Chapter 5 - The Night the House BurnedThe first explosion destroyed the east gate.
The second killed the power.
Alejandro grabbed Sophie before the chandelier stopped shaking.
“Safe room!”
Marcus shouted orders into his radio.
Emergency lights flashed red along the hallway.
Elena ran beside Alejandro as guards surrounded them.
Outside, engines roared across the lawn.
Isabella had not returned alone.
Marcus shoved open the reinforced door hidden behind the library wall.
“Elena, Sophie, inside.”
Alejandro handed Sophie to her mother.
The little girl clung to his jacket.
“You come too.”
His heart twisted.
“I will.”
“Promise?”
Alejandro looked at Elena.
Then back at Sophie.
“I promise.”
She released him.
Marcus locked the door behind them.
Alejandro turned.
“How many?”
“Thermal cameras counted twelve before the system died.”
“Our own guards?”
“Eighteen on property.”
“Sebastian?”
Marcus’s face changed.
Alejandro ran toward the basement.
The secured room was empty.
One guard lay unconscious outside.
The lock had been opened electronically seconds before the power failure.
“Inside job,” Marcus said.
Alejandro checked the guard’s pulse.
Alive.
“Sebastian knew.”
“No,” Marcus replied. “Someone gave him access.”
Gunfire erupted outside.
They moved through a service hallway.
From the library windows, Alejandro saw men advancing toward the house.
They were not random street soldiers.
Tactical formation.
Suppressors.
Body armor.
Isabella had hired professionals.
Alejandro hated what his family had become.
His father had built wealth through intimidation, corruption, and violence.
Alejandro had spent a decade quietly dismantling the worst parts.
Selling illegal businesses.
Cleaning contracts.
Moving capital into construction, shipping, restaurants, real estate.
He had believed he was changing the Moretti name.
But crime did not disappear because a man stopped looking at it.
It crawled into shadows.
And while Alejandro rebuilt the surface, Sebastian and Isabella had created something underneath.
Marcus fired through a shattered window.
One attacker dropped.
“Three on the north side!”
Alejandro radioed his men.
“Protect the safe room. Nobody chases. Hold the house.”
A voice crackled back.
“They’re not trying to take the house.”
Alejandro frowned.
“What?”
“They’re setting fires.”
Smoke rose from the east wing.
Then the truth hit him.
“Evidence.”
Marcus understood immediately.
“The study.”
They ran.
Flames already climbed the curtains near Alejandro’s office.
Someone had thrown an incendiary device through the window.
Marcus grabbed a fire extinguisher.
Alejandro went for the laptop containing Daniel’s files.
Gone.
He stared at the empty desk.
“Somebody took it.”
Marcus swore.
The original USB remained in a secure evidence vault, but the laptop held decrypted copies.
A shadow moved behind them.
Alejandro turned.
Sebastian stood in the doorway.
Gun raised.
For several seconds neither man spoke.
“You should have let me die believing you were my brother,” Alejandro said.
Sebastian’s jaw tightened.
“Move.”
“No.”
“I don’t want to shoot you.”
“You poured peanut extract into my wine.”
“I said I don’t want to shoot you.”
Marcus raised his weapon.
Sebastian aimed at him.
“Drop it.”
Alejandro stepped between them.
“Where is Isabella?”
“Gone.”
“You expect me to believe she came here personally?”
“She didn’t.”
Alejandro stared.
Sebastian’s expression shifted.
“She called the operation from somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“That sounds inconvenient.”
Sebastian looked toward the flames.
“You think I’m loyal to her?”
“I think you murdered Daniel for her.”
“I did.”
“Then why are you here?”
Sebastian’s voice lowered.
“Because she lied to me too.”
Alejandro almost laughed.
“How tragic.”
“She told me Sophie was leverage.”
“She’s a child.”
“I know that now.”
“You knew it then.”
Sebastian looked ashamed.
“There’s something else on Daniel’s files.”
“What?”
“Isabella has been moving money for a buyer.”
“What buyer?”
“A European syndicate.”
“For drugs?”
“For the company.”
Alejandro frowned.
Sebastian continued.
“She intends to remove you, expose selected evidence, destroy Moretti Holdings’ stock value, then acquire its port assets through shell companies.”
“This was a takeover?”
“It became one.”
Marcus said, “Why tell us?”
Sebastian looked at Alejandro.
“Because she ordered your daughter killed tonight.”
The words silenced the room.
Alejandro’s face changed.
“You’re lying.”
“I heard her.”
Sebastian lowered the gun slowly.
“She said Sophie was no longer leverage. She was a legal threat to Isabella’s inheritance.”
Alejandro grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall.
“If one hair—”
“I came back to stop it!”
“After arranging her real father’s murder?”
Sebastian didn’t resist.
“I know what I am.”
Smoke thickened.
Marcus pulled Alejandro away.
“We need to move.”
Then the radio crackled.
“Safe room compromised!”
Alejandro went cold.
“How?”
“No breach yet. Smoke ventilation failure!”
Alejandro ran.
The east-wing fire had spread into ducts.
The safe room protected against bullets and intruders, not a burning mansion.
When he reached the library, Elena was pounding from inside.
Marcus opened the emergency override.
Smoke poured out.
Elena stumbled forward carrying Sophie.
The little girl coughed violently.
Alejandro lifted her.
“Outside. Now.”
They moved through the underground wine cellar toward an old tunnel leading to the garages.
Sebastian followed.
Elena noticed him.
“You!”
She stopped.
Alejandro said, “Keep moving.”
“He killed Daniel!”
“I know.”
“And he’s walking with us?”
“For the next three minutes, yes.”
They reached the garage tunnel.
A black SUV waited.
Marcus opened the rear door.
Sophie suddenly whispered, “Mr. Buttons.”
Elena looked down.
The rabbit was gone.
“Sophie, we can get another—”
“No!”
She started crying.
“Daddy gave him to me!”
Elena closed her eyes.
Alejandro looked toward the smoke-filled tunnel.
“Where?”
“My room.”
Marcus grabbed his arm.
“Absolutely not.”
Alejandro looked at Sophie.
Daniel had died protecting her.
The rabbit was the last thing he had given her.
Alejandro removed his jacket.
“I’ll be back.”
Elena stared.
“Don’t be stupid.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
He ran before Marcus could stop him.
The upstairs hallway was thick with smoke.
Sprinklers sprayed uselessly as flames consumed the east side.
Alejandro reached Sophie’s room.
Mr. Buttons lay beneath the bed.
He grabbed the toy.
Then heard footsteps.
A woman appeared in the doorway.
Not Isabella.
Alejandro recognized her.
Marina Bell.
His longtime executive assistant.
Fifteen years.
She had scheduled his mother’s oncology appointments.
Sent flowers when employees had babies.
Managed every confidential calendar.
She held a pistol.
Alejandro stopped.
“Marina.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“How long?”
“Three years.”
“For Isabella?”
“She paid my son’s debts.”
“Then you should have come to me.”
“You would have fired him.”
“I would have helped him.”
“I didn’t know that then.”
She raised the weapon.
Alejandro looked at her.
“You unlocked Sebastian.”
“Yes.”
“You took the laptop.”
“Yes.”
“Did you contaminate my wine?”
“No.”
Her hand shook.
“That was Sebastian.”
“Are you here to kill me?”
Marina cried harder.
“I don’t want to.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
She closed her eyes.
Then a shot rang out.
Marina fell.
Sebastian stood behind her.
Smoke curled from his pistol.
Alejandro stared.
Sebastian said, “We’re even for the harbor.”
“No.”
Alejandro stepped over Marina and headed down the hallway.
“We will never be even.”
They escaped seconds before part of the roof collapsed.
From the SUV, Sophie watched flames swallow the mansion.
Alejandro handed her the soot-covered rabbit.
She hugged it.
“You got him.”
“I promised.”
Sophie looked at his burned sleeve.
“You got hurt.”
“I’ve had worse.”
She reached up and touched his cheek.
Then whispered, “Thank you.”
Alejandro looked away quickly.
Elena saw.
So did Sebastian.
They drove to a secure property outside the city.
At dawn, Marcus received a phone call.
His expression darkened.
“What happened?” Alejandro asked.
Marcus lowered the phone.
“The police found Isabella’s car.”
“Where?”
“Airport parking garage.”
“And?”
“She wasn’t in it.”
Alejandro waited.
Marcus continued.
“But they found a body in the trunk.”
Elena covered Sophie’s ears.
“Who?”
Marcus looked at Sebastian.
“Isabella Moretti.”
Sebastian went pale.
Alejandro stared.
“If Isabella is dead,” he said slowly, “then who ordered the attack?”
May you like
No one answered.
Because suddenly the conspiracy was larger than any of them understood.
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