Chapter 8 - The Secret in the Walls
"Marco, get the emergency lights back online," I commanded, pulling my 9mm free and sweeping the barrel across the shadows. "Sweep the perimeter. Vance didn't come here alone; find his extraction route."
"Right away, boss," Marco panted, his heavy steps fading toward the security control terminal.
I holstered my weapon and dropped to one knee in the dark, extending my hands out. "Elena? Sophie? Are you alright?"
A small pair of arms suddenly wrapped tightly around my neck, trembling violently. It wasn't Elena—it was Sophie. The four-year-old buried her face in my shoulder, her yellow lace dress damp with cold sweat.
"The boxes are awake again," she whispered into my ear, her voice small and exhausted. "And the bad man dropped his book."
I frowned, standing up while holding Sophie securely against my chest. Elena rushed forward out of the dark, her hands shaking as she grabbed her daughter's arms, pulling her into a desperate embrace.
"Oh, thank God... thank God you're safe," Elena sobbed, kissing Sophie's forehead over and over again. "Mr. Moretti, I am so sorry... I didn't know she could do that... I swear I didn't know."
"It's alright, Elena," I said softly, resting a heavy hand on her shoulder. "You're safe now. Both of you."
As Marco flicked on the auxiliary wall lanterns, casting a warm, golden glow across the battered foyer, something caught my eye near the base of the grand staircase. Lying half-hidden beneath Vance's dropped silk scarf was a thick, leather-bound black notebook with gold leaf edges—a ledger Vance had evidently lost during his panicked flight.
May you like
I knelt down and picked it up, flipping open the cover.
Inside wasn't a standard financial manifest. It was a hand-drawn blueprint of the estate's foundational architecture, annotated with red ink pointing directly to a hidden chamber beneath the nursery floor—a chamber that didn't exist on any official Moretti blueprints.
