Chapter 4 - Beneath the Estate
I dropped to one knee and pressed my palm against the floor.
Three knocks came again.
Matteo backed toward the door.
"Old pipes."
"Pipes don't knock in patterns."
I found a seam beneath the rug. Together with Carlo, who returned when I shouted, I dragged the bed aside.
A steel hatch had been hidden beneath it.
Matteo said nothing.
I looked at him.
"Open it."
"I don't have that key."
I held up the brass key.
It fit.
The hatch lifted with a groan.
A narrow staircase descended into blackness.
The air smelled like damp stone and antiseptic.
My mother appeared in the doorway behind us.
"Luca, stop."
Her voice was no longer calm.
That frightened me more than anything.
I took the stairs two at a time.
The underground corridor looked older than the estate above it. My grandfather had built emergency tunnels during the years when enemies came with bombs instead of lawsuits.
One bare bulb burned at the far end.
A metal door stood open.
Inside was another hospital bed.
Empty.
On the floor lay a child's knitted cap.
Blue.
Tiny.
I picked it up with shaking fingers.
Grace had made the same cap during one of our video calls.
"Where is my son?" I asked.
Nobody answered.
On a small table sat a feeding bottle, unopened diapers, and a stack of medical forms. The top form listed Grace's name under a false surname.
The next line made my blood turn cold.
PATIENT: FEMALE, 31.
PREGNANCY STATUS: DELIVERED.
I stopped breathing.
Delivered.
Our child had been born while I was gone.
I turned on my mother.
"Where is my baby?"
For the first time in my life, Sofia Rossi looked afraid of me.
"Luca, there are things you don't understand."
"Then make me understand."
A phone rang somewhere inside the tunnel.
Not mine.
Not Matteo's.
A cheap burner phone sat beneath the table.
I answered.
May you like
A woman's voice whispered one sentence.
"If you want Grace alive, do not trust anyone with the Rossi name."
