CHAPTER 7 – The Brother Who Refused to Stay Dead
CHAPTER 7 – The Brother Who Refused to Stay Dead
The blinking red light on the detonator reflected in Dominic's eyes.
One press.
That was all it would take.
The underground chamber—and everyone inside it—would become a tomb.
Behind the stranger, Alessia cried out again.
"Maya!"
She sounded frightened, but alive.
Maya instinctively stepped forward.
Dominic caught her wrist.
"No."
His older brother smiled.
"Still trying to protect everyone."
"You never learn."
His name was Lorenzo DeLuca.
Fifteen years earlier, the entire city had believed he died in a warehouse fire after a brutal war between rival crime families.
Dominic himself had identified the burned body.
He had buried his brother.
He had mourned him.
Now the impossible stood only a few feet away.
"You used another body," Dominic said quietly.
Lorenzo nodded.
"A loyal soldier with my wedding ring."
"You let me bury a stranger."
"I let you become head of the family."
His smile faded.
"And you ruined everything Father built."
Dominic's jaw tightened.
"I ended the trafficking."
"I stopped selling children."
"I shut down the drug routes."
"You call that ruining?"
"I call it saving what was left of our name."
Lorenzo laughed.
"No, little brother."
"You made us weak."
"Mercy is expensive."
"Fear is profitable."
Maya looked from one brother to the other.
She finally understood.
This wasn't about money.
The stolen fortune.
The missing ledger.
The kidnapping.
Everything had been planned to pull Dominic into one final war.
Alessia's voice echoed again.
"Maya... I'm scared."
Without taking her eyes off Lorenzo, Maya spoke softly.
"I'm coming."
Lorenzo tilted his head.
"You really think she loves you?"
"She does."
"You've known her for less than two days."
Maya answered without hesitation.
"Children don't measure love by time."
"They measure it by safety."
For the first time, Lorenzo's smile disappeared.
Suddenly...
Alessia began singing.
Very softly.
The same lullaby Maya had hummed inside the abandoned warehouse.
The old star song.
Maya closed her eyes for one brief second.
Then she realized something.
The little girl wasn't simply singing.
She was counting.
Every fourth word echoed differently.
The sound bounced off the stone walls.
Maya opened her eyes.
"The chamber..."
Dominic looked at her.
"What?"
"She's telling us where she is."
The hidden passages created echoes.
Alessia remembered them.
She was using the lullaby to guide them.
Lorenzo realized it a second too late.
He pressed the detonator.
Nothing happened.
His confident expression cracked.
Dominic smiled for the first time.
"I noticed the transmitter."
"When you were talking."
"I jammed the signal."
Lorenzo stared at the detonator in disbelief.
"You..."
Before he finished—
Dominic tackled him.
The detonator slid across the stone floor.
A gun fired.
The bullet struck the ceiling.
Rocks crashed down.
Dust filled the chamber.
Maya ran toward Alessia's voice.
Ignoring the chaos behind her.
Ignoring the gunfire.
Ignoring the screams.
She found a rusted iron door.
Locked.
"Alessia!"
"I'm here!"
Maya grabbed an old steel pipe and slammed it against the lock.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The lock broke.
The door flew open.
Inside sat Alessia.
Her hands tied.
Her eyes filled with tears.
The moment she saw Maya, she smiled.
"You came back."
"I promised."
Maya untied her.
The little girl threw both arms around her neck.
"I knew you would."
Behind them—
A terrible crash shook the tunnel.
Dominic and Lorenzo disappeared beneath falling stone.
"Dominic!" Maya shouted.
For a second...
Nothing.
Then a bloody hand emerged from the dust.
Dominic crawled free.
Lorenzo wasn't moving.
The ceiling beam pinning his legs had collapsed completely.
He looked at Dominic.
For the first time in years...
The hatred left his eyes.
Instead there was only exhaustion.
"I lost."
Dominic stood over him.
"You lost the day you decided children were bargaining chips."
Lorenzo gave one hollow laugh.
Then police sirens echoed above the mansion.
Someone had finally called them.
He closed his eyes.
"I suppose..."
May you like
"...Father would have chosen you after all."
Those were the last words he ever spoke.
