Chapter 9 - The Locked Room
I didn't waste another second. I sprinted out of the orphanage, ordered the convoy to move, and we tore through the city streets at ninety miles an hour.
We arrived at an abandoned, decaying industrial warehouse on the outskirts of the city. My heart was pounding so hard it physically hurt my ribs. I didn't wait for my men to clear the perimeter. I grabbed a heavy crowbar from the trunk and sprinted down into the dark, damp basement of the facility.
At the end of a long, concrete corridor was a heavy steel door locked with three deadbolts.
I swung the crowbar with absolute, animalistic fury, shattering the locks one by one. I kicked the heavy steel door open, my chest heaving as I stepped into the freezing, windowless room.
Huddled in the corner on a small, dirty mattress was a fragile, terrified woman.
She flinched violently at the sound of the door crashing open, throwing her thin arms up to protect her face.
“Alina,” I choked out, dropping the crowbar to the floor.
She froze. Slowly, she lowered her arms. Even after six years of darkness and starvation, her eyes were still the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
“Luca?” she whispered, her voice incredibly weak, utterly convinced she was hallucinating.
I dropped to my knees in the dirt and pulled her into a desperate, crushing embrace. She buried her face in my shoulder, sobbing with pure, agonizing relief.
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“He told me... he told me if I didn't sign the papers, his men would kill you and Sophia,” Alina wept, clinging to my jacket. “I only stayed in the dark to keep you both alive.”
👉 I carried my broken wife out of the dark basement, bringing her home to the ultimate, beautiful miracle.
