Chapter 4 - THE NIGHT THE WALLS TURNED AGAINST THEM
Vincent agreed to speak only with Marco.
Isold refused to leave Aurora alone.
They met in the mansion library while two disarmed guards watched from the doorway.
Vincent sat with his hands secured in front of him.
His confidence had returned.
“Gabriel is already coming,” he said.
Marco remained standing.
“For what?”
“Your daughter.”
Aurora’s fingers tightened around Isold’s hand.
Marco’s voice became dangerously soft.
“Choose your next words carefully.”
“Gabriel does not want to kill her. He wants leverage.”
“To take what?”
“Everything you control.”
Vincent described a plan scheduled for that night.
A medical emergency would be staged.
Aurora would appear to suffer respiratory distress.
A private ambulance would enter through the east gate.
The guards assigned there had already been paid.
Aurora would be moved to an airfield before Marco understood the ambulance never reached a hospital.
Gabriel would demand control of the Bellini companies and access to several hidden accounts.
Isold looked at Vincent.
“Why tell us now?”
“Because Gabriel ordered my death after the transfer.”
“You expected loyalty from him?” Marco asked.
“I expected payment.”
Marco laughed without humor.
“You sold my wife and daughter for money.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“Sofia would still be alive if she had stopped investigating.”
Marco crossed the room so quickly that the guards reacted too late.
He seized Vincent by the throat and drove him against the chair.
Isold gripped Marco’s arm.
“Let him speak.”
“He killed her.”
“He may know who else did.”
Marco’s breathing became violent.
Aurora stood from her chair.
“Papa.”
He looked toward her.
Her face was pale, but her voice remained steady.
“If you kill him, you choose your anger over me again.”
Marco released Vincent.
The security chief coughed and smiled.
“She controls you now.”
Marco wiped his hand against his suit.
“No. She reminded me that you are more useful alive.”
Isold contacted the federal agent who had received her evidence files.
Special Agent Claire Donnelly had investigated Gabriel Bellini’s financial network for three years.
She confirmed that law enforcement could prepare an operation around the expected kidnapping attempt.
Marco objected to bringing federal agents into his home.
Isold did not soften the truth.
“You cannot ask lawful protection for Aurora while expecting your own crimes to remain invisible.”
Marco looked at her.
“What exactly have you sent them?”
“Evidence concerning Sofia, Gabriel, Vincent, and the threat to Aurora.”
“What about me?”
“Only what was necessary to establish the structure around them.”
“That answer means yes.”
“You are not innocent.”
Aurora turned toward her father.
“What does she mean?”
Marco remained silent.
Aurora’s face hardened.
“Papa?”
He had spent years telling himself his businesses protected the family.
Some were legitimate.
Others moved illegal money, enforced debt through fear, and purchased silence.
He had never ordered harm against children.
He had still built the world that taught men like Gabriel and Vincent to treat people as assets.
“I have done things that may send me to prison,” he said.
Aurora’s breathing changed.
“You said everything was for me.”
“I lied to myself.”
“Did Mama know?”
“Yes.”
“Is that why she did not trust your guards?”
“Yes.”
Aurora released Isold’s hand.
She stood alone.
“What happens tonight?”
Marco answered carefully.
“We stop the men coming for you.”
“Then what?”
“I cooperate with the investigation.”
His attorney stared at him.
“Marco, do not make statements without counsel.”
Marco looked toward Daniel.
“You will arrange it properly.”
“You could lose the companies.”
“I could lose my daughter.”
Aurora’s chin trembled.
“You almost already did.”
At ten forty three, the east gate camera showed an ambulance approaching through heavy rain.
The driver transmitted the correct emergency code.
The paid guards opened the gate.
Inside the mansion, Aurora sat in the music room wearing the red dress.
A medical sensor beneath her collar made it appear that her heart rate was unstable.
Isold waited behind a column.
Marco stood in the dark hallway with federal agents positioned beyond sight.
The ambulance team entered carrying a stretcher.
One man reached for Aurora.
She stepped sideways.
His hand closed around empty air.
Aurora struck his wrist with the wooden baton.
The man shouted.
Isold emerged and drove him to the marble floor.
The second attacker drew a weapon.
Marco moved toward him.
An agent reached the man first and forced the gun away.
No shots were fired.
The paid guards surrendered.
Vincent attempted to escape through the servant corridor.
He found Agent Donnelly waiting at the exit.
Gabriel was not inside the ambulance.
He watched the failed operation remotely from a private aircraft preparing to leave a nearby airfield.
The evidence collected from the kidnappers identified the location.
Federal agents moved before the aircraft departed.
May you like
For the first time in six years, Gabriel Bellini was no longer protected by distance.
Continue to the next part: Gabriel’s arrest exposes the truth about Sofia’s death, but Marco learns that Isold hid one final secret involving Aurora’s blindness.
