Chapter 5 - THE CELLAR OF SECRETS
Before I could reach for the concealed handgun Julian had given me, two massive guards rushed into the room, grabbing my arms and pinning me to the floor.
"Beatrice, listen to me!" I screamed as they dragged me toward the service stairs. "I don't know anything about the D'Angelo family! Check the foundation's tax records! It’s a setup!"
Beatrice ignored my cries, her face cold and unyielding. "You will stay in the dark until Julian returns to sign your execution order."
I was thrown into the cold, windowless basement cellar beneath the east wing. The heavy iron door slammed shut, and the bolt clicked into place.
I sat in the pitch-black room, my heart hammering against my ribs. I knew Beatrice was framing me. She had hated me from the moment I arrived because my presence threatened her control over Julian and the Vance fortune. If she convinced Julian that I was a traitor, he would have no choice under the mafia code but to end my life.
Hours bled into one another. I paced the concrete floor, trying to find a way out, but the stone walls were solid.
Around midnight, I heard the faint sound of muffled footsteps outside the door, followed by a soft, frantic scratching noise near the lock.
"Mara?" a tiny voice whispered through the keyhole.
My heart leapt. "Leo?!"
Through the narrow slit at the bottom of the door, a small pair of eyes peeked in. Leo had somehow slipped away from his nanny, using the hidden servant passages he had discovered while playing in the halls. In his little hand, he was holding the master brass key card he had pulled from Beatrice's desk drawer.
"Leo, sweetie, can you slide the card through the slot?" I begged softly, kneeling beside the door.
The small card slid under the gap. I grabbed it, reached through the narrow iron grille, and pressed it against the electronic sensor.
The green light flashed, and the heavy bolt disengaged.
I threw the door open, pulling Leo into a desperate, sobbing hug. "Oh thank God, baby... thank God."
"Ma," Leo whimpered, clinging to my sweater. "Bad men outside."
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Before I could ask what he meant, an explosion rocked the upper levels of the mansion. The stone ceiling cracked, dust pouring down over us as the siren alarms began to blare throughout the estate.
The D'Angelo family had launched a full-scale assault on the compound.
