Chapter 3 - The Father Behind the Locked Door
Ella heard Alessandro’s footsteps disappear above her.
Then another shot shattered the silence.
She ignored his order immediately.
“Ella, stay down,” Marco warned.
“My daughter is upstairs.”
“So are armed men.”
“That changes nothing.”
She lifted the hem of her long coat and ran toward the stairs.
Marco caught her wrist before she reached the first step.
“If you go up there, Alessandro will have to protect two people instead of one.”
Ella jerked against his grip. “Then tell me where the safe passage is.”
His expression tightened.
“You know there’s another route,” she said. “Alessandro rebuilt the house. He always builds a second route.”
Marco released her.
A burst of gunfire echoed through the east corridor.
“Behind the library,” he said. “The old wine passage now connects to the upstairs nursery.”
Ella turned.
“Wait.” Marco removed a small handgun from an ankle holster and held it out to her. “Do you remember how to use one?”
She stared at it.
Alessandro had taught her years ago, after an enemy left a dead bird on their front steps.
She had hated every second of the lesson.
“Yes.”
“Safety is off. Keep your finger away from the trigger until you’re ready.”
Ella took the weapon.
It felt heavier than she remembered.
Marco opened the library door and pulled aside a framed painting. Behind it was a steel panel with a numeric keypad.
“What’s the code?” she asked.
“Her birthday.”
Ella froze.
“Lily’s?”
Marco entered six digits.
The panel unlocked.
Ella looked at him. “He built this before today.”
Marco did not answer.
He did not have to.
A narrow corridor waited beyond the wall, illuminated by dim floor lights.
Ella stepped inside.
“Keep the door open,” Marco said. “I’ll cover the entrance.”
She moved quickly through the passage, one hand trailing along the wall. The air smelled of stone, dust, and cold metal.
Above her, muffled shouting carried through the ceiling.
A man yelled.
Then came the deep sound of a body hitting the floor.
Ella’s breathing became uneven.
She forced herself forward.
At the end of the corridor, a staircase rose sharply. She climbed until she reached another steel door.
A small screen beside it showed the room outside.
The east bedroom.
Furniture had been overturned. Broken glass covered the floor. A masked man stood beside the bed, holding Rosa by the hair.
Lily was nowhere in sight.
Ella pressed the audio button.
“Where is the girl?” the intruder demanded.
“I don’t know,” Rosa gasped.
“You were carrying her.”
“She ran.”
The man struck Rosa across the face.
Ella’s finger tightened around the gun.
Then a shadow moved behind the bedroom curtains.
A small yellow sleeve appeared for half a second.
Lily.
She was hiding between the curtain and the wall.
The intruder did not see her.
But Rosa did.
Her eyes flicked toward the curtains before snapping away.
The man followed the movement.
Ella hit the release button and pushed through the hidden door.
“Step away from her.”
The intruder spun.
Ella held the gun with both hands, just as Alessandro had taught her.
Her arms trembled, but the barrel remained pointed at his chest.
The masked man shoved Rosa aside and raised his weapon.
Ella fired.
The shot struck his shoulder.
He staggered backward, cursing, but did not fall.
He raised his gun again.
A second shot came from the doorway.
The intruder collapsed.
Alessandro stood in the hall, his pistol still raised.
Blood covered one side of his black shirt.
Ella’s heart stopped.
“Are you hit?”
“Not mine.”
His gaze moved rapidly across the room.
“Lily?”
Ella pointed toward the curtains.
“Baby,” she called. “It’s Mommy.”
The fabric shifted.
Lily stepped out slowly, clutching a silver hairbrush against her chest like a weapon. Tears streaked her face.
Ella dropped the gun and rushed to her.
Lily ran into her arms.
“Mommy!”
“I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
Lily buried her face against Ella’s shoulder.
“The bad man hurt Miss Rosa.”
“I know.”
Alessandro crossed the room and crouched beside them.
Lily looked at the blood on his shirt.
“You’re red.”
“It isn’t my blood.”
“Did you hurt the bad man?”
Ella closed her eyes briefly.
Alessandro glanced at her, then answered Lily carefully.
“I stopped him.”
“Forever?”
The room went quiet.
Alessandro rested one hand on the floor instead of touching her.
“He won’t hurt anyone again.”
Lily studied him.
Then she reached toward him.
He hesitated before taking her small hand.
“You came back,” she whispered.
“I said I would.”
“You didn’t say it to me.”
“No,” he admitted. “But I should have.”
Lily leaned forward and touched the scar above his eyebrow again.
“You’re still scary.”
A faint smile touched his mouth. “I know.”
“But only to bad people?”
Alessandro’s expression changed.
Ella watched the answer form behind his eyes.
He could have lied.
Instead, he said, “I am trying to be.”
Lily considered that, then held out both arms.
“Up.”
This time Alessandro did not look at Ella for permission.
He simply lifted his daughter.
Lily wrapped herself around him, trembling.
His hand covered almost the whole of her back.
Ella saw the moment his control cracked.
He turned his face slightly, pressing his cheek into Lily’s damp curls. His eyes closed, and his shoulders lowered with a breath that sounded painful.
Rosa sat against the bed with a bleeding lip.
“I’m all right,” she said when Ella moved toward her. “Stay with the child.”
Marco entered with four guards.
“East wing is clear,” he reported. “Three intruders down. One alive.”
Alessandro opened his eyes.
“Who?”
“Daniel Costa.”
The softness vanished from his face.
Ella looked between them. “One of the men who knew about the bakery?”
Marco nodded.
Alessandro handed Lily to Ella.
“Take her downstairs.”
“No,” Ella said. “I want to hear this.”
“You just fired a gun in front of our child.”
“To save her.”
“And you did.” His voice softened by a fraction. “Now let me keep her from hearing what comes next.”
Ella knew what that meant.
“Don’t kill him.”
Marco looked away.
Alessandro’s eyes returned to hers. “He brought armed men into the room where our daughter was sleeping.”
“I know.”
“He placed a tracker on her.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I will.”
“Then question him. Don’t execute him.”
His jaw hardened.
“You left because you believed I was a monster.”
“I left because you stopped giving me reasons to believe otherwise.”
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
Lily’s breathing had slowed against Ella’s shoulder.
Finally, Alessandro looked at Marco.
“Put Costa in the lower security room.”
Marco’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Alive?”
“Alive.”
Alessandro kept his eyes on Ella.
“For now.”
An hour later, the estate lights were restored.
Rosa received stitches from the private doctor. Lily had no physical injuries beyond a shallow scratch on one knee, but she refused to let Ella leave the room.
She also refused to let Alessandro leave.
He sat stiffly on the edge of a chair beside the bed while Lily rested beneath a blanket.
Ella stood near the window, watching guards move across the lawn.
Lily’s stuffed rabbit sat sealed inside an evidence bag downstairs.
In its place, Rosa had found an old teddy bear from Alessandro’s childhood.
It had one missing button eye.
Lily held it by one ear.
“Did this belong to you?” she asked.
Alessandro nodded. “A long time ago.”
“What’s his name?”
“He never had one.”
“That’s sad.”
“I survived.”
“The bear didn’t.”
Ella turned away to hide a smile.
Lily thought seriously. “His name is Mr. Buttons.”
“He has only one button.”
“That’s why he needs the name.”
Alessandro accepted the logic with a solemn nod. “Mr. Buttons.”
Lily yawned.
“Tell me a story.”
He looked at Ella.
She folded her arms. “Don’t look at me. She asked you.”
“I don’t know any children’s stories.”
“You know stories.”
“Not appropriate ones.”
Lily held Mr. Buttons against her chin. “Tell me about a princess.”
Alessandro leaned back in the chair.
“There was once a princess who lived in a castle.”
Ella raised an eyebrow.
He ignored her.
“The castle had tall walls, guarded gates, and many soldiers.”
“Why?”
“Because there were people outside who wanted to hurt her.”
Lily frowned. “That’s not a happy story.”
“I haven’t finished.”
“Okay.”
“The king believed the walls would keep her safe. So he made them higher every year.”
“Was he her daddy?”
Alessandro paused.
“Yes.”
“Did she like the walls?”
“No.”
Ella looked at him.
His gaze remained on Lily.
“One day,” he continued, “the princess climbed over the wall and disappeared.”
“Was the king mad?”
“He thought he was.”
“But?”
“But he was afraid.”
Lily’s eyelids began to droop.
“Did he find her?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He learned that walls can protect people, but they can also push them away.”
Ella’s throat tightened.
Lily whispered, “Did the princess come home?”
Alessandro looked at Ella.
“I don’t know yet.”
A few minutes later, Lily fell asleep.
Ella crossed the room and carefully moved Mr. Buttons away from her face.
Alessandro stood.
“You were watching us from the beginning,” she said quietly.
“Yes.”
“How many people?”
“Usually two.”
“Did they report everything?”
“Only security concerns.”
“Birthdays?”
His silence answered.
“Doctor visits?”
“Yes.”
“Preschool?”
“Yes.”
Ella turned on him. “You knew all of it.”
“I knew where she was. I knew when she was sick. I knew when you changed jobs. I knew when the lock on your second apartment was broken.”
Her anger rose again. “That was you?”
“No. It was a man trying to enter the wrong apartment.”
“What happened to him?”
“He never entered another wrong apartment.”
She stared at him.
“There,” she whispered. “That is the man I ran from.”
Alessandro did not defend himself.
“I could not come near you,” he said. “If my enemies saw me visit, they would know you mattered.”
“And now?”
“Now they know.”
“So we’re trapped here.”
“Until I end this.”
Ella shook her head. “People always die when you say that.”
His voice dropped. “Today they almost killed Lily because I failed to see a traitor standing beside me.”
“Then stop acting like you can control everything.”
“I don’t have the luxury of stopping.”
“You have a daughter now.”
“I had a daughter yesterday. I simply wasn’t allowed to know her.”
The words struck hard.
Ella glanced toward the sleeping child.
“I was protecting her.”
“So was I.”
“From you.”
His expression tightened.
Ella immediately regretted saying it, but she did not take it back.
Alessandro moved toward the door.
“You should sleep.”
“Where are you going?”
“To question Daniel Costa.”
“Alessandro.”
He stopped without turning.
“You promised to keep him alive.”
“I said for now.”
“If you want Lily to believe you are scary only to bad people, you need to decide what kind of man that makes you.”
His hand tightened around the doorknob.
Then he left without answering.
Daniel Costa sat handcuffed to a metal chair in the lower security room.
Blood darkened his shirt where one of Alessandro’s guards had shot him in the side. A doctor had treated the wound just enough to keep him conscious.
Alessandro entered alone.
Daniel lifted his head and smiled weakly.
“You found your little secret.”
Alessandro closed the door.
“Who gave you the rabbit?”
Daniel said nothing.
Alessandro placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Lily leaving preschool with Ella.
Another showed her asleep in a stroller at the zoo.
A third showed her standing beside a birthday cake.
Alessandro’s face remained expressionless.
“You watched my daughter.”
Daniel laughed under his breath. “You watched her too.”
Alessandro leaned closer.
“I protected her.”
“From a distance. Like a coward.”
Alessandro’s fist struck the table, not Daniel.
The metal surface shook.
“Who gave you the rabbit?”
Daniel’s smile faded.
“You think this is about Enzo Moretti?”
“Isn’t it?”
“Enzo is a dog chasing scraps. He didn’t find the girl. Someone fed her to him.”
“Who?”
Daniel looked toward the mirrored wall.
“Someone who knew your wife before she became your wife.”
Alessandro went still.
“Ella?”
“Ask her why she really left you.”
Alessandro grabbed Daniel by the throat.
The chair legs scraped across the floor.
Daniel choked, but managed to speak.
“She never told you about the man from New York.”
Alessandro’s grip loosened slightly.
“What man?”
May you like
Daniel smiled through the pain.
“The one who paid me to make sure your marriage failed.”
