جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

"If you ever get taken, don't scream. Keep calm and count."That was the last thing my father ever taught me before he disappeared. I was sixteen. I thought he was being dramatic.I stopped thinking that the night they came for us.It was a Friday, I remember clearly because the restaurant was packed, as usual for that night. It ended up being just Marge, my coworker, and me handling all the customers.That was the last normal moment I had.I stared at the clock on the wall, It was 11:55 PM. My shift was almost over.“Isabella, are you still with us?" I blinked and looked at Marge.She was wiping down the counter for the umpteenth time tonight. Her grey hair was falling out of her hairnet, and she looked just as tired as I was."I'm here, Marge. Just thinking about my bed, I really need to get some rest,” I said. My voice sounded raspy. I’d been taking orders for eight hours straight."You’ve been looking at that door all night," Marge said. She stopped scrubbing and leaned on her elbo

The dining room was too big. That was the first thing I noticed. The table was a long, dark slab of wood that looked like it belonged in a museum. There were dozens of chairs, but only two places were set. One at the head and one to the right. It was quite sad.Luca was already sitting there. He didn’t have a book or a phone. He was just sitting, staring at the empty plate in front of him. When I walked in, his eyes tracked me from the door to the chair."Sit," he said.I didn't move. "I'm not eating with you.""You have two choices, Isabella. You eat here, with me, or my men take you upstairs and force-feed you through a tube. I’d prefer the first option. It’s less messy for the rug."He said it so calmly that it took a second for the threat to sink in. I pulled out the heavy chair. The legs scraped against the marble floor, making a loud, screeching sound. I sat down and gripped the edge of the table."Where is my mother?" I asked."You’ve asked that three times since you got in her

The drive back from the courthouse was even quieter than the drive there. It felt like sitting inside an armored vault. The windows were so thick I could barely hear the wind outside.I looked down at the black diamonds on my finger. They were cold."You're staring at it," Luca said. He hadn't looked at me once since we left the government building. He was typing something into a tablet, his face illuminated by the blue light of the screen."It’s heavy," I said."It’s supposed to be. It reminds you of the weight of the name you just took,” he said. I just rolled my eyes."I didn't take it. You gave it to me. There’s a difference."Luca finally looked up. He didn't look angry; he looked bored. "The result is the same. In the eyes of the law and the eyes of my enemies, you are a Moretti. Act like it.""And how does a Moretti act?""With silence," he said, turning back to his tablet. "And with caution."The car pulled up to a different estate this time. This wasn't the glass castle on th

Sleep wouldn't come. The bed was too soft, the room too quiet, and the ring on my finger felt like it was burning straight through my skin. Every time I closed my eyes, I was back in my father's study, staring at numbers that didn't add up, at a name I didn't recognise, at a life he had hidden from me like a second set of keys. Tomorrow, I would put my thumb on that scanner. And if it didn't work, Luca would have no more use for me. He had said it himself, calmly, like he was reading from a menu. *I don't keep liabilities.* I got up. The guard on the lawn below was walking his straight, robotic line, rifle strapped to his shoulder, breath fogging in the cold. I watched him for a moment, then made my decision before I could talk myself out of it. I didn't touch the silk. I found my old jeans and the shirt I had been wearing the day they took me, crumpled in the back of the closet like something shameful. I pulled them on. They smelled like my real life. Like before. I needed

The silence inside the vault was deafening. The stone door had sealed with a final, mechanical thud, cutting off the sounds of the sirens and the gunshots. I was alone in the belly of the earth. I didn't move for a long time. I just stood there in the dark, my hand still resting on the cold glass of the scanner. The green light had faded, leaving only a tiny, blinking amber bulb near the floor. It was just enough to see the small locker that had hissed open. My heart was hammering against my ribs. I reached out, my fingers trembling, and pulled the small velvet-lined tray toward me. It was light. When I looked down, my stomach dropped. The tray was empty. There was no "Lion’s Heart." No walnut-sized diamond. Just an indentation in the velvet where something heavy had once rested. I felt a surge of cold panic. If the diamond wasn't here, I was a dead woman. Luca had risked everything, his reputation, his men, his marriage, to get me to this room. If I walked out with empty hands, h