Chapter 10 - THE CHOICE
Matteo ordered his men to open fire.
Bullets struck the vault door.
Lorenzo pushed Lena and me behind a steel cabinet.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“I won't leave you.”
Neither of us moved.
Then I saw the ventilation system.
A narrow passage above the vault.
“Lorenzo.”
He followed my gaze.
“Can you climb?”
“Yes.”
“Then go.”
We lifted Lena into the passage.
I followed.
Lorenzo came last.
We crawled through darkness while gunfire echoed beneath us.
The passage opened behind the chapel.
Federal sirens suddenly sounded outside.
Lorenzo stopped.
“You called them?”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“Who did?”
Valentina stood at the chapel entrance.
She had escaped security.
She held her hands up.
“I did.”
Lorenzo stared.
“Why?”
“Because I finally understood what Matteo would do.”
She looked at Lena.
“I made a terrible mistake.”
Lorenzo's expression remained hard.
“You did.”
“But I won't let him take her.”
Police stormed the chapel.
Matteo's men surrendered.
Matteo himself tried to escape through the rear corridor.
Lorenzo chased him.
They disappeared around the corner.
A gunshot echoed.
Then silence.
Lorenzo returned minutes later.
No blood.
No weapon.
“He's arrested.”
I released a breath I didn't realize I had been holding.
Lena ran into his arms.
“Daddy!”
He lifted her.
I watched them.
For months, I had believed I was only protecting my daughter.
Now I understood something larger.
The bronze key had not merely opened a chapel vault.
It had opened the truth about an entire family.
And by morning, every secret hidden inside that vault would become public.
But there was one final document.
May you like
One that would answer the question I had been too afraid to ask.
Why had Gabriel trusted me with his daughter?
