Chapter 7 - THE FATHER ABOVE THE CHAPELAlessandro entered the hidden chamber with four guards.
He saw the man in the wheelchair and stopped.
For seventeen years, he had carried Carlo Moretti’s coffin, inherited his enemies, and shaped his life around the final lessons of a dead father.
“Papa?”
Carlo’s mouth moved, but no sound came.
A medical tube ran beneath his collar.
Sofia rested one hand on the wheelchair.
“He can hear you.”
Alessandro raised his weapon.
“Move away from him.”
“You still believe this is about rescue.”
“It is about what you did.”
Sofia smiled sadly.
“I kept him alive after Antonio Bellandi tried to kill him.”
Isabella looked toward Daniel.
His expression warned her not to accept anything yet.
Sofia claimed Antonio and Carlo built the Briar Circle together, but Antonio later planned to release every family ledger to federal authorities.
Carlo refused because innocent spouses and children would be exposed alongside criminals.
The men fought.
Antonio fired first.
Sofia intervened and saved her brother.
“Then why declare him dead?” Alessandro asked.
“Because his injuries left him vulnerable. The families would have torn the Morettis apart.”
“You placed me on the throne at twenty-one.”
“I made you strong enough to hold it.”
“You let me believe he was buried.”
“He asked me to.”
Carlo’s eyes filled with tears.
Alessandro moved closer.
“Blink twice if that is true.”
Carlo blinked once.
Sofia tightened her hand on the wheelchair.
Alessandro saw it.
“Again.”
Carlo blinked twice rapidly.
Not agreement.
A warning.
Daniel whispered to Isabella.
“The wheelchair controls the gas system. If Sofia releases the handle, the vents open.”
Sofia had turned Carlo’s body into a dead-man switch.
One shot could kill everyone beneath the chapel.
Emma held the rabbit against her chest.
“Grandpa is scared.”
Sofia looked at the child.
“That toy belongs to me.”
“No.”
“It carries my brother’s medical key.”
Alessandro understood.
The black stitched symbol concealed a transmitter paired to Carlo’s monitor. Daniel had returned the rabbit to Emma because only the toy could disable the chair.
“Emma,” Isabella said carefully, “give me Mr. Bunny.”
The child shook her head.
“Sofia will hurt him.”
Sofia’s expression hardened.
“Bring her to me.”
Two guards behind Alessandro suddenly turned their weapons.
They belonged to Sofia.
The other Moretti guards reacted, splitting the chamber into opposing lines.
Daniel stepped between Emma and the balcony.
“You promised no children.”
“I promised the network would continue.”
“You used Toby—” wrong story. Need correct. Let's fix: “You used Cecilia. You used Carlo. You used Emma.”
Sofia’s eyes remained cold.
“Every family uses what it cannot afford to lose.”
Vivian entered behind the guards.
She carried a small silver blade.
Her father shouted from above the staircase.
“Vivian, stand down.”
She looked toward Sofia.
“Where is Cecilia?”
Sofia nodded toward a side door.
It opened.
A woman in hospital clothing stood behind the glass.
Older than Vivian, pale, but unmistakably her sister.
Vivian dropped the blade.
“Cecilia.”
The woman placed one palm against the glass.
Sofia said, “Bring me the rabbit, and the door opens.”
Vivian looked toward Emma.
Then toward the sister she had mourned for fourteen years.
She stepped forward.
Isabella moved between them.
“You already hurt one child for your family.”
Vivian’s face twisted.
“Do not tell me what I’ve lost.”
“I’m telling you what you are about to become.”
Cecilia struck the glass from inside.
She shook her head violently.
Do not.
Vivian stopped.
For the first time that night, she chose against the person controlling her.
She turned and drove the silver blade into the cable beneath Carlo’s chair.
Sparks flashed.
May you like
The gas warning alarm began screaming.
👉 Vivian severed Sofia’s control—but the damaged system started opening the poison vents anyway.
