Chapter 6 - The Final Reckoning
"Serena, listen to me!" Vincent shouted, dropping the box of pastries and rushing toward her, his hands raised in desperation. "It’s not what you think! I swear on my son’s life!"
"Don't touch me!" Serena screamed, pulling a small silver letter opener from the desk and pointing it at him. "Your family murdered my mother! You shot my twin brother in front of my eyes! And you kept me here like a fool!"
"I didn't know who you were on the night at the hospital!" Vincent pleaded, his grey eyes filled with raw, desperate panic. "I only found out your real identity two weeks ago when my auditors pulled your background file!"
"And you signed my death warrant six months ago!" Serena sobbed.
"That signature is a forgery!" Vincent roared, tears shining in his own eyes. "I never signed that order! Look at the handwriting, Serena! Look at it!"
Serena looked down at the memo with trembling eyes.
The signature was neat, but slightly slanted to the right—not the heavy, sharp, aggressive stroke Vincent used on all his legal documents. It was the same handwriting that appeared on the hit order from 2011.
Marco Rossi.
Before Serena could process the revelation, a heavy metallic explosion rocked the ground floor of the mansion.
BOOM!
The floor beneath them shook violently. The sound of shattering glass, automatic gunfire, and shouting echoed from the grand foyer downstairs.
"The Morettis!" Vincent barked, instantly drawing his custom silver 1911 pistol from his shoulder holster.
He grabbed Serena by the arm, pulling her behind the reinforced steel door of the study. "Marco betrayed us! He forged that document to trigger an internal war, and he gave the Morettis the security codes to the front gate tonight!"
Downstairs, Marco Rossi’s booming voice echoed through the PA system:
"Vincent! It's over! The Morettis have taken the ground floor! Give us the girl and the ledger, and we'll leave the baby alive!"
Vincent turned to Serena, holding her face between his large, warm hands. His eyes were burning with absolute, uncompromising devotion.
"I didn't kill your family, Serena," Vincent whispered fiercely, his thumb wiping a tear from her cheek. "My father was a monster, and Marco was his butcher. But I swear on my soul, I will die before I let them hurt you or Lucas."
Vincent pulled a small remote from his pocket and pressed a red button. A hidden door in the bookshelf swung open, revealing a private elevator leading down to an underground escape tunnel.
"Take Lucas and go down the tunnel," Vincent commanded, pushing her toward the hidden door. "There is an armored SUV waiting at the end of the line. The keys are inside. Get out of the city."
"What about you?!" Serena gasped, her heart pounding with a strange, overwhelming panic for him.
"I'm going to finish the war my father started fifteen years ago," Vincent said calmly.
May you like
He turned toward the main study door, rack-checking his pistol with a loud CLICK, and stepped out into the hallway to face fifty armed men alone.
Serena sprinted down the corridor to the nursery, grabbed little Lucas from his crib, swaddled him tightly in her coat, and ran into the hidden elevator shaft just as automatic gunfire erupted across the upper floor.
