Chapter 11 - The House Without Mia
I had faced armed men without fear.
I had watched enemies die.
I had survived betrayals that should have destroyed me.
Nothing compared to walking into my daughter's empty bedroom.
Mia's little shoes were still beside the bed.
Her blanket was folded.
A stuffed rabbit's missing ear lay on the carpet.
Bunny was gone.
Elena broke down.
I didn't.
I couldn't.
I had to think.
Gabriel found one clue.
A security camera had captured the kidnapping.
A woman in a dark coat carried Mia through the service entrance.
Her face was hidden.
But she wore a silver bracelet.
Elena recognized it.
“Isabella.”
The video showed something else.
Mia wasn't crying.
She was holding the rabbit.
And before the woman carried her away, Mia looked directly at the camera.
She raised her hand.
Three fingers.
Then one.
I stared at the screen.
Mia had been playing a counting game with me.
Three.
One.
What did it mean?
Elena suddenly understood.
“The library.”
I looked at her.
“Mia counts the books in the old library.”
We ran there.
Behind the third shelf on the first floor was a small wooden panel.
Inside was a message.
Not from Isabella.
From Elena.
She had prepared emergency instructions for Mia long before the kidnapping.
The message contained a location.
An abandoned chapel outside the city.
Gabriel checked.
There was no sign of Isabella there.
But a nearby security camera showed a black vehicle arriving forty minutes earlier.
We followed the route.
It led to an old family estate.
My father's abandoned winter house.
The name suddenly made sense.
The Winter Ledger.
The Winter House.
Isabella had been using it for years.
We arrived before dawn.
Snow covered the grounds.
There was one light burning inside.
I entered through the rear.
Then I heard Mia crying.
I followed the sound.
She was in a small room.
Isabella stood beside her.
Mia clutched Bunny.
Isabella turned.
“You came.”
I raised my weapon.
“Let my daughter go.”
She smiled.
“You still sound exactly like your father.”
“I am nothing like him.”
Her smile faded.
“That's what he wanted you to believe.”
Mia looked at me.
“Daddy!”
I took one step forward.
Isabella tightened her grip.
Then she said:
May you like
“Before you take her, Alessandro, you need to know what your father did to Elena's family.”
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