Chapter 2 - Three Minutes at the West Gate
Gabriel’s voice stayed calm over the phone.
“Boss, move away from the door.”
Luca already had.
Elena stood near the fireplace with Mia behind her skirt. Luca positioned himself between them and the entrance.
The bedroom locks were electronic but reinforced mechanically.
Not easy to override quickly.
That was the problem.
The estate security system had been built for intrusion from outside.
Nobody had designed it to fight itself.
“Where’s the SUV?” Luca asked.
“Stopped at the fountain. Two men got out. One still inside.”
“Armed?”
“Likely.”
“Police?”
“En route.”
Gabriel hesitated.
That word still sounded strange in the Romano world.
For years, Luca would have handled armed intruders privately.
But the estate now held staff, children, and neighbors close enough to hear gunfire.
He had spent five years moving the family businesses toward legitimate operations.
Not clean.
Cleaner.
Today he chose the obvious lawful answer.
“Keep them contained. No shooting unless necessary.”
“Understood.”
Mia tugged Elena’s sleeve.
“Mommy?”
Elena crouched.
“I’m right here.”
“Are bad men coming?”
Elena looked at Luca.
He hated that the answer belonged to him.
“Security is handling it,” he said.
Mia frowned.
“That’s not yes or no.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Luca almost laughed despite everything.
“Yes,” he said. “Some men came onto the property who should not be here.”
“Because of the button?”
“Yes.”
She looked proud and scared at once.
“I told you.”
“You did.”
The lights flickered.
Then died.
Emergency lighting came on near the floor.
Elena whispered:
“Luca.”
“I know.”
His phone buzzed again.
Gabriel:
“Someone just cut internal power to the east wing.”
“Inside?”
“Has to be.”
A second traitor.
Not only Celeste.
Luca looked at Elena.
“Who is working inside the house today?”
“Mrs. Bell. Tomas. Celeste’s florist came at eight.”
“Florist?”
Elena nodded.
“Wedding arrangements.”
Luca’s face hardened.
Of course.
Twelve days before the wedding meant strangers had legitimate reasons to enter the estate.
Flowers.
Lighting.
Catering.
Tailors.
Vendors.
Perfect camouflage.
Mia raised her hand.
Actually raised it like school.
Luca stared.
“Yes?”
“The flower man had dirty shoes.”
Elena looked at her.
“What?”
“He went upstairs.”
“The florist was told to stay downstairs.”
Mia nodded.
“He went upstairs.”
Luca called Gabriel.
“Find the florist.”
“We’re looking.”
“He was in the east wing.”
Pause.
“Got it.”
Two minutes later, pounding sounded outside the bedroom.
Elena grabbed Mia.
Luca reached instinctively toward the nightstand drawer.
Then stopped.
Mia was watching him.
No weapons if avoidable.
He moved away from it.
“Boss!” Gabriel shouted through the door.
Luca exhaled.
“Open it.”
“Working.”
A drill whined.
Mia covered her ears.
Elena held her.
Luca watched the clock.
Three minutes.
The phrase Celeste had used.
Marco gets three minutes.
Why three?
Then he understood.
The intruders were not meant to reach the bedroom.
They were meant to reach something else while Luca was trapped.
He called Gabriel.
“The office.”
“What?”
“My study safe.”
Gabriel swore.
“Sending two men.”
The bedroom door finally opened.
Gabriel entered with two security officers.
Behind him stood a police sergeant.
Luca nodded once.
“Status?”
“Three intruders detained. One injured trying to ram the gate. No shots fired.”
“The florist?”
“Gone.”
“How?”
“Service exit before lockdown.”
Luca looked at Elena.
Inside access.
Schedule knowledge.
Wedding vendor credentials.
The attack was a diversion.
Luca headed toward his study.
Then stopped.
Mia was still staring at him.
He walked back.
Crouched.
“You did something very important today.”
Her eyes widened.
“Because I broke the vase?”
“No.”
“Because I hid?”
“Not recommending that part.”
She smiled a little.
“Because you told the truth when you were scared.”
Her face changed.
Serious.
“My mommy says truth is what you say even when it gets you in trouble.”
Luca looked at Elena.
She looked away.
He stood.
“Good rule.”
In the study, the safe was closed.
But the keypad panel had been opened.
Someone had tried.
Not enough time.
Gabriel checked the internal camera.
Dead for four minutes.
Exactly.
Luca’s safe contained cash, yes.
Documents, yes.
But the most dangerous item was not money.
A ledger inherited from his father.
Names.
Old payments.
Political favors.
Illegal businesses.
Evidence that could destroy men Luca no longer wanted to protect.
He had planned to turn parts of it over to federal prosecutors as part of a quiet cooperation agreement.
Only four people knew.
Luca.
Gabriel.
His attorney.
And Celeste.
Because he had made the mistake of trusting the woman he planned to marry.
“Where is she?” Gabriel asked.
Luca called.
Voicemail.
Again.
Nothing.
Then Elena appeared at the study door.
“Mr.—Luca?”
“What?”
“Mia remembered something else.”
Mia stood beside her.
Holding a tiny silver object.
A screw.
“Where did you get that?” Gabriel asked.
Mia held it out.
“From the carpet yesterday.”
Gabriel took it.
Not just a screw.
A micro-transmitter hidden inside a decorative fastener.
Luca stared.
Elena went pale.
Mia said:
“The pretty lady dropped it after she said the other thing.”
“What other thing?” Luca asked.
Mia looked from her mother to Luca.
“She told the phone, ‘After today, I won’t have to marry him.’”
Luca felt the sentence land.
Not heartbreak.
Not yet.
Something colder.
Celeste had not been forced into betrayal.
She was planning an exit.
The wedding was never a wedding.
It was access.
And the little girl in front of him had heard enough to prove it.
The police sergeant insisted on documenting Mia’s statement with a child specialist instead of questioning her in a room full of armed adults.
Luca agreed immediately.
That surprised Elena.
Ten years earlier, men in Luca’s family would have questioned a witness themselves.
Today he sat outside the breakfast room while a child advocate spoke gently with Mia.
No leading questions.
No pressure.
No promises.
Only:
“What did you see?”
Mia repeated the black wire.
The screwdriver.
Celeste’s voice.
The phrase about three minutes.
Then she remembered something else.
“She had a gold bracelet.”
Elena said quietly:
“Celeste always wears one.”
Mia shook her head.
“No. Different.”
The advocate asked:
“How?”
“It had a tiny key.”
Gabriel looked at Luca.
A key charm.
Marco’s mother had given all the Romano cousins matching key bracelets years ago.
Celeste should not have had one.
Unless Marco gave it to her.
That small detail linked them before phone records did.
Later, Luca stood on the balcony outside his study while Gabriel brought the first search results.
Marco had purchased a duplicate estate access credential six months earlier under the excuse of emergency family access.
Celeste had used it eleven times.
Most visits happened while Luca was away.
Gabriel said:
“You want me to bring in everyone connected to him?”
“No.”
Gabriel frowned.
“We need facts, not fear.”
That sentence sounded unfamiliar in Luca’s mouth.
He noticed.
So did Gabriel.
The old way would have been faster.
Also dirtier.
Luca had begun learning that speed was often the excuse powerful men used when they did not want oversight.
Inside the guest wing, Elena packed a small overnight bag for Mia even though Luca had offered every room in the estate.
“Why pack?” Mia asked.
“Because having our things nearby helps.”
“Are we leaving?”
“Not tonight.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Maybe.”
Mia looked toward the hall.
“Is Mr. Luca dangerous?”
Elena stopped folding pajamas.
“Yes.”
Honesty first.
“Will he hurt us?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Elena looked at the doorway.
She had worked for Luca for years.
Seen him angry.
Seen men go pale when he entered rooms.
But she had also watched him dismiss two security officers for frightening a gardener’s teenage son.
Watched him pay hospital bills without attaching his name.
Watched him keep distance from children because he seemed unsure what to do with softness.
“I know because he had chances,” she said. “And he didn’t.”
Mia accepted that.
Children often judged behavior more cleanly than adults.
That night Luca did not sleep.
At two seventeen, he went to the kitchen.
Elena was already there.
She sat at the island with tea.
“You too?” he asked.
She nodded.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Elena said:
“If Thomas’s name is in that book, I need everything.”
“You’ll get everything.”
“Even if it implicates your family?”
“Yes.”
“Even you?”
Luca paused.
Then:
“Yes.”
Elena studied him.
“That answer cost you.”
“It may cost more later.”
She looked down at her tea.
“Good.”
He almost smiled.
“Good?”
“If truth costs nothing, people usually tell it too late.”
May you like
Luca sat across from her.
For the first time that day, the mansion felt quiet for the right reason.
