Chapter 7 - THE PERFECT SCAPEGOAT
Security footage appeared on the guest-room television.
It showed me entering the nursery days earlier.
It showed me standing above Leo’s crib.
It showed me hiding bottles beneath my uniform.
None of it had happened.
The recordings were edited.
My face had been placed over another woman’s body.
A final clip showed me carrying a bundle through the west gate.
The timestamp was live.
The public system had already transmitted the footage to local police.
Camilla’s plan was moving forward despite Leo still being in my arms.
“They do not need to take him yet,” Dante said.
“They only need everyone outside this house to believe you did.”
Lorenzo tried his security code.
The door rejected it.
Enzo had transferred control of the mansion’s smart system.
Steel shutters covered the windows.
The ventilation system stopped.
Leo began crying.
Dr. Reed checked the oxygen monitor.
“We need fresh air.”
Lorenzo fired at the lock.
The bullet flattened against reinforced steel.
I searched the room.
Housekeepers learned buildings differently from owners.
We knew which doors swelled during rain.
Which vents rattled.
Which walls hid pipes.
A laundry chute ran behind the guest bathroom.
It was too narrow for an adult.
It might fit Leo.
“I can lower him to the service room,” I said.
Lorenzo stared at me.
“You want to put my son in a chute?”
“I want to get him out of a sealed room.”
Dante opened the panel.
The chute disappeared into darkness.
We tied clean sheets together.
Dr. Reed secured Leo inside a linen basket.
He cried when I moved away.
I leaned close.
“I’m coming.”
The words were for both of us.
Dante lowered the basket.
Lorenzo climbed into the shaft after it.
I followed.
The metal walls scraped my arms.
We reached the laundry room three floors below.
Two guards waited.
They raised their weapons.
Dante shot one.
Lorenzo disarmed the other.
I lifted Leo from the basket.
He calmed against me.
Sirens sounded beyond the estate gates.
Police vehicles surrounded the property.
The false kidnapping alert had worked.
Lorenzo’s criminal reputation made the story believable.
A terrified maid had stolen a mafia boss’s son.
A violent father had locked down his estate.
Every officer outside expected a hostage crisis.
Camilla’s voice came through the laundry-room speaker.
“Lorenzo.”
“You have ten minutes to surrender Maya.”
“Place her in the courtyard with the child.”
“Then the police may believe you are cooperating.”
Lorenzo looked at the ceiling camera.
“If I give her to you, you kill them both.”
Camilla laughed softly.
“You finally learned to question family.”
The speaker clicked off.
Dante examined the service map.
“There is a tunnel from the boiler room to the old chapel.”
“It exits beyond the north wall.”
Lorenzo shook his head.
“Police will be watching it.”
“Not if they do not know it exists.”
Dr. Reed prepared a clean bottle.
Leo rejected it.
His mouth searched for me.
I sat on the laundry floor and fed him while armed men planned our escape.
The scene should have felt impossible.
Instead, it felt like my entire life had narrowed to one task.
Keep him swallowing.
Dante connected to an outside federal contact.
The call reached Special Agent Mara Quinn.
She had investigated Rossi Medical Holdings for two years.
Lorenzo offered her the encrypted medical ledgers in exchange for safe passage for Leo, Dr. Reed, Bianca, and me.
Quinn did not trust him.
He did not ask her to.
“Send someone to the chapel tunnel,” he said.
“I will give you evidence that destroys my family.”
“What do you want in return?”
“My son lives.”
Quinn agreed.
Before we reached the boiler room, an explosion shook the mansion.
The floor split.
May you like
Smoke rolled through the hall.
Camilla had decided ten minutes was too generous.
