Chapter 8 - The Voice in the House.
Adrian’s voice sounded almost amused.
That made Luca more afraid than if he had been shouting.
“Open the front gate and come inside.”
A pause followed.
Then Adrian laughed through the intercom.
“I’m already inside.”
Elena looked toward the billiards room door.
Luca switched the television to the security grid.
Camera after camera showed empty hallways.
Then one feed flickered.
Adrian appeared in the grand foyer wearing a charcoal suit beneath a rain-darkened coat.
Two men stood behind him.
Luca recognized both as Galen Security contractors.
Maya moved closer to Luca’s chair.
Serena whispered.
“He found the maintenance entrance.”
Luca looked at her.
“You gave him that access.”
“I gave him everything he asked for.”
Her voice broke.
“That is why I know what he will do now.”
Adrian looked directly into the foyer camera.
“Luca, this can still end quietly.”
Luca pressed the intercom button.
“You tried to suffocate us.”
“I stopped a containment problem.”
“Maya is six years old.”
Adrian’s expression did not change.
“Then you should stop putting her in dangerous rooms.”
Luca felt Elena’s hand close protectively around Maya’s shoulder.
Adrian continued.
“You are sick, exhausted, and confused by incomplete records.”
Luca laughed once.
“You mean the records you forgot Claire kept?”
For the first time Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
That small reaction told Luca the archive mattered.
“Where is Claire?”
Adrian ignored the question.
“I’m asking you to think about the company.”
“There it is.”
Luca leaned closer to the intercom.
“The company.”
Adrian’s voice hardened.
“Thirty-two thousand employees depend on Moretti Biotech.”
“Then why did you hide a dangerous compound?”
“Because your father’s research division was hemorrhaging money and Claire Bennett confused experimental variance with scandal.”
Maya whispered.
“He’s lying.”
Adrian heard her through the microphone.
“I see Elena has turned the house into a daycare.”
Elena’s face flushed.
Luca replied.
“She did more to protect me than you did.”
“That maid has been stealing documents for months.”
Elena stiffened.
Luca looked at her.
Adrian saw the doubt immediately.
That was his real weapon.
Not locks.
Not contractors.
Division.
“Ask Elena why she kept Claire’s daughter hidden in your home.”
Luca did not take his eyes off Elena.
He had already wondered.
Elena swallowed.
“I was trying to keep her safe.”
Adrian’s voice came through the speaker.
“Or useful.”
Maya looked confused.
Elena shook her head.
“That is not true.”
Adrian continued.
“Claire gave Elena copies of research records before she disappeared.”
Luca’s gaze sharpened.
Elena closed her eyes.
There it was.
Another withheld truth.
“You have them?”
Elena whispered.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In the chapel wall.”
Serena stared at her.
“You had them this whole time?”
Elena’s fear turned briefly to anger.
“I had a daughter once.”
The room went quiet.
Elena explained that her daughter died years earlier after complications from an improperly tested medication.
She had taken the Moretti job because she needed work, but she never forgot what corporate silence could cost.
When Claire uncovered NVX-17, she trusted Elena precisely because Elena understood.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Elena looked at Luca.
“Because after the crash, you trusted Serena more than anyone.”
The truth hurt because it was fair.
“And because Claire told me not to give you anything until you started asking your own questions.”
Maya looked toward the door.
“My mom knew he would wake up.”
Luca felt the words differently now.
Not wake from sleep.
Wake from trust.
Adrian interrupted.
“How touching.”
His face disappeared from the foyer camera.
Luca switched feeds.
One Galen man headed toward the east wing.
The other moved toward the chapel corridor.
“They know where we’re going.”
Elena looked terrified.
Luca made a decision.
“We don’t go to the chapel.”
He told Elena to call two staff members he still trusted and send them toward the chapel from opposite directions.
Then he instructed Daniel, still listening by phone, to contact state investigators and transmit the archive copies immediately.
Daniel warned that local police might be slow because Galen Security had deep contracts with the county.
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“Then send everything to federal regulators and three journalists.”
Serena stared at him.
“You’ll destroy the company.”
“No.”
Luca met her eyes.
“I’ll find out whether it deserves to survive.”
They left the billiards room through a hidden service passage Luca had not used since childhood.
The passage led beneath the main staircase toward the chapel.
Halfway there, Maya stopped.
She pointed at a narrow storage door.
“My mom came through here once.”
Elena looked surprised.
“When?”
“The night she went away.”
Maya remembered hiding inside the laundry cart because Claire had told her they were leaving the mansion forever.
Before they reached the exit, two men confronted Claire near the storage door.
Maya had watched through a crack while her mother argued with one of them.
“Was it Adrian?”
Maya shook her head.
“No.”
“Marcus?”
“No.”
She looked at Serena.
“The man called you on the phone.”
Serena went still.
Maya continued.
“You came down here.”
Luca looked at Serena.
Her face collapsed.
“I can explain.”
Maya’s voice trembled.
“You told them to take my mom.”
Serena backed into the stone wall.
Luca felt the last fragile possibility of her innocence disappear.
Before anyone could speak, footsteps sounded at both ends of the passage.
They were trapped between Adrian’s men.
Serena reached for Luca’s wheelchair handles.
He spun the chair toward her.
“Don’t touch me.”
May you like
Her eyes flooded.
“If you want Maya alive, you have to let me.”
