Chapter 3 - The Secret Beneath the EstateLeo spent the next six hours tearing apart the past.
Documents.
Medical records.
Security files.
Bank transfers.
Every hidden account.
Every secret room.
Every forgotten name.
Beatrice watched from the doorway of his office.
She had never seen a man like him before.
Not because he was powerful.
Because for the first time, Leo looked afraid.
Not for himself.
For Lily.
“What happened to Maria?” Beatrice asked quietly.
Leo did not look up.
“She died in an explosion.”
“But you said the hospital record shows she was admitted after her funeral.”
“Yes.”
“Could someone have used her name?”
“They could have.”
His fingers stopped moving.
“They couldn't have used her fingerprints.”
Beatrice stepped closer.
“You found something?”
Leo pushed a file across the desk.
Inside was a medical record.
A woman named Maria Rossi.
Burn injuries.
Severe facial trauma.
Admitted under emergency protection.
Discharged six weeks later.
No death certificate.
No body.
No official identity verification.
Beatrice looked up.
“She survived.”
Leo stared at the page.
“Maybe.”
A knock came.
Mateo entered.
“We found something under the estate.”
Leo stood.
“What?”
“A tunnel.”
Silence.
Beatrice's stomach dropped.
“What kind of tunnel?”
Mateo looked at Leo.
“Old prohibition-era passage. Runs from the wine cellar to an abandoned building two blocks away.”
Leo's eyes narrowed.
“Why wasn't it on the blueprints?”
“Because someone removed it.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
Beatrice remembered the cellar.
The locked door.
Lily's wheezing.
Her blood ran cold.
“Someone could have entered the cellar through the tunnel.”
Leo looked at her.
“Yes.”
They went downstairs.
The wine cellar smelled of dust and old oak.
Beatrice stayed close to Lily's favorite lamp while Leo inspected the walls.
Mateo found the hidden mechanism.
A brick shifted.
Behind it was a narrow passage.
Dark.
Cold.
Leo entered first.
Beatrice followed.
The corridor ended beneath an abandoned tailor shop.
Inside, they found a metal table.
Old medical equipment.
Photographs.
Documents.
A child's bracelet.
Leo froze.
It was Lily's.
The bracelet she had worn as a baby.
He picked it up.
His hand shook.
Then he saw the photographs.
Dozens of them.
Lily sleeping.
Lily playing.
Lily walking beside Beatrice.
Lily entering school.
Someone had been watching her for years.
Beatrice's heart raced.
“Who would do this?”
Leo did not answer.
He looked through more photographs.
Then stopped.
One showed Maria.
Alive.
Standing beside Lily's crib.
On the back was a date.
Six years ago.
Three weeks after her supposed death.
Leo closed his eyes.
“She was alive.”
Beatrice touched his arm.
“Mr. Rossi…”
He pulled away.
Not angrily.
Emotionally.
“I buried an empty coffin.”
The words seemed to break something inside him.
Beatrice looked down.
There was another photograph.
Leo saw it too.
It showed Victoria.
But she was not alone.
Beside her stood Thomas Vale.
And beside Thomas stood a child.
A young boy.
Beatrice frowned.
“Who is that?”
Leo stared at the photo.
He knew.
His face became pale.
“That's my son.”
Beatrice blinked.
“Your son?”
“I don't have a son.”
The child in the photograph was around eight.
Dark hair.
Sharp eyes.
A tiny scar over the eyebrow.
He looked like Leo.
But Leo had been told the child had died at birth.
Beatrice looked at him.
“You had another child?”
Leo whispered, “No.”
Then a voice came from the dark passage behind them.
“Yes.”
Leo spun around.
Victoria stood there.
Her face was wet with tears.
She was holding a gun.
“I did.”
Everyone froze.
Victoria pointed the weapon at Leo.
“I gave your son to them.”
Beatrice stepped in front of Lily's photograph.
“What did you do?”
Victoria smiled.
May you like
And then the tunnel lights went out.
A gunshot exploded through the darkness.
