Chapter 6 - THE PAPER IN THE POCKET
The air in the basement was rapidly growing thick and gray.
Elena coughed, the acrid smoke stinging her lungs. She looked up at the ceiling. The heavy wooden floorboards of the dining room above them were already groaning under the heat.
"Vincent, we have to move," Elena said, wrapping his good arm over her shoulder. "Help me. Come on."
With a guttural cry of pain, Vincent forced himself up. His legs shook violently, but he leaned his weight onto Elena. She gritted her teeth, ignoring the burning in her own muscles.
"The safe room," Vincent gasped, pointing toward a reinforced steel door hidden behind a false wall of shelving. "Marco... Marco wouldn't have the codes."
They hobbled toward it, Leo running slightly ahead. Elena punched in the code Vincent mumbled, and the heavy door hissed open. Inside, the room was small, lit by emergency battery lights, with a ventilation system that immediately began scrubbing the smoke.
Elena lowered Vincent onto a cot against the wall. He was fading fast.
"I need to stop the bleeding," Elena said, frantically searching the room’s medical supplies. She found trauma gauze and pressure bandages. As she tore his ruined shirt open to pack the wound, a heavy, folded envelope fell from his inner breast pocket.
It landed next to Leo's stick-figure drawing.
Elena grabbed the envelope to move it out of the way, but the flap was open. She saw a legal seal.
Her eyes caught the heading. Petition for Legal Adoption.
She froze, scanning the document. It was dated a week ago. The petitioner was Vincent Moretti. The child was Leo. And there was a trust fund established, entirely severing Leo from the Moretti crime syndicate and placing him under civilian protection.
Vincent had been preparing to make Leo his legal son, protecting him permanently from Marco's wrath.
Elena looked at Vincent. His eyes were half-closed, his breathing shallow.
"You were going to adopt him," she whispered.
Vincent nodded weakly. "Camilla... wanted to leave the country. Start over. But without a father on paper... Marco would never stop looking. If Leo was legally mine... Marco couldn't touch him without answering to the Commission. I was going to send them away. Safe."
He reached out, his bloody fingers grasping Elena’s hand.
"I didn't marry you just to protect you, Elena," Vincent confessed, his voice barely a whisper. "I fell in love with you. I wanted a real life. A clean life. With you. I'm sorry... I ruined it."
Tears spilled over Elena’s cheeks. She pressed his hand to her lips. "You didn't ruin anything. You're the only good thing in this family."
She finished wrapping his torso tightly, applying maximum pressure. It would hold him for a while, but he needed a hospital.
Leo was standing by the heavy steel door, pressing his ear against the metal.
"My mom is out there," Leo said quietly.
Elena looked at the boy. Then she looked at the silver rosary in her pocket. Her father had destroyed her mother. He had sold her out for a debt, stolen her necklace, and faked his death. Now, he was going to do the exact same thing to Camilla.
Elena stood up.
"Where are you going?" Vincent rasped, trying to sit up.
"He doesn't know the estate like I do," Elena said, her voice turning cold and resolute. "When we were kids, your sister used to bring me here to play hide and seek. I know where that tunnel leads."
"Elena, no. Arthur is armed. He's desperate."
"So am I," Elena said. She picked up the heavy tactical flashlight Marco had dropped. She weighed it in her hand. It was solid steel.
She knelt in front of Leo, looking him directly in his gray eyes.
"I am going to bring your mother back," Elena said firmly. "You stay right here with Vincent. Lock the door. Do not open it for anyone but me. Do you understand?"
Leo nodded slowly. "Are you going to hurt the bad man?"
"Yes," Elena said honestly.
May you like
She stepped out of the safe room. As the steel door locked shut behind her with a heavy thud, Elena tied the torn remnants of her wedding dress above her knees, gripped the flashlight, and walked into the smoke.
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