CHAPTER NINE The Lullaby in the Dark
The mansion disappeared into darkness.
Not the soft darkness of a room with the lights off.
This was absolute.
The kind that swallowed walls, erased faces, and turned every breath into a question.
For one heartbeat...
No one moved.
Then panic erupted.
Someone screamed.
A champagne glass shattered somewhere down the corridor.
Another guest shouted for security.
Emma buried her face against my neck, her small hands gripping my uniform so tightly I could feel them trembling.
The lullaby continued.
Soft.
Slow.
A child's melody.
It echoed through the mansion as if the walls themselves were humming.
"Flashlights."
Alessandro's voice sliced through the chaos.
Immediately, several security guards switched on tactical flashlights.
Thin white beams cut through the darkness.
The room emerged in fragments.
A frightened senator.
The family lawyer clutching his briefcase.
Vanessa standing perfectly still, her face ghostly pale.
Marco...
Gone.
Alessandro noticed first.
"Where's Bellini?"
The two guards assigned to him froze.
"He..."
One of them looked horrified.
"He was right beside us."
"And now?"
The guard slowly shook his head.
"He's gone."
No broken window.
No forced door.
No struggle.
A man under armed escort had simply...
Vanished.
The emergency lights flickered to life.
Dim red bulbs cast long shadows across the corridors.
Enough to see.
Not enough to feel safe.
A radio crackled.
"Power room secure."
Another voice answered.
"No signs of sabotage."
A third interrupted.
"Negative."
"The backup generators are missing."
Silence.
"Missing?"
"Someone removed both generator control modules."
That wasn't sabotage.
It was preparation.
Someone had expected this exact moment.
The lullaby stopped.
Every person in the hallway instinctively held their breath.
Then...
A single piano note echoed from somewhere above.
Emma whispered.
"That's him."
I looked down.
"The piano man?"
She nodded.
"He's waiting."
Alessandro turned toward the grand staircase.
"Music room."
A security captain hesitated.
"Sir..."
"The nursery is in the east wing."
"The music room is west."
"I know."
Alessandro's eyes never left the staircase.
"He wants us to choose."
The sentence lingered in the air.
Two destinations.
One trap.
Sophia stepped beside him.
"Split the teams."
Alessandro shook his head immediately.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because that's exactly what I'd do."
He looked around at everyone.
"If someone is controlling this house..."
"They already know where we'll go."
A long silence followed.
Then he made his decision.
"Everyone stays together."
We climbed the staircase.
The piano played again.
One note.
Then another.
Not a melody.
A pattern.
Sophia suddenly stopped.
"I know this."
Alessandro looked at her.
"What?"
"It's..."
She frowned.
"...Morse code."
The family lawyer blinked.
"You're certain?"
She listened carefully.
Dot.
Dash.
Pause.
Dot.
Her expression slowly changed.
"It says..."
She swallowed.
"'Wrong way.'"
A cold wave passed through the group.
Someone was using the piano...
To communicate.
Alessandro ignored the message.
"Keep moving."
No one argued.
The west corridor stretched ahead like a tunnel.
Portraits of long-dead Moretti ancestors watched silently from the walls.
The air felt colder.
The music grew louder.
Emma suddenly lifted her head.
"Mama."
"What?"
"He isn't alone."
My pulse quickened.
"Who else is there?"
She listened.
"The lady."
"What lady?"
"The one who cries."
I looked around.
Nothing.
Only shadows.
The doors to the music room stood half-open.
One security officer approached carefully.
Weapon drawn.
He pushed the door wider.
The piano played one final chord.
Then stopped.
The room was empty.
The grand piano sat in the center.
Its lid open.
One candle burned beside it.
No pianist.
No cane.
No old man.
Nothing.
"Clear."
The guards spread through the room.
Behind curtains.
Inside storage cabinets.
Under the stage platform.
Nothing.
Alessandro walked toward the piano.
A single sheet of music rested on the stand.
He picked it up.
Blank.
Completely blank.
Then he turned it over.
One sentence had been handwritten across the back.
YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE TO THE NURSERY.
Every face changed.
Alessandro spun toward the door.
"Move!"
They ran.
This time panic wasn't hidden.
It thundered through the hallways.
By the time we reached the east wing...
Smoke was already pouring beneath the nursery door.
"My God..."
Someone shouted.
"Fire!"
Guards kicked the door open.
Heat exploded into the hallway.
Inside...
The beautifully decorated nursery was burning.
White curtains.
A handcrafted crib.
Stuffed animals.
Everything engulfed in orange flames.
Fire suppression sprinklers activated overhead.
Water rained down.
But someone had used an accelerant.
The flames spread unnaturally fast.
Two firefighters from the estate rushed inside wearing breathing masks.
Within seconds, one of them shouted.
"We found something!"
He emerged carrying a scorched metal box.
Still locked.
The fire had blackened its surface.
But the engraving remained visible.
MORETTI FAMILY ARCHIVE
Alessandro took the box.
"It's hot."
"I know."
He wrapped it in a soaked blanket.
The lock had melted.
He forced it open.
Inside...
Not documents.
Not jewelry.
Not cash.
Only one photograph.
The edges were burned.
The image barely survived.
A much younger Sophia Moretti stood beside another woman.
Both smiling.
Both visibly pregnant.
Sophia stared at the photograph as though she'd seen a ghost.
Alessandro looked at her.
"Who is she?"
Sophia didn't answer.
Her hands began to shake.
For the first time that night...
Not subtly.
Violently.
Then she whispered a name.
"Elena..."
Daniel Ross looked at the photograph.
His face lost every trace of color.
He staggered backward.
"No..."
He whispered.
"She was real."
Alessandro turned sharply.
"What do you mean?"
Daniel looked from the photograph...
To Emma...
Then finally to me.
His lips trembled.
"I thought they killed her entire family."
The room became perfectly silent.
Then Daniel uttered the sentence that made my blood turn to ice.
May you like
"...Who is Emma's father?"
End of Chapter Nine
