Chapter 5 - The Traitor Inside the Villa
The helicopter landed after sunset.
Villa Castellane looked exactly as Marcelo had left it.
That frightened him.
No broken windows.
No smoke.
No gunfire.
Every exterior light was on.
The sea beyond the cliffs was black.
Marcelo stepped from the helicopter first.
Tomas followed with Elena and Daniel.
Daniel had been given a protective vest.
Elena hated it.
Marcelo insisted.
“Where are your people?” she whispered.
“Hidden.”
“You think Renato is still here?”
“I think he wants me to think he is.”
Marcelo entered the villa.
The marble foyer was empty.
Too empty.
“Tomas.”
“Yes.”
“East wing.”
Tomas signaled two guards.
Marcelo headed toward Sofia’s medical suite.
Elena followed.
“I told you to stay with Daniel.”
“He’s with Paolo.”
“That is not the point.”
“Then stop pretending you can order me around.”
Marcelo looked at her.
Under other circumstances, he might have admired the nerve.
Now he simply said, “Stay behind me.”
The medical suite door stood open.
Sofia was inside.
Alive.
Her wrists were tied to a chair.
Marcelo crossed the room quickly.
“Sofia.”
She lifted her head.
“Don’t.”
Marcelo stopped.
A thin wire ran beneath the chair.
Elena saw it.
“Oh God.”
Marcelo turned.
“Bomb team.”
Sofia shook her head.
“No time.”
A digital device under the chair blinked.
03:18.
03:17.
03:16.
Marcelo’s expression hardened.
“Who did this?”
Sofia swallowed.
“Renato.”
“Is he here?”
“No.”
“Who helped him?”
She closed her eyes.
“Paolo.”
Marcelo froze.
Behind them, footsteps sounded.
Paolo appeared in the doorway.
Daniel stood beside him.
A gun pressed to the boy’s side.
Elena’s face emptied.
“Daniel.”
Paolo looked devastated.
“Don’t.”
Marcelo slowly turned.
“You.”
Paolo’s eyes filled with shame.
“I’m sorry.”
“How long?”
“Two years.”
Marcelo’s jaw tightened.
“Put the gun down.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“Renato has my daughter.”
Marcelo’s expression shifted.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena looked at Daniel.
He was terrified but silent.
Paolo’s hand trembled.
“Renato said if I brought Elena and the ledger, he’d release her.”
Marcelo spoke calmly.
“He won’t.”
“I have to try.”
“No. You have to think.”
The timer continued.
02:41.
Sofia said, “Paolo, listen to him.”
Paolo’s face twisted.
“He has Lucia.”
Marcelo knew Paolo’s daughter.
Twenty-two.
Medical student.
Bright.
Kind.
Paolo had shown photographs to anyone willing to look.
“Renato chose you because you love her,” Marcelo said.
“Yes.”
“He expects that love to make you stupid.”
Paolo flinched.
“He has her.”
“And if you give him Elena, he has two hostages.”
Elena kept her voice steady.
“Paolo, look at Daniel.”
He did.
“He’s fifteen.”
Paolo swallowed.
“You know what it feels like to be afraid for your child.”
His hand lowered slightly.
Daniel noticed.
Marcelo did too.
“Let him go.”
Paolo closed his eyes.
Then he lowered the gun.
Daniel ran to Elena.
She pulled him behind her.
Paolo placed the gun on the floor.
“I’m sorry.”
Marcelo stepped forward.
“We save Sofia first.”
The timer showed 01:52.
The bomb team arrived.
A technician crawled beneath the chair.
Marcelo stood nearby.
“Can you stop it?”
“Maybe.”
“Wrong answer.”
The technician ignored him.
Elena almost smiled despite herself.
Thirty-eight seconds.
The technician clipped one wire.
Nothing.
Twenty-six.
Another.
Nothing.
Sixteen.
Paolo looked as if he might collapse.
The technician cut a third.
The timer froze at 00:09.
Nobody moved.
Then Sofia exhaled.
Marcelo untied her.
She stood and slapped Paolo across the face.
Hard.
Marcelo blinked.
Sofia said, “That is for Daniel.”
Paolo nodded.
“I deserved it.”
“And this—”
She slapped him again.
“—is for making me sit on a bomb.”
Elena laughed.
She could not help it.
For one brief second, tension cracked.
Even Marcelo’s mouth moved.
Then Tomas entered.
“We found something.”
He held a tablet.
Security footage.
Paolo had disabled the internal sensors.
But one independent camera remained active inside Marcelo’s office.
The footage showed Renato entering the villa.
With Adrian Vale.
Marcelo stared.
“Ethan said Renato planned to kill him.”
Elena looked closer.
“Maybe Ethan lied.”
The video continued.
Renato and Vale argued.
No sound.
Vale slammed a file onto Marcelo’s desk.
Renato pointed toward the door.
Vale shoved him.
Then Renato drew a gun.
The footage stopped.
“What happened?” Marcelo asked.
“Camera went offline.”
Marcelo looked at Paolo.
“Where did they go?”
“I don’t know.”
Marcelo stepped closer.
Paolo seemed to shrink.
“Think.”
“They mentioned the old chapel.”
Marcelo went still.
The Castellane family chapel stood twelve kilometers inland.
Abandoned.
Used only for family funerals.
“My father is buried there,” Marcelo said.
Paolo nodded.
“Renato said something about finishing where it started.”
Elena looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Marcelo already knew.
The night before his father died, his father had visited the chapel alone.
Marcelo had never known why.
They left immediately.
Sofia remained with Daniel under heavy protection.
Paolo insisted on joining them.
Marcelo almost refused.
Then Elena said, “If Renato has his daughter, Paolo may be the only person he’ll answer.”
Marcelo agreed.
The chapel appeared among cypress trees.
No lights.
No guards.
Marcelo, Elena, Tomas, and Paolo approached through the graveyard.
Marcelo’s father’s tomb stood near the chapel entrance.
A fresh white rose lay on it.
Marcelo stopped.
Renato always brought white roses.
The chapel door was open.
Inside, candles burned.
A man sat in the front pew.
Adrian Vale.
His hands were tied.
Blood marked his shirt.
He looked up.
“Marcelo.”
“Where is Renato?”
Vale laughed weakly.
“Always the wrong question.”
“What’s the right one?”
Vale looked at Elena.
“Where is Ethan?”
She went still.
Vale continued.
“He never worked for Renato.”
Marcelo narrowed his eyes.
“The ledger says otherwise.”
“The ledger was altered.”
“By whom?”
Vale smiled despite the pain.
“By the only person who needed Elena to find it.”
Elena’s face changed.
“No.”
Vale looked directly at her.
“Ethan used you.”
A sound came from behind the altar.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Elena turned.
Ethan Cross stepped into the candlelight.
He was holding Renato’s gun.
And beside him stood Lucia Paolo.
May you like
Alive.
Then Ethan raised the weapon toward Marcelo.
