Chapter 7 - Ten Minutes to Midnight.
Luca ended the call before Victoria could speak again.
"We are not trading Noah."
Emily nodded immediately.
"Then how do we save Naomi?"
Luca looked at the black ledger.
"We give Victoria what she thinks is the ledger."
Thomas opened the trunk and removed a portable scanner, an old habit from years of transporting Cafalli documents.
They copied the visible pages and placed them inside a similar black binder.
Luca kept the original beneath his shirt.
Dr. Pierce remained with Noah in the secure garage while Thomas drove Luca and Emily back toward the East River.
"You should stay with the baby," Luca told her.
"Victoria knows my face."
"Exactly."
"And she knows I will never willingly leave him."
Emily met his eyes.
"That makes me useful."
The townhouse block had been cleared of police cars by the time they returned.
That frightened Luca more than the earlier lights.
Someone had enough influence to create a police scene and erase it minutes later.
The townhouse door opened before they knocked.
Marcus Vale stood inside.
"Right on time."
Luca handed him the copied ledger.
Marcus searched him quickly but missed the original hidden beneath a reinforced lining in Luca's shirt.
Emily was taken to the drawing room.
Naomi sat tied to a chair near the fireplace.
Victoria stood beside a silver tea service as though she were hosting a family reception.
"Where is the child?"
"Safe."
Victoria smiled.
"You always did mistake stubbornness for courage."
Luca looked at Naomi.
"Release her."
"After I verify the ledger."
Victoria opened the binder.
Her smile disappeared within seconds.
"This is a copy."
Marcus struck Luca across the shoulder and forced him to his knees.
Emily lunged forward, but another guard blocked her.
Victoria walked slowly toward Luca.
"Your father made the same mistake."
"Trusting you?"
"Believing evidence mattered more than power."
Luca looked up at her.
"Did you kill Gabriel?"
For the first time, Victoria's expression changed.
Emily saw it.
So did Naomi.
"Gabriel was reckless."
"That is not an answer."
"His car should never have been on that road."
Luca's hands clenched.
Victoria leaned closer.
"And your father should never have tried to dismantle what built this family."
Naomi suddenly kicked the tea table.
Hot water and porcelain crashed across the floor.
Emily shoved the distracted guard into Marcus.
Luca drove his shoulder into Marcus and broke free.
For several chaotic seconds, the elegant room became a maze of overturned furniture and shouting men.
Thomas, waiting outside, triggered the townhouse fire alarm remotely.
Sprinklers erupted overhead.
Luca cut Naomi's restraints with a broken piece of metal from the tea cart.
"Back door. Now."
They ran through the kitchen toward the alley.
Victoria shouted after them.
"You cannot protect that child from his own blood!"
Emily reached the rear door first.
Then her phone vibrated.
A live camera image filled the screen.
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Dr. Pierce's secure garage was empty.
Noah was gone.
