Chapter 15 - Burn the Evidence
The first window blew out before we reached the mansion.
Flames rolled up the stone wall of the west wing.
My mother was burning the place where she had kept Grace.
Not because she was panicking.
Because even cornered, Vittoria Rossi was still cleaning evidence.
"Stay outside with Noah," I told Grace.
She stared at me.
"You know that sentence has never worked on me."
"This time you are holding our newborn son next to a burning building."
She looked down at Noah.
"Fine. This one time."
Marco and I entered through the east hall.
Sprinklers had been disabled.
Of course they had.
Smoke turned the ceiling black. Heat pressed against my face as we pushed toward the hidden cell.
We found Elias near the library carrying two metal boxes.
"Records," he coughed. "From the control room."
"Get out."
"There's someone still downstairs."
"Who?"
"Halpern. Vittoria brought him back from St. Agnes. Locked him in the medical room."
I almost left him.
For one ugly second, I thought about what he had done to Grace and decided the fire could judge him.
Then I heard Grace's voice in my head.
Don't become them.
I ran downstairs.
Halpern was pounding on a steel door as smoke filled the corridor.
"Rossi!"
I shot the lock twice and kicked it open.
He stumbled out coughing.
"Why did you come back for me?"
"Don't make me regret it."
We turned toward the stairs.
A wall of fire blocked the way.
Halpern pointed toward the old cell.
"Service shaft. Behind the bed."
We crawled through smoke into the room where Grace had been imprisoned.
The messages on the wall were disappearing under flames.
I saw her warning one last time.
DON'T TRUST HER.
Then part of the ceiling collapsed.
Behind the broken plaster, something metal flashed.
A safe.
Halpern stared.
"I never knew that was there."
Marco and I dragged it free.
The service shaft led to the wine cellar, and we came out into clean air carrying the safe between us.
Outside, Grace waited with Noah and three ambulances that Marco had finally allowed through the gate.
She saw Halpern.
Her face went cold.
"You saved him?"
"Apparently I'm trying to become a better person."
"Terrible timing."
But she squeezed my hand.
The west wing roof collapsed behind us.
Marco set the safe on the lawn.
The lock had already been damaged by heat.
He broke it with a crowbar.
May you like
Inside were dozens of files, old photographs, passports, cash, and one sealed envelope in my father's handwriting.
ADRIAN — IF YOUR MOTHER EVER OPENS THIS ROOM, RUN.
