Chapter 6 - The Spark in the Dark
"Let go of her!" a sharp voice barked from the top of the grand staircase.
Everyone in the foyer froze.
Elena Whitmore stood at the top of the stairs, her medical coat covered in faint spots of fresh water. She held a medical tablet in her hand, her face deathly pale, but her eyes burning with fierce courage.
"Matteo," Elena called down, her voice trembling slightly. "You need to come upstairs right now."
Matteo released my arm, shoving me slightly backward. He glared up at the nurse. "Why? Did my cousin finally die?"
"No," Elena said, taking a deep, shuddering breath. "He just opened his eyes."
The foyer erupted into total silence.
Matteo’s face turned gray. He looked as if he had been slapped across the mouth with an iron bar.
"What did you say?" Matteo demanded, taking two steps toward the stairs.
"Lorenzo is conscious," Elena declared loudly, looking directly down at me with a subtle, triumphant nod. "He woke up two minutes ago. And he’s asking for his family."
Matteo didn't wait. He shoved past Isabella and sprinted up the grand staircase, his four armed bodyguards scrambling after him.
The moment they disappeared into the upper hallway, Isabella grabbed my hand, pulling me into the small alcove beneath the stairs.
"Clara," Isabella whispered frantically. "Did you take Mia to his room before Matteo arrived?"
"No!" I stammered, rubbing my bruised arm. "She was upstairs sleeping!"
"Then why did he wake up?" Isabella asked, bewildered.
Elena slipped down the back service stairs, sliding into the alcove beside us, her face flushed with excitement.
"I left the baby monitor on in Mia’s bedroom," Elena whispered, holding up her phone. "I linked the audio to the medical room speakers so Lorenzo could hear her breathing while he slept. Ten minutes ago, Mia woke up from a nightmare and started singing 'You Are My Sunshine' into the monitor."
Tears sprang to my eyes. My sweet, innocent baby girl had saved us all without ever leaving her bed.
"Is Lorenzo fully coherent?" Isabella asked urgently.
"He can't speak well yet—his vocal cords are weak from the ventilator," Elena reported. "But his brain function is ninety percent restored. And when Matteo walked into that room... Lorenzo looked at him like he wanted to kill him."
"We need to get Mia," I said, my mother's protective instincts taking total control. "Matteo knows there’s a child here. He won't leave this estate until he finds out who she is."
"Go," Isabella ordered, pulling a brass key from her apron pocket and shoving it into my palm. "Take the secret passage behind the library fireplace. It leads to the underground garage. I have a car waiting there. Take Mia and drive to the safe house in Montauk."
"What about you?" I asked, terrified of leaving her behind.
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Isabella smiled—a fierce, ancient smile that belonged to a woman who had survived thirty years inside a crime syndicate.
"I am the manager of this estate, Clara," Isabella said smoothly. "Matteo cannot touch me without starting a war with the old council. Now go save Julianna's child!"
