimate claim to his empire, he might kill you himself. The mafia does not share power, Clara.”
I ripped my arm away.
“He isn’t like Lorenzo,” I defended, thinking of the way Alessandro had knelt in the spilled cream to comfort his daughter.
“You are naïve!” Mrs. Rossi cried.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from the hallway outside.
Gunfire.
The heavy, rhythmic thud of automatic weapons tore through the silence of the estate.
Someone screamed.
“They’re inside the house,” Mrs. Rossi gasped, her face draining of color. “Lorenzo’s men.”
Open One: How did Lorenzo bypass the estate’s massive security detail?
Open Two: Where were Alessandro and Sofia?
“I have to find Sofia,” I said, ignoring my own terror.
“You have to run!” Mrs. Rossi argued. “Take the iron key. Go to the old wine cellar. There is a tunnel behind the empty casks that leads to the woods. Go!”
She shoved me toward the servant’s staircase.
“What about you?” I asked.
Mrs. Rossi stood tall, gripping her rosary. “I have been a coward for five years. I will not be a coward tonight.”
She turned and locked the bedroom door behind me, trapping herself in the hallway to buy me time.
I didn’t wait. I ran.
I sprinted down the narrow, dimly lit servant stairs, my apron tearing against the brick walls. The sound of gunfire echoed from the floor above.
Lorenzo wasn’t just trying to kill me. He was staging a coup. He was wiping out Alessandro’s loyalists to take the throne.
I reached the basement. It smelled of damp earth and old cork.
The old wine cellar was massive, filled with rows of dusty, forgotten bottles.
I gripped the heavy iron key tightly in my fist, using it as a makeshift weapon. I navigated the dark aisles, looking for the empty casks Mrs. Rossi mentioned.
I found them in the far corner. A row of massive oak barrels.
I slipped behind the largest one.
There, hidden in the stone wall, was a heavy iron door.
I slid the iron key into the lock. It turned with a loud, rusty click.
I pulled the door open, expecting a tunnel leading to the woods.
Instead, the door revealed a small, brightly lit concrete room.
It wasn’t a tunnel. It was the vault.
Reversal: Mrs. Rossi hadn’t sent me to escape. She had sent me directly into the vault room.
She had set me up.
Before I could back away, a hand shot out from the darkness behind me and grabbed my hair.
I screamed as I was violently thrown into the concrete room.
I hit the floor hard, scraping my knees and dropping the iron key.
I scrambled backward, looking up at the doorway.
Standing there, wearing a tailored black suit and a cruel smile, was Lorenzo Romano.
He was holding a suppressed pistol in one hand.
In the other hand, he held Sofia.
The little girl was crying silently, Lorenzo’s large hand gripping her small shoulder.
May you like
“Hello, Clara,” Lorenzo said smoothly.
Cliffhanger: He stepped into the vault, dragging Sofia with him, and kicked the heavy iron door shut. The lock engaged with a sickening thud, trapping all three of us inside.
