Chapter 7 - The Loyalties Tested
Isabella’s face was an unreadable mask of stone as she cocked the shotgun.
Clara instinctively raised her stolen pistol, her hands shaking so badly she could barely keep it aimed.
She begged the older woman to step aside, pleading that she only wanted to get her daughter and leave.
Isabella did not move, her eyes shifting from Clara to the exhausted man leaning against the nurse.
Lorenzo slowly pushed past Clara, standing directly in front of the housekeeper’s weapon.
He looked Isabella in the eyes and asked if she was finally ready to cash in her retirement fund.
A tense silence stretched across the laundry room, broken only by the distant shouting of Giorgio’s men upstairs.
Isabella let out a long, heavy sigh and slowly lowered the barrel of the shotgun.
She muttered that she had served the Moretti family for thirty years and refused to take orders from a traitor like Giorgio.
Isabella reached into her apron and pulled out a heavy ring of keys.
She told Lorenzo that she had managed to unlock the basement garage, where an armored SUV was fully fueled.
Clara felt a massive wave of relief, realizing they actually had a chance to survive the night.
She asked Isabella to watch Lorenzo while she sprinted down the hall to grab Mia.
Clara ran to her quarters, practically tearing the door off its hinges.
She found the bed empty, with only the stuffed rabbit lying on the crumpled sheets.
Panic seized Clara’s throat, choking the air from her lungs.
She tore through the small room, checking under the bed and inside the narrow closet.
Mia was nowhere to be found.
May you like
A cold voice echoed from the doorway behind her.
Giorgio stood there, holding a terrified, crying Mia tightly against his side.
