Chapter 5 - THE COAT CLOSET
"Don't do it, Emily!" Anthony managed to choke out from the hallway before another sickening thud silenced him.
I stood frozen against the bedroom wall, my heart hammering so violently it felt like it might break my ribs. I held Leo tightly against my chest. He was trembling, his small fingers digging into my apron.
"I'm going to count to three, Emily," Daniel’s voice came through the heavy oak door. His tone was eerily conversational, like a man ordering a cup of coffee. "One."
My eyes darted around Luca's massive master suite. The windows were too high—a three-story drop to the stone patio below. The hidden passageway we used to enter the room was locked from the study side. We were trapped.
"Two."
Think. Think.
I looked at the massive walk-in closet to my left. Luca’s winter coats. Heavy wool, leather, cashmere. A fortress of thick fabric.
"Come on, sweetie," I whispered to Leo, scooping him up into my arms. Despite the searing pain in my injured right hand, adrenaline gave me the strength to carry him.
"Three."
A deafening gunshot shattered the quiet of the mansion.
The doorknob exploded in a spray of splintered wood and twisted metal. I threw myself into the dark walk-in closet just as the heavy oak doors were kicked open.
I crouched in the very back corner of the closet, pulling two heavy, floor-length cashmere overcoats down from their hangers to completely cover Leo and me. The darkness was absolute. The smell of cedar and Luca’s cologne was overwhelming.
"Keep your eyes closed. Don't make a sound," I breathed into Leo’s ear. He nodded against my shoulder, squeezing his eyes shut.
Footsteps entered the bedroom. Slow, deliberate crunches on the hardwood floor over the debris of the door.
"Where did she go?" Vanessa's voice was a frantic, terrified whisper.
"Shut up and check the bathroom," Daniel ordered.
Through a tiny gap in the hanging coats, I saw the beam of a flashlight sweep across the bedroom ceiling. The estate's power had been cut. Daniel had plunged the entire mansion into darkness to isolate us.
I heard Vanessa’s high heels clicking toward the en-suite bathroom. "Empty," she called out, her voice cracking.
"Then they're in the closet," Daniel said.
His heavy boots walked slowly toward our hiding place. The beam of the flashlight pierced the darkness of the closet, slicing through the hanging suits and jackets.
My good hand desperately searched the floor around us in the dark. I needed a weapon. A shoe, an umbrella, anything. My fingers brushed against something hard and cold on the floorboards.
A heavy, solid brass shoehorn. It was two feet long and weighed at least three pounds.
I gripped it tightly.
Daniel was standing right outside our rack of coats. I could hear his breathing. He reached out, his hand grasping the sleeve of the coat hiding us.
He was going to pull it back.
But before he could, a loud, frantic voice echoed from the hallway.
"Daniel! The bunker is breached! Moretti is out!"
Daniel froze. He dropped the coat sleeve. "Damn it," he hissed. "Vanessa, stay here. Find the girl and the boy. If you don't have them when I get back, your son dies tonight."
Daniel's heavy footsteps sprinted out of the bedroom, leaving Vanessa alone in the dark.
I waited. One minute. Two minutes. The silence in the bedroom was suffocating.
Slowly, Vanessa’s footsteps approached the closet. She didn't have the flashlight. She was walking by the dim moonlight filtering through the bedroom windows.
She stopped right in front of the coats hiding us.
"Emily," Vanessa whispered into the darkness. "I know you're in here."
I didn't move. I tightened my grip on the brass shoehorn.
"Emily, please," Vanessa sobbed softly, sinking to her knees right outside the coats. "You have to give me Leo. Daniel and Julian need a hostage to keep Luca from slaughtering them before the ceremony. If I give them Leo, they'll give me my son back."
The sheer audacity of her request made my blood boil. The reversal of her character was complete—she was no longer a villain acting out of malice, but a desperate animal willing to sacrifice an innocent child to save her own.
"You want me to trade one little boy for another?" I whispered from the darkness, not pulling the coats back.
Vanessa jumped at the sound of my voice. "Yes! Luca will get Leo back, eventually. He has the money, the power! But Julian will kill my baby, Emily! He'll kill him!"
"Leo's parents are dead, Vanessa," I said coldly. "Luca is all he has. If you take this boy to Julian, he will never come back."
Suddenly, Vanessa lunged forward, tearing the heavy cashmere coats away.
The moonlight hit her face. Her makeup was streaked with tears, her eyes wild and manic. She reached out, her manicured hands grabbing for Leo.
"Give him to me!" she shrieked.
I didn't hesitate. I swung the heavy brass shoehorn upward with my good hand.
It connected sharply with Vanessa’s wrist. She screamed, stumbling backward, clutching her arm.
I pushed past her, dragging Leo out of the closet. We burst into the bedroom.
Anthony Mercer was lying on the floor near the doorway, bleeding heavily from a wound on his forehead, but he was breathing.
"Go," Anthony groaned, clutching his head. "The servants' stairs... go..."
I scooped Leo up and ran for the hallway.
But as I reached the door, a massive figure stepped out of the shadows, blocking our path entirely.
The moonlight caught the deep, jagged scar cutting through his left eyebrow.
Julian Rossi.
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He looked down at me, a cruel, mocking smile playing on his lips. In his hand, he held the delicate, cheap silver bracelet my mother had given me—the one I had left on my nightstand in the servants' quarters.
"You're very brave for a maid, Emily," Julian purred, his voice like grinding stones. "But Luca has always had a weakness for strays. Let's see what he's willing to trade for you."
