Chapter 10 - TOMMY’S CHOICE
Tommy did not show the message immediately.
He slipped the phone into his pocket and walked toward the stairs.
Luca noticed.
“Where are you going?”
“Bathroom.”
“The bathroom is behind you.”
Tommy froze.
Elena saw the fear in his face.
She took the phone before he could stop her.
Tommy began shouting.
“They’ll hurt Aunt Grace.”
“They already killed my dad.”
“I’m not letting them take her too.”
Maya stepped beside him.
“You can’t give them me.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“You were going alone.”
Tommy looked away.
Luca understood the boy’s plan.
Tommy believed he could trade himself, warn his aunt, or create enough trouble for her to escape.
It was the kind of plan a child created after learning adults could not be trusted.
Luca called Marisol.
They traced the image.
The greenhouse photograph was real, but the metadata showed it had been taken two hours earlier.
Salvatore wanted them to return to the estate.
Bianca remained there under guard.
Luca suspected she was also part of the trap.
Tommy sat beside the mirrored wall.
“If Aunt Grace dies, it’s my fault.”
“No,” Luca said.
“The fault belongs to the person who took her.”
“That doesn’t bring people back.”
Luca looked at the child.
“No.”
“But blaming yourself gives the person who hurt them a second victim.”
Tommy wiped his face angrily.
Maya sat beside him.
She did not tell him everything would be fine.
She simply held his hand.
Marisol planned an assault on the greenhouse.
Luca insisted on going.
Elena objected.
“You can barely move your foot.”
“I don’t need to walk to make decisions.”
“You almost died on the road.”
“So did all of you.”
“That is exactly why you should stay.”
Luca looked at her.
“For twelve years, everyone made choices around me because they believed the wheelchair made me incapable.”
“Do not protect me by repeating what they did.”
Elena’s anger softened but did not disappear.
“I am not questioning your mind.”
“I am questioning whether Maya can survive losing you after finding you.”
Luca had no answer.
Maya did.
“You’re both coming back.”
She placed one hand on Luca’s knee and the other on Elena’s.
“That’s the rule.”
The rescue team entered the estate through the tunnel beneath the greenhouse.
They found Aunt Grace alive.
She was tied to the same medical cot once used during Luca’s poisoning.
Bianca sat beside her.
Her hands were also restrained.
Salvatore stood behind them holding a pistol.
Around him were six armed men.
A camera transmitted the scene to every screen inside the estate.
May you like
Salvatore looked directly into the lens.
“Welcome home, nephew.”
