Chapter 11 - THE CHAPEL BENEATH THE ESTATE
Lorenzo refused before I finished reading the note.
“You are not going.”
“She asked for me.”
“She chose you because she thinks your grief makes you easy to control.”
“She is holding a sick baby.”
“My son.”
“And I’m the reason she believes she can bargain.”
Detective Park unfolded a map of the Rossi estate. The family chapel stood beyond the vineyard, but old building plans showed a crypt and utility tunnel beneath it.
“We stage the exchange,” Park said. “Mara wears a wire. We place teams at both exits.”
Lorenzo’s jaw tightened. “No.”
Park looked at him. “You do not get to order this investigation.”
He turned to me. “You have already lost a child because of Bianca.”
“That is why I’m going.”
He stared at me for a long moment.
Then he nodded once.
At eleven fifty-eight, I walked alone through the chapel doors.
Rain tapped against the stained glass. Candles burned along the aisle, though no one had attended a service there in years.
Leo lay inside a travel crib near the altar.
Celeste stood beside him holding a syringe.
Bianca waited in the front pew.
“You came,” she said.
“Let me see him.”
“You are strangely attached to children who are not yours.”
I kept walking. “He needs to eat.”
“He needs you to cooperate.”
She placed a folder on the altar.
Inside was a sworn statement saying I had entered the nursery to abduct Leo, contaminated his food, planted the sedative, and manipulated Lorenzo using my recent loss.
“You want me to confess.”
“I want a believable ending.”
“And then?”
“You take the blame. Lorenzo’s custody is suspended. The trust protects Leo.”
“You mean controls him.”
Bianca smiled. “Control is protection when the alternative is chaos.”
Leo made a weak sound.
My body reacted before my mind. I stepped toward him.
Celeste lifted the syringe. “Stop.”
“What did you give him?”
“Nothing yet.”
“Yet?”
Bianca slid a pen across the altar. “Sign.”
I picked it up.
Celeste relaxed slightly.
That was all I needed.
I threw the pen at her face and rushed the crib.
She flinched. The syringe fell. I grabbed Leo and turned as Bianca pulled a gun from beneath her coat.
The chapel doors burst open.
Lorenzo entered with Detective Park and armed officers.
Bianca pressed the gun to Celeste’s neck instead of mine.
“Everyone back.”
Celeste began sobbing. “You said I would be protected.”
“You were useful,” Bianca said. “Do not confuse that with being valued.”
The words shattered whatever loyalty Celeste had left.
“She killed Sofia!” Celeste screamed. “Dr. Hale changed the medication, but Bianca gave the order.”
Bianca struck her with the gun.
Lorenzo took one step forward.
Bianca fired into the altar.
Wood splintered. Leo screamed against my chest.
Then the chapel floor trembled.
Smoke rose from the crypt stairs.
Bianca had set the tunnels on fire.
She backed toward the hidden passage with Celeste as a shield.
“You can save the evidence,” she told Lorenzo, “or you can save the child.”
May you like
Behind us, flames climbed the chapel wall.
And the only clear exit collapsed beneath falling beams.
