Chapter 10 - The Man Beneath the Villa
Daniel survived the gunshot.
Adrian’s emergency medical team reached the cemetery within minutes, but Daniel refused to be taken to a hospital controlled by the Vale family. Dr. Ross treated him inside the abandoned monastery while Adrian’s loyal security officers searched the ridge.
The shooter escaped.
Isabella sat beside Daniel.
“Who lives beneath Valecrest?”
Daniel’s face was pale from blood loss.
“I don’t know.”
“The note says our father is there.”
“The note may be old.”
“Or someone wanted us to find it now.”
Adrian stood near the doorway, speaking quietly into his phone.
He had frozen Margaret’s access to the family accounts and ordered the villa’s security staff to stand down.
Half obeyed.
The other half remained loyal to Margaret.
When Adrian ended the call, he approached Isabella.
“My mother has locked herself inside the east wing.”
“Then that is where we are going.”
“No.”
Isabella looked at him.
Adrian immediately corrected himself.
“We will go together after we secure the property.”
“She knows we have the ledger. She may destroy whatever is hidden there.”
“I will not take you into an armed confrontation.”
“You cannot leave me here either.”
Daniel tried to sit upright.
“There is another route beneath the villa.”
Adrian looked at him.
“The chapel passage?”
“No. An older tunnel built before the house. It begins beneath the monastery crypt.”
Elena unfolded a map from the ledger.
A line connected the cemetery, monastery, and Valecrest’s eastern foundation.
“What was the tunnel used for?” she asked.
“Transporting valuables during the war,” Daniel said. “Later, Margaret used it to move people without the staff seeing.”
“People such as your mother?” Isabella asked Elena.
“Possibly.”
They waited until nightfall.
Adrian wanted Isabella to remain with Dr. Ross, but she refused. The baby’s heartbeat was stable, and Isabella was no longer willing to wait while others decided which truths she was allowed to know.
They entered the crypt shortly after nine.
Adrian walked ahead with a flashlight. Elena followed Isabella. Two trusted security officers came behind them.
The tunnel smelled of damp stone and old metal.
After nearly twenty minutes, they reached a reinforced door.
Adrian entered a code.
It did not open.
Isabella noticed four numbers scratched beside the keypad.
The date of her birth.
She entered them.
The lock released.
Beyond the door was a brightly lit underground corridor.
This was not an abandoned wartime passage.
It was a medical facility.
There were patient rooms, storage cabinets, and observation windows. Some equipment appeared decades old. Other machines were new.
Elena opened the first room.
Inside was a narrow bed with leather restraints.
A child’s drawings still covered one wall.
Daniel’s room.
In the second room, they found dozens of photographs of Isabella taken throughout her childhood.
School events.
Birthdays.
Her mother’s funeral.
Her first job.
Margaret had watched her for years.
Adrian picked up a photograph from the day he and Isabella met.
A note was written beneath it.
Contact successfully established.
Isabella turned toward him.
“You said our meeting was accidental.”
“It was.”
“Then who wrote this?”
“I don’t know.”
A speaker crackled overhead.
Margaret’s voice filled the corridor.
“You have always believed love brought you together.”
A metal door closed behind them.
“But love had nothing to do with it.”
Gas began pouring from vents near the ceiling.
Adrian grabbed Isabella and pulled her toward the next room.
Elena covered her mouth.
One of the guards fired at the locked door.
Margaret continued speaking.
“Adrian did not find you, Isabella.”
Lights turned on behind an observation window.
A man sat inside the room beyond it.
His hair was gray. His body looked thin and weak.
But his eyes were open.
He pressed one hand against the glass.
May you like
Margaret’s voice whispered through the speaker.
“Your father brought Adrian to you.”
