CHAPTER 2: THE SECRET BENEATH THE ESTATE The three knocks echoed through the underground passage. Then... Silence. No one moved. Even the guards seemed afraid to breathe. The sound hadn't come from the room behind us. It had come from somewhere deeper. Far below the foundations of the Valenti estate. Rinaldi slowly turned toward the darkness. "There shouldn't be anything beyond this tunnel." "There isn't," one guard whispered. "There wasn't." I looked at the fresh footprints disappearing into the shadows. Marco had known exactly where he was going. Which meant someone else knew these forgotten passages even better. I stood. "Take Elena upstairs." She was still unconscious, Sophie's tiny hand wrapped tightly around her mother's fingers. "No!" Sophie clung to Elena. "I don't want to leave Mommy." I crouched beside her. "You won't." "I promise." "You'll stay with her every second." She searched my face. Children always knew when adults lied. Finally... She nodded. "Okay." Two medics had just arrived with a stretcher. They carefully lifted Elena. As they carried her away, her fingers suddenly tightened around my sleeve. Her eyes fluttered open for only a second. "They're watching..." Then she slipped back into unconsciousness. Watching. Not waiting. Watching. I turned to my security team. "Seal every entrance to these tunnels." "What about the police?" Rinaldi asked. "Not yet." Several heads snapped toward me. Normally, any kidnapping would bring law enforcement immediately. But nothing about this was normal. Someone had erased Elena's disappearance from every report. Someone had installed a new steel door beneath my own mansion. Someone inside my household had been helping them. If the conspiracy reached this far... I had no idea how far above the estate it extended. Calling the police too early might only warn whoever was behind it. "We handle this first." No one argued. Except one voice. "You shouldn't." Everyone turned. The unconscious guard Marco had struck was beginning to wake. Blood trickled from the back of his head. He looked terrified. "Sir..." "What is it?" He swallowed. "I've seen that tunnel." "When?" "Last year." The corridor fell silent. "You never reported it?" "I... I signed a confidentiality agreement." My expression hardened. "With whom?" He hesitated. Then quietly answered. "Miss Celeste." Twenty minutes later... The mansion no longer felt like home. Every hallway seemed to hide another lie. The staff stood gathered in the grand hall. No phones. No conversations. No one allowed to leave. Celeste descended the staircase wearing a cream-colored silk dress. Perfect hair. Perfect posture. Perfect calm. As if she had simply awakened to another ordinary morning. She glanced toward the frightened employees. Then smiled gently at me. "I heard there was some excitement downstairs." Her voice never shook. Not once. I studied her carefully. Nothing. No panic. No surprise. No curiosity about Elena. Only calculation. "You knew Elena was alive." A tiny pause. "So she was found." Not relief. Confirmation. Sophie's frightened face flashed through my mind. Three nights. A little girl had cried herself to sleep while this woman calmly hosted charity lunches upstairs. I stepped closer. "Where is Marco?" "I have no idea." "You spoke to him yesterday." "I speak to many employees." "You ordered him to guard the western corridor." Her smile remained. "Did I?" She was good. Very good. Every answer revealed nothing while sounding perfectly reasonable. Most people would have stopped there. I wasn't most people. "You lied about Aunt Rosa." Her smile faded. Only slightly. "I don't know what you mean." "She's been dead for almost a year." Silence. "I misspoke." "No." I took another step. "You tested Sophie." She blinked once. "You wanted to know whether she remembered the conversation." Still silence. "You expected a five-year-old to repeat your lie." For the first time... Something cold appeared behind Celeste's elegant mask. "You seem unusually emotional today." "No." "I've simply run out of patience." The air between us tightened. Around us, every servant remained frozen. No one dared interrupt. Finally Celeste smiled again. Slowly. "Be careful, Adrian." The way she said my name sent ice through my veins. "You may discover things about your family that you aren't ready to hear." I stared at her. "What does that mean?" "You'll find out." Before I could respond... A scream erupted upstairs. High. Terrified. Sophie. I ran. The entire house exploded into motion. Two guards followed me. The others rushed toward the staircase. Sophie's bedroom door stood wide open. Inside... Everything had been destroyed. Furniture overturned. Drawers emptied. The mattress slashed open. Feathers floated through the air like falling snow. One nurse lay unconscious beside the crib. The medic assigned to Elena... Was gone. So was Elena. Sophie's rabbit lay on the floor. Covered in blood. Not much. Just enough. Sophie herself stood trembling in the corner. Unable to speak. I knelt immediately. "Are you hurt?" She shook her head violently. "They..." Her breathing became uneven. "They took Mommy again." Rage settled over me with terrifying clarity. Not hot. Cold. Precise. Someone had kidnapped a wounded woman from inside my own house. Surrounded by armed guards. There had been no alarm. No gunfire. No witnesses. Only impossible silence. Then Sophie whispered something so softly I almost missed it. "They left this." She opened her tiny hand. Inside rested a black chess piece. A king. Carved from obsidian. Its base carried a single silver engraving. A crown. And beneath it... One Latin sentence. Veritas Nunquam Sepulta. The truth is never buried. Rinaldi stared at it. His face turned white. "You've seen this before," I said. He didn't answer. "You have." Finally... He whispered, "My father told me never to speak that phrase." "Why?" "He said..." Rinaldi's hands began shaking. "...because everyone who searched for the truth beneath the Valenti estate..." He looked toward the basement door. "...disappeared." At that exact moment... The mansion's grandfather clock struck noon. One. Two. Three. ... Twelve. On the twelfth chime... Every security monitor in the estate suddenly switched on by itself. One hundred and twenty-seven cameras. Every screen. The same image. A masked figure sitting calmly in a wooden chair. Behind him... Elena. Still alive. Still tied. The figure slowly lifted a voice changer. Then spoke directly into the cameras. "Welcome home, Adrian." A pause. "You've opened the first door." Another pause. "But you've been living inside the lie..." His gloved hand gently rested on Elena's shoulder. "...for sixteen years." The screen flickered. Then one final sentence appeared in white letters across every monitor. IF YOU WANT HER ALIVE... COME ALONE. END OF CHAPTER 2

14 chapters