Chapter 3 - The First Betrayal
Vincent did not open the door.
“Marco.”
Marco moved beside the wall.
Alina pulled Mia—who had fallen asleep in the SUV and been carried upstairs only after the building was secured—closer against her chest.
Cole knocked again.
“Vincent.”
“How did you find us?” Vincent called.
Silence.
Then:
“I tracked Marco’s vehicle.”
Vincent looked at Marco.
Marco’s expression darkened.
“No tracker on my SUV.”
“Then how?” Alina whispered.
Vincent opened the door only after two guards surrounded Cole from behind.
Cole raised his hands.
“I found something.”
He produced a file.
Vincent didn’t lower his gun.
“What?”
“Dawson wasn’t working alone.”
Cole opened the folder.
Inside were bank records.
Payments to three members of Vincent’s security staff.
One name had been circled.
Marco DeLuca.
Alina looked at Marco.
Marco stared at the page.
“That’s not my account.”
Cole said, “It has your name.”
“It’s fake.”
Vincent studied both men.
He trusted Marco.
He had trusted Cole longer.
That suddenly meant nothing.
“Both of you surrender your weapons.”
Cole obeyed.
Marco hesitated.
Then obeyed too.
Vincent collected their phones.
“We go back separately.”
At the estate, he placed both men under guarded confinement.
Alina found him alone in his study before sunrise.
“You think Marco betrayed you?”
“I think somebody wants me to think he did.”
“And Cole?”
“The same.”
“You trust nobody.”
Vincent looked at her.
“Tonight that seems sensible.”
She glanced toward the security monitors.
“How do you live like this?”
“I usually don’t have a three-year-old identifying assassins.”
Despite herself, Alina laughed.
Vincent almost smiled.
Then his face became serious.
“Your daughter saved my life.”
“She didn’t understand what she was doing.”
“Courage doesn’t require understanding everything.”
Alina looked away.
Nobody had spoken about Mia with that kind of respect before.
Vincent opened a drawer.
Inside lay the repaired wooden truck.
He had fixed the missing wheel himself.
Alina stared.
“You did that?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“You repair toys when you can’t sleep?”
“Apparently.”
For a few seconds, he wasn’t Vincent Marchetti.
He was simply a tired man holding a child’s toy.
Then his phone rang.
The softness vanished.
A technician had recovered additional data from Daniel’s drive.
Vincent brought Alina downstairs.
One spreadsheet contained names, dates, and payments.
Daniel had worked as a courier.
Not for Vincent.
For someone trying to infiltrate Vincent’s organization.
Daniel had transported envelopes without asking questions.
Eventually, he discovered the envelopes contained photographs, security schedules, and information about Vincent’s estate.
Then one name appeared repeatedly.
A. COLE.
Alina stared.
“Adrian?”
Vincent said nothing.
The initials were evidence.
Not proof.
Another document mentioned “Project Lantern.”
Marco, brought into the room under guard, recognized it.
“Lantern was your father’s emergency protocol.”
Vincent turned.
“How do you know that?”
“Your father told me.”
“My father died twelve years ago.”
Marco nodded.
“He told me before he died.”
Vincent’s expression became unreadable.
“Why have you never mentioned this?”
“Because he made me promise.”
Cole was brought in separately.
When Vincent showed him the document, Cole laughed once.
“Someone’s playing you.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“You tracked us to apartment 417.”
“I told you how.”
“Marco’s SUV had no tracker.”
Cole stopped.
Vincent watched him.
“Try again.”
Cole’s silence lasted too long.
Then every light in the mansion went out.
Emergency systems activated.
Red security lights illuminated the corridor.
A guard shouted through the radio.
“Breach at the east gate!”
Another voice followed.
“Multiple vehicles!”
Vincent immediately unlocked Marco’s restraints and handed him a weapon.
Cole stared.
“You trust him now?”
“No.”
Vincent handed Cole one too.
“I trust whoever is attacking us less.”
Gunfire erupted outside.
Alina ran upstairs for Mia.
She found the little girl awake.
Holding her repaired truck.
“Mr. Vincent fixed it.”
“We have to go.”
“Are bad men here?”
Alina could not lie.
“Yes.”
Mia took her hand.
They reached the secure staircase.
Vincent appeared below.
“Come with me.”
He led them toward an underground safe room.
Halfway down, Mia stopped.
“What?”
Vincent asked.
She pointed toward a maintenance door.
“I heard Mama’s song.”
Alina froze.
“What?”
“The moon song.”
Nobody else knew it.
Except Daniel.
A faint melody came from behind the door.
Alina stepped forward.
Vincent blocked her.
“No.”
“That’s Daniel.”
“You don’t know that.”
The melody stopped.
Then came three knocks.
Alina’s face turned white.
Daniel always knocked three times when he came home late.
She whispered, “That’s him.”
Vincent raised his weapon.
The door handle slowly turned.
May you like
And from the darkness on the other side, Daniel Ruiz whispered:
“Alina, don’t trust Vincent.”
