Chapter 8 - Secrets in the Cellar
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Deep beneath the mansion’s south wing, the thick stone walls of the private cellar insulated the room from the outside world.
Donna Bellini sat tied to a heavy oak chair, her diamond jewelry piled haphazardly on a metal table nearby.
Luca descended the damp stone steps, followed closely by Frank, whose face was illuminated by the flickering tungsten bulbs.
Marco placed a glass of water on the table, but Donna refused to look at it, glaring at the two men with venomous defiance.
"Antonio will tear this city apart when he realizes I'm missing," Donna spat, her voice echoing off the stone walls.
Luca pulled up a steel folding chair, sitting directly across from her with his arms resting casually on his knees.
"Antonio won't do anything, Donna, because he believes you are currently celebrating a successful merger upstairs," Luca said flatly.
"Now, let's talk about the warehouse fire of 1986."
Frank stepped closer, his shadow stretching across the ceiling like a looming wraith of vengeance.
"You admitted upstairs that Antonio set the fire," Frank said, his voice deadly quiet.
"What you didn't explain was why the fire department took forty minutes to arrive at a building only four blocks from the station."
Donna let out a dry, bitter laugh, shaking her head as she realized there was no longer any point in lying.
"Antonio bought the fire chief three years before the blaze," Donna confessed, looking up with cold satisfaction.
"The plan was foolproof, Frank. The alarms were disconnected, the emergency exits were chained shut from the outside."
"You were supposed to burn until there was nothing left to identify."
"Nobody counted on a factory secretary breaking a basement window with her bare hands and crawling through the flames to reach you."
Frank’s eyes burned with a terrible, agonizing pain as he pictured Evelyn risking everything for him forty years ago.
"And the child?" Frank asked, his fists trembling at his sides.
"Why steal my daughter instead of killing her too?"
Donna looked down at the stone floor, her voice dropping into a sinister whisper.
"Because Antonio understood leverage," Donna admitted.
"If you ever suspected the truth, or if the federal prosecutors came looking for us, we held your only living bloodline."
"We poisoned Vanessa's mind from the day she could speak, teaching her that money and power were the only things that mattered."
"And tonight," Donna added, looking straight at Luca with a sickening smirk, "the final phase was supposed to conclude."
Luca leaned forward, his instincts instantly flaring with warning.
"What final phase, Donna?" Luca demanded, grabbing the arm of her chair with crushing force.
Donna smiled wickedly, despite her captivity.
"You really think my brother would let an adopted stray like you keep control of the Moretti empire?"
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"Look at the wine decanters on the wedding table, Luca."
"Frank wasn't supposed to live to see sunrise tomorrow morning."
