Chapter 4 - The Man With Shiny Shoes
I did not wait for permission.
I ran.
Down the balcony steps.
Across the garden.
Barefoot on stone, then wet grass, then gravel that cut into my feet.
All I saw was Lily’s pink sweater flashing in the dark coat of the man carrying her.
All I heard was her voice.
“Mommy!”
The sun had barely risen. The gardens were gray and cold. Fog clung low over the lawn, turning the hedges into shadows.
Behind me, Dominic shouted orders.
Guards spread across the property.
Sirens wailed from somewhere near the front gate.
But the man with shiny shoes knew the estate.
He did not run toward the main drive.
He cut behind the rose maze and headed for the old service path that led toward the woods.
I pushed harder.
“Lily!”
The man looked back.
For a second, I saw his face.
Narrow.
Unshaven.
A scar near his mouth.
His shoes flashed black beneath his coat.
Smoke and lemons.
Just like Lily said.
He shifted her under one arm and pulled something from his pocket.
A gun.
I stopped so suddenly I nearly fell.
He pressed it near Lily’s side.
“Stay back!” he shouted.
My breath died.
Lily sobbed, “Mommy, help.”
I lifted both hands.
“Please. She’s three. She’s just a baby.”
“Then she should’ve kept her mouth shut.”
His words cut through me.
I took one slow step.
“Take me instead.”
He laughed.
“You think this is a bargain?”
“She can’t identify you. She’s scared. She won’t remember.”
His eyes narrowed.
“She already remembered too much.”
Dominic appeared to my left, gun lowered at his side.
Not pointed.
Not yet.
“Luca,” he said.
So this was Vincent’s driver.
Luca dragged Lily backward.
“Drop it.”
Dominic placed his gun on the grass.
“Let her go.”
Luca laughed again, but his hand shook.
“You always sound like you’re giving orders, Mr. Moretti.”
Dominic’s face stayed calm.
“You’re on my property with a child. Think carefully.”
“I did think. That’s why I’m leaving.”
“With whose help?”
Luca’s eyes flicked toward the woods.
That tiny glance told Dominic everything.
There was a second exit.
Someone waiting.
I saw Dominic’s fingers move slightly.
A signal.
Behind Luca, near the tree line, Marco emerged silently with two guards.
Luca sensed it too late.
He spun.
Lily screamed.
I lunged before my mind caught up.
I grabbed Lily’s legs and pulled down with every ounce of strength I had.
The gun went off.
The sound split the morning open.
Pain burned across my upper arm.
Lily fell into me.
I wrapped myself around her as we hit the grass.
Dominic tackled Luca.
They crashed hard.
The gun skidded away.
Marco reached it first.
Luca fought like a cornered man, kicking, cursing, clawing at Dominic’s face. Dominic took one punch, then another, before driving Luca into the ground.
“Who sent you?” Dominic growled.
Luca spat blood.
“You know.”
Dominic grabbed his collar.
“Say the name.”
Luca smiled through red teeth.
Then his body jerked.
Once.
Twice.
I heard another shot, softer, from the woods.
Luca collapsed.
Marco shouted.
“Shooter!”
Guards fired toward the trees.
I held Lily against me and covered her ears.
She was screaming.
I was bleeding.
Dominic crawled toward us.
“Anna!”
“I’m okay,” I lied.
His eyes dropped to my arm.
Blood soaked my sleeve.
Dr. Harris arrived minutes later with a medical bag, breathing hard like he had run the whole estate. He cut my sleeve open while Lily clung to my waist.
“Graze wound,” he said. “Painful, not deep.”
I almost laughed.
Not deep.
It felt like fire.
Dominic crouched in front of Lily.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“Mommy got hurt.”
“I know.”
“Fix her.”
Dr. Harris smiled gently.
“I’m working on it.”
Dominic looked toward the woods where guards were still searching.
His face had gone cold again.
“Luca is dead?” I asked.
Marco stood nearby.
“Yes.”
“Who shot him?”
“We’re tracking.”
Dominic’s gaze shifted toward the house.
I knew what he was thinking.
A dead man cannot confess.
Vincent had been in the foyer when Lily was taken.
But someone had helped Luca reach the family wing.
Someone had dropped the guards outside the room.
Someone had known the balcony route.
This house was still poisoned.
They moved us to Dominic’s private study because it had reinforced doors and no balcony. Ethan refused to leave Lily, so Dr. Harris checked both children on the leather sofa.
Ethan looked at my bandaged arm.
“I should’ve stopped him.”
I knelt despite the pain.
“You did. You fought him.”
“I only hit him with a lamp.”
“You gave us time.”
His lip trembled.
“My dad says time is everything.”
“He’s right.”
Dominic stood by the desk, watching us.
For a moment, I saw something in his face I had not expected.
Not suspicion.
Not command.
Gratitude.
Then the door opened and Marco stepped inside.
“We found the shooter’s shell casing near the east wall. No body. No blood trail.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
“He got out?”
“Looks like he used the drainage tunnel.”
Dominic slammed his hand on the desk.
Lily flinched.
He stopped instantly.
His eyes went to her.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Dominic Moretti apologized to my daughter like the word cost him something.
She nodded slowly.
Then Marco placed a tablet on the desk.
“We pulled the remaining footage. Someone looped the hall feed outside the family wing for six minutes.”
“From where?” Dominic asked.
Marco hesitated.
“The study terminal.”
I looked around.
We were standing in Dominic’s study.
Dominic’s face darkened.
“That’s impossible. I locked it.”
Marco swallowed.
“Only three people have the override.”
“You. Me. And?”
Marco looked toward the door.
“Vincent.”
The study fell silent.
Ethan stood.
“Uncle Vincent?”
Dominic closed his eyes for one second.
Then opened them.
“Where is he?”
Marco’s voice was grim.
“Gone.”
I hugged Lily tighter.
Dominic stared at the tablet.
“What about Emily?”
“Under guard.”
“Police?”
“On their way.”
Dominic looked at me then.
For the first time, he seemed uncertain.
“Anna, this is bigger than I thought.”
“I know.”
“If Vincent is behind this, he won’t stop because one attempt failed.”
I swallowed.
“What does he want?”
Dominic looked at Ethan.
“My son’s inheritance.”
Then he looked at Lily.
“And silence.”
The police arrived twenty minutes later, but they did not make me feel safer.
Detectives questioned me.
Paramedics checked my arm.
Uniforms moved through hallways that still smelled like roses and fear.
Lily sat on my lap the entire time.
When one detective asked her about the cold room, she buried her face in my shoulder.
Dominic stepped in.
“That’s enough.”
The detective bristled.
“She’s a witness.”
“She’s three.”
“She saw the suspect.”
“She nearly got kidnapped by him.”
The room tightened.
The detective backed off.
Later, when Lily finally slept on the sofa, Dominic handed me a cup of tea.
His own hands looked bruised.
“Thank you,” I said.
“For what?”
“For stopping them from pushing her.”
He looked at Lily.
“She has done enough for every adult in this house.”
A knock came.
Marco entered with a white envelope.
“It was found in Vincent’s guest room.”
Dominic opened it.
Inside was a photo.
Ethan blowing out last year’s birthday candles.
A red X drawn over his face.
On the back, one sentence.
Sophia’s son dies, or the truth comes out.
Dominic’s face went gray.
I stood slowly.
“What truth?”
He did not answer.
But Ethan had woken.
He stared at his father.
“What truth, Dad?”
Dominic looked trapped.
And I understood something that scared me almost as much as the gun.
The attempt on Ethan’s life was not only about money.
May you like
It was about Sophia.
And whatever Dominic had buried with his wife was clawing its way back into the house.
