Chapter 6 - THE SHADOW MASTER
Valeria grabbed the ringing phone from the ground, pressing it to her ear without saying a word. She hit the speaker button so I could hear.
A voice came through the speaker—smooth, refined, completely devoid of panic.
"Vivian, I assume by the lack of noise that Ricci is dead and Valeria has made her appearance?" the voice said.
I gasped. It wasn't Alessandro. It was a voice I recognized instantly from two years ago—the voice of the doctor who had pronounced my husband dead at the hospital!
"Doctor Vance?" I whispered in horror.
"Ah, Clara," the voice on the phone chuckled softly through the static. "How wonderful to hear your sweet, pathetic voice again. I see you’ve finally brought my little project back to the light."
"Project?" I choked out. "What did you do to my husband?!"
"Davide didn't die of a heart attack in my ER, Clara. I put him under a chemical coma, extracted his blood samples for the family DNA registries, and used his death to trigger the war that would bankrupt the Moretti empire," Vance explained casually. "And that blue rabbit you so lovingly kept? It’s not just a toy. It contains the biometric encryption keys to the Moretti offshore reserves—over four billion dollars. Davide hid them inside the rabbit's internal chip before I put him down."
Valeria’s knuckles turned white around her pistol. "Where are you, Vance?"
"Look out the south exit of the sewers, my dear Valeria," Vance replied smoothly. "I'm watching the villa burn right now from my helicopter. And if you don't bring me the child and the toy within ten minutes, I'll detonate the charges I planted in the basement of Villa Moretti. Alessandro is still inside fighting my men. He'll be atomized."
The line went dead.
Valeria didn't hesitate. She grabbed a flashbang and a smoke grenade from her belt. "We don't have ten minutes. We have three. Clara, stay behind me. If anyone tries to stop us, shoot them."
She thrust a small snub-nosed revolver into my hands. The cold steel felt heavy and unnatural, but looking down at Emma's terrified face, my instincts shifted. I was no longer just a helpless housekeeper. I was a mother protecting her child's legacy.
We sprinted through the damp subterranean tunnels toward the south exit, emerging into the crisp night air near the estate's private helipad.
The main villa behind us was engulfed in roaring flames, red smoke billowing into the dark Milanese sky. Fire engines wailed in the distance, but the roads had been blocked by jackknifed semi-trucks—a coordinated blockade.
On the helipad, a black helicopter sat with its rotors spinning, creating a deafening wind.
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Standing near the open side door was Doctor Vance, dressed in an immaculate grey suit, surrounded by four heavily armed private military contractors. And tied to a steel post near the chopper, beaten, bloody, but still breathing... was Alessandro.
CHAPTER 6 HOOK: As we stepped onto the tarmac, Vance pulled a detonator from his pocket. "Drop your weapons, Valeria, or I wipe Alessandro and the entire estate off the map right now." But as Valeria slowly lowered her gun, Emma suddenly broke free from my grip and ran straight toward the helicopter!
