Chapter 15 - THE NIGHT THE MUSIC STOPPED|
Sophia heard the first impact against the front door while Emma was building a tower of wooden blocks.
She gathered her daughter into her arms and carried her toward the reinforced room at the rear of the residence. The security lights flickered. Somewhere outside, a guard shouted a warning.
Emma pressed her face against Sophia's shoulder.
"Mommy, is it the bad noise?"
"Yes, sweetheart. But we're safe together."
Sophia locked the inner door and reached for her phone.
No signal.
A second impact shook the hallway.
Then she heard footsteps.
Someone tried the handle.
Sophia began humming the family song, keeping her voice low and steady. Emma joined in, her small fingers gripping the rabbit's worn ears.
The door opened suddenly.
Aleandro stood in the doorway with Marcus behind him.
Sophia almost collapsed with relief.
"Where were you?"
"I'm here now."
He crossed the room and checked Emma's face, then pulled Sophia into his arms for a brief second.
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
Marcus reported that two men had attempted to enter through the service gate. One had been detained. The other escaped in a vehicle registered to a company connected to Bruno Falco.
Aleandro's face hardened.
"This ends tonight."
Sophia stepped away.
"Not by killing someone."
He looked at her.
"They came for your daughter."
"And if you kill their employer, what happens tomorrow? Someone else comes for her. I want the people behind this exposed, not replaced."
Aleandro held her gaze.
Then he nodded.
"We'll do it your way."
Marcus recovered a phone from the detained attacker. It contained a message sent shortly before the break-in.
Bring the child to the warehouse. The father is waiting.
Nico was still at the rehabilitation center.
So who was the message referring to?
Aleandro examined the attachment.
It showed a photograph of Richard Moretti standing inside an industrial warehouse, older than he would have been in the family portraits but unmistakably recognizable.
The date was two weeks earlier.
Sophia felt cold.
"Your father is alive."
Aleandro stared at the photograph.
"I don't know."
"Then we find out."
Marcus traced the image to an abandoned warehouse near the waterfront. The property belonged to a holding company established before Richard's reported death.
They arrived shortly before midnight.
The warehouse was dark except for a light above a metal door. Inside, they found a desk, several filing cabinets, and a wall covered with photographs of people connected to the Lantern Fund.
Emma's photograph sat in the center.
Beside it was Sophia's.
And beneath them was a picture of Nico, taken in the rehabilitation center only three days earlier.
Someone had been watching all of them.
A speaker crackled above the desk.
A familiar voice filled the room.
"Well done, Aleandro. You finally learned to follow a trail."
Aleandro froze.
It was his father's voice.
"Richard?"
A short laugh came through the speaker.
"You have a choice to make. Bring me the original trust ledger, and I'll let your brother see his daughter."
Aleandro gripped the edge of the desk.
"Where are you?"
"Somewhere you should have visited four years ago."
The speaker clicked off.
On the desk lay a small music box.
It played the family lullaby.
May you like
And beneath it was a note addressed to Emma.
Daddy has been waiting for you.
