Chapter 10 - THE EXCHANGE
Isabela stared at the photograph until Dante took the phone from her.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“I know what you’re thinking.”
“No, you don’t.”
“You’re thinking we can pretend to exchange Sofia.”
Isabela said nothing.
Dante’s jaw tightened.
“That means I’m right.”
“My mother is alive because Helena protected her.”
“And she’ll stay alive.”
“How?”
“By not giving Camilla the one thing she actually wants.”
Isabela turned toward the window.
For years, she had imagined impossible versions of finding Marta alive.
None ended with losing her again twenty-four hours later.
Dante stepped closer.
“I will get her back.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No.”
His answer surprised her.
“I can promise I won’t stop.”
Isabela looked at him.
That was different.
More honest.
And somehow meant more.
Camilla’s instructions arrived an hour later.
A location outside Milan.
An abandoned pediatric clinic once owned by Valera Medical.
Sofia was to arrive with Dante alone.
No weapons.
No security.
No police.
Marta would be released after Sofia entered the building.
Obviously a lie.
Dante knew it.
Isabela knew it.
Marco knew it.
They prepared anyway.
Sofia would not go.
A thermal dummy matching her size would remain in the rear seat until Dante reached the first checkpoint.
Meanwhile, Marco’s team would approach through old service tunnels found on archival building plans.
Isabela insisted on joining.
Dante refused.
She joined anyway.
“You are the most difficult employee I’ve ever hired.”
“I’m not your employee anymore.”
“Exactly.”
The flight to Italy was silent.
Sofia remained at a secure location with two people Dante trusted above everyone else.
No household staff.
No family.
Only Marco’s wife Elena and a retired judge who had been Helena’s godmother.
Before Dante left, Sofia hugged him.
“Bring Grandma Marta home.”
“I will.”
Then she hugged Isabela.
“Sing if you get scared.”
Isabela smiled despite the knot in her chest.
“You too.”
The abandoned clinic sat above the lake.
Blue shutters.
White stone.
Beautiful from a distance.
Rotting inside.
Dante approached through the front.
Isabela and Marco entered through a drainage tunnel.
The tunnel opened beneath the former research wing.
Blue paint still covered the walls.
Dante’s childhood nightmare.
Room 3B.
Rubber floor.
Observation glass.
Metal cabinets.
Isabela touched the wall.
She imagined seven-year-old Dante trapped there.
Marta cleaning the corridor.
A young Helena discovering the truth.
Everything had started in this place.
A speaker crackled.
Camilla’s voice filled the hall.
“Welcome home, Dante.”
Isabela froze.
Cameras.
They were already seen.
Dante’s voice echoed somewhere above.
“Where is Marta?”
“Where is Sofia?”
“She’s in the car.”
“No.”
Camilla laughed.
“She isn’t.”
Red lights switched on.
Steel doors slammed shut.
Marco swore.
“They knew.”
Gas began hissing from vents.
Isabela’s heart accelerated.
Marco pulled his shirt over his mouth.
“Back.”
But Isabela noticed the smell.
Not toxic gas.
Disinfectant vapor.
A distraction.
Then footsteps came from behind.
Two armed men.
Marco moved first.
He struck one.
Dante’s team emerged from another corridor.
Chaos lasted less than thirty seconds.
No gunfire.
Dante had ordered quiet capture whenever possible.
They reached the lower laboratory.
Marta was there.
Alive.
Isabela ran to her.
“Mama.”
Marta cried when the restraints came free.
“I told them you wouldn’t bring Sofia.”
“Where is Camilla?”
Marta pointed upstairs.
“With him.”
“Vale?”
Marta shook her head.
“Alessandro.”
Dante heard.
Everything inside him changed.
He climbed the stairs.
The upper observation room overlooked the blue chamber where he had been experimented on twenty-six years earlier.
A man stood behind the glass.
Older now.
Thinner.
Silver hair.
But unmistakable.
Alessandro Montenegro.
Dante’s father.
Alive.
Alessandro smiled.
“Hello, son.”
Dante stopped.
For decades, men had feared Dante Montenegro.
But the voice of his father reduced part of him to seven years old again.
Alessandro saw it.
Enjoyed it.
“You always were difficult to condition.”
Dante’s hands curled.
“Where is Camilla?”
“Preparing.”
“For what?”
Alessandro looked toward the lower level.
“For Sofia.”
“She isn’t here.”
“I know.”
Dante waited.
Alessandro smiled.
“That wasn’t the point.”
Dante’s phone vibrated.
A security alert from the safe house.
Then another.
Marco received the same notification downstairs.
Sofia’s location had been breached.
Dante looked at his father.
Alessandro laughed.
“The exchange was never for Sofia.”
“It was to get you away from her.”
Dante ran.
At the safe house, cameras showed three vehicles approaching.
One gate had already opened.
Someone inside had disabled the security system.
Sofia stood upstairs beside Elena Ruiz.
Then a woman entered the hallway.
No mask.
No weapon.
Elegant black coat.
Camilla.
Sofia backed away.
Camilla knelt.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Sofia stared at her.
“Aunt Camilla.”
“Yes.”
Camilla smiled.
“Your daddy asked me to take you somewhere safe.”
Sofia shook her head.
Camilla’s smile changed.
“Why not?”
Sofia whispered.
“Because Mommy said never go with the woman who doesn’t know the last verse.”
Camilla froze.
Sofia took one step backward.
Then began singing Marta’s lullaby.
The final verse.
A verse Isabela had never sung in front of Camilla.
May you like
Camilla’s expression disappeared.
And for the first time, she realized Helena had left one last trap inside her daughter’s memory.
