Chapter 3 - The Woman in Red Knew the House

The estate locked down in less than ninety seconds.

Gates.

Garages.

Service roads.

Every exit.

Belini had still vanished.

No car left.

No guard saw her pass.

That meant only one thing.

She knew a route Luca did not.

Sofia knew which one.

“The chapel tunnel.”

Luca stared at her.

“There is no chapel tunnel.”

“There is.”

“You’ve been gone seven years and somehow know my house better than I do?”

Sofia gave him a tired look.

“It was our house before it was yours.”

Rosa joined them in the west wing.

When she saw Sofia, she stopped in the doorway and began to cry.

No questions.

No disbelief.

She crossed the room and held her niece.

For one minute, every secret waited.

Then Sofia pushed gently away.

“We don’t have time.”

Luca wanted answers.

He wanted all of them.

But he had spent his life surviving by knowing which question could wait.

“Show me the tunnel.”

The old chapel sat at the eastern edge of the estate.

Unused.

Cold.

Its altar had not been touched since Luca’s father died.

Sofia pressed one carved lion beneath the marble rail.

A narrow section of wall opened.

Marco swore quietly.

Luca looked at him.

“Later.”

They entered.

Emma stayed with Nico and Rosa upstairs.

At least she tried.

Nico looked at her.

“You were here before.”

Emma shook her head.

“I wasn’t.”

“You were.”

“Nico—”

“You cried in the blue room.”

Emma stopped.

Something moved behind her eyes.

A flash.

Blue wallpaper.

Rain hitting glass.

A woman screaming.

Her mother’s voice:

Run, Emma.

Then nothing.

Emma gripped the chair.

Rosa saw.

“What is it?”

“I remembered something.”

Upstairs, Sofia had said Belini was the reason she vanished.

Downstairs, Emma was beginning to understand her own missing night.

She had been twenty-one.

Her mother had supposedly died in a car crash three weeks after Sofia disappeared.

But Marco had already proved there was no crash.

Which meant Elena had lied to her daughter.

Or somebody had lied for her.

In the tunnel, Luca found fresh footprints.

High heels.

One broken red thread snagged on stone.

Belini.

The passage ended behind a storage wall near the old greenhouse.

Empty.

Outside, tire marks cut through wet grass toward a service lane.

Marco crouched.

“She had help.”

Luca looked back at the hidden exit.

“Inside help.”

His phone rang.

Unknown number.

He answered.

Belini.

Her breathing was calm.

Too calm.

“You found Sofia.”

“Yes.”

A pause.

“I suppose she told you I kidnapped her.”

“She said you made her disappear.”

“That is not the same thing.”

“Come back and explain the difference.”

Belini laughed softly.

“No.”

Luca’s voice remained level.

“Then I’ll find you.”

“You should find Emma’s memory first.”

He went still.

Belini continued.

“Ask her what Elena made her carry out of the blue house.”

The call ended.

Luca returned upstairs.

Emma was waiting.

Before he could speak, she said, “I remembered the wallpaper.”

Sofia looked at her.

“Blue.”

Emma nodded.

“And my mother told me to run.”

Sofia closed her eyes.

Then whispered, “You carried Nico.”

Emma stared.

“What?”

“You carried him out.”

Nico was watching both women.

Sofia reached for his hand.

“You were three months old.”

Emma’s face went white.

“That’s impossible.”

“No.”

Sofia looked at Luca.

“I disappeared while pregnant. Nico was born eight months later.”

Luca understood.

The family had believed Sofia vanished seven years ago.

Nico was six.

The timeline finally fit.

Sofia continued.

“Elena hid us after he was born. Emma found us by accident.”

Emma shook her head.

“My mother never told me.”

“She was trying to keep you alive.”

A shadow passed beneath the door.

Marco turned.

Too late.

A small metal cylinder rolled into the room.

Smoke erupted.

Luca grabbed Nico.

Emma pulled Rosa back.

Marco covered Sofia.

In the confusion, a masked man appeared in the hall.

He did not aim at Luca.

He aimed at Emma.

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And said one sentence.

“Elena should have kept her daughter out of this.”