Chapter 13: The Second Ballroom War
No one breathed.
Vittorio held Emma against his chest.
Vanessa aimed at him.
Alessandro stood between them with empty hands.
“Give me the child,” he said.
Vittorio laughed.
“You sound like your father. He always believed children were sacred.”
“They are.”
“That belief made him weak.”
Emma looked at me.
She was terrified, but she remembered what I had taught her after the church kidnapping.
When frightened, count to three.
Find the nearest exit.
Wait for my signal.
I raised three fingers beside my skirt.
Emma saw them.
One.
Vanessa moved closer to Vittorio.
“You told me the child would be mine.”
“The baby will belong to the Moretti family.”
“I am the mother.”
“You are a container.”
Rage transformed Vanessa’s face.
Two.
Matteo crawled toward the fallen pistol near the terrace.
Daniel moved along the opposite wall.
Vittorio noticed neither of them.
Three.
I dropped to the floor.
Emma bit Vittorio’s hand.
He released her.
She ran.
Vanessa fired.
The bullet struck Vittorio in the chest.
Alessandro pulled Emma behind a marble column while Daniel tackled Vanessa.
The detonation device slid across the floor.
Matteo reached it first.
Vanessa kicked Daniel away and grabbed another gun from beneath her coat.
She aimed at me.
“You should have stayed invisible.”
A gunshot echoed through the ballroom.
Vanessa fell.
Marco Costa stood in the doorway, covered in blood and dust.
He had survived the tunnel collapse by entering an emergency maintenance shaft.
The bullet had struck Vanessa’s shoulder.
She remained conscious.
Police sirens surrounded the mansion.
Marco had secretly transmitted the entire confrontation to federal investigators.
Vittorio survived long enough to be arrested.
Vanessa was taken to the hospital in handcuffs.
Emma ran into my arms.
For several minutes, I could do nothing but hold her.
Then Daniel approached us.
Emma stared at him.
She had seen his photographs all her life, but photographs did not breathe.
“Are you my daddy?” she asked.
Daniel knelt.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come home?”
His face broke.
“Because I was afraid bad people would hurt you.”
Emma thought about his answer.
“Bad people hurt us anyway.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
She was only three, but she had spoken the truth none of us could avoid.
Later that night, federal agents opened the Harbor Ledger.
One document was missing.
The page containing the order for Daniel’s death.
May you like
Vanessa claimed Alessandro had removed it.
Then she produced a copy bearing Alessandro’s signature.
