Chapter 7 - THE PRICE OF LOYALTY
The phone slipped from my sweaty fingers and clattered onto the hardwood floor.
I couldn't breathe.
The walls of the safe house felt like they were closing in to crush me.
My mother.
She had just survived a brutal surgery. She was supposed to be safe in the recovery ward.
"Olivia, sweetheart?" Mrs. Carter asked, stepping out of the kitchen. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
I stared at her, my vision blurring with panicked tears.
I had a choice to make.
I could open the heavy steel door of the safe house, letting Salvatore's assassins inside to kill Luca's mother and the woman who raised him.
Or I could keep the door locked, and Salvatore would murder my own mother in cold blood.
The digital clock on the wall read 11:42 PM.
Fifty seconds left.
"Olivia?" Eleanor asked, sensing the sheer terror rolling off my body. "What is it?"
"Salvatore," I choked out, unable to lie to them. "He has my mother. He's outside. He says if I don't open the door..."
Mrs. Carter gasped, covering her mouth.
Eleanor Hayes didn't panic.
She had spent thirty-nine years hiding from monsters. She knew exactly what they looked like.
She walked over to me, her frail hands gripping my shoulders with surprising strength.
"Olivia, listen to me," Eleanor said, her dark eyes piercing mine. "You are not going to open that door. And your mother is not going to die."
"He'll kill her!" I sobbed.
"No, he won't," Eleanor said firmly. "Salvatore doesn't want your mother. He wants me. He's using her as a pawn because he knows he can't breach this house by force. He needs an invitation."
"What do we do?" Mrs. Carter asked, her voice shaking.
Eleanor looked around the secure foyer.
She spotted the intercom panel mounted next to the reinforced steel door.
She pressed the exterior speaker button.
"Salvatore," Eleanor's voice echoed out into the rainy street.
A moment later, Salvatore's voice crackled through the intercom, sounding surprised.
"Eleanor. It's been a long time. You've aged terribly."
"And you are still a coward," Eleanor replied smoothly. "Let the woman go. She has nothing to do with this."
"Open the door, Eleanor, and I'll consider it," Salvatore sneered.
"I have a better offer," she said.
Thirty seconds left.
"I am holding a detonator," Eleanor lied, her voice steady and convincing. "This safe house is rigged with C4, Salvatore. Giovanni built it for this exact scenario. If you attempt to breach that door, or if you harm that innocent woman, I will blow this entire block to ash. We all die tonight."
Silence stretched over the intercom.
My heart pounded so hard it hurt my ribs.
Salvatore was a psychopath, but he wasn't suicidal. He valued his own life above everything else.
"You're bluffing," Salvatore said, though his voice lacked its previous confidence.
"Am I?" Eleanor asked coldly. "Try me."
Ten seconds passed in agonizing silence.
Then, the sound of a heavy car door slamming echoed through the speaker.
Tires squealed as a vehicle sped away.
I looked at the security monitor.
The street was empty.
He was gone.
I collapsed against the wall, weeping with relief.
Eleanor hugged me tightly.
But my relief was short-lived.
The intercom crackled again, but this time, it wasn't Salvatore.
It was a weak, trembling voice.
"Olivia?"
I hit the button to activate the exterior camera.
Standing on the front steps, shivering in a hospital gown and a thin coat, was my mother.
He had dumped her on the curb.
I threw the deadbolts and ripped the door open.
My mother collapsed into my arms, sobbing.
I pulled her inside and locked the door behind us, holding her as tightly as I could.
"I'm here, Mom. You're safe," I cried.
Mrs. Carter rushed over with a blanket, wrapping it around my mother's frail shoulders.
We brought her into the living room and laid her on the sofa.
As I tucked the blanket around her, I noticed she was clutching something tightly in her fist.
"Mom?" I asked gently. "What's in your hand?"
She sniffled, slowly opening her fingers.
"The man in the car... he told me to give this to the old woman."
She held out a small, heavy brass key.
Mrs. Carter stared at it, her face draining of the little color it had left.
She reached out with a trembling hand and took the key.
"Oh, God," Mrs. Carter whispered.
"What is it?" Eleanor asked.
May you like
Mrs. Carter looked up, her eyes wide with terror.
"It's the key to the main breaker box at the Moretti estate."
