Chapter 5 - THE GARDEN SHADOWS
"Lock down the estate! No one leaves! No one enters!"
Luca’s voice thundered through the mansion. Alarms blared to life, heavy steel gates slamming shut across the property perimeter. Guards rushed past us, their weapons drawn, sweeping every room.
I stood in Isabella's bedroom, my hands trembling as I stared at the drawing on the pillow.
It was sketched in dark charcoal. A hawk with its wings spread, identical to the crest on the silver locket still burning a hole in my pocket.
"They couldn't have taken her," Marco said, pacing the room. "The perimeter was secure. Vanessa walked out alone. Isabella has to be in the house."
"Then find her!" Luca roared. He was tearing through the closet, throwing dresses aside. "She's terrified. She's deaf. If she's hiding, she won't hear us calling for her."
That realization hit me like a physical blow.
We couldn't just yell her name.
I forced myself to breathe. My brother’s life was on the line, but panicking wouldn't save Tommy, and it wouldn't find Isabella.
I closed my eyes, trying to think like the nine-year-old girl I had spent the last two years caring for.
Where would she go when she felt the whole world collapsing?
Not the library. She only went there to read when she felt safe.
Not the kitchen. Too noisy.
I opened my eyes and looked out the bedroom window.
Beyond the manicured lawns lay the old hedge maze—a massive, tangled garden from the original 1920s estate. It was overgrown, filled with deep shadows and dead ends.
Isabella used to play hide-and-seek there before Vanessa arrived and declared it "too dirty."
"Mr. Moretti," I said, pointing at the window. "The maze."
Luca didn't hesitate. He vaulted over a decorative chair and sprinted down the hall. I ran right behind him.
The autumn air was freezing as we sprinted across the lawn. The maze loomed ahead, a fortress of dense, ten-foot-tall yew bushes.
"We fan out," Luca ordered Marco and the guards. "Check every path. Flashlights on."
I didn't wait for the guards. I plunged into the dark green corridors.
The air was heavy and damp. I checked corner after corner, my heart pounding so loudly I could hear it in my ears.
Tommy. Isabella. Tommy. Isabella.
Their names chanted in my head like a prayer.
I rounded a sharp corner near the center of the maze and stopped.
There, huddled beneath a stone bench, was a tiny figure in a blue dress.
She had her knees pulled to her chest, her face buried in her arms.
I dropped to my knees and gently touched her shoulder.
Isabella flinched violently, scrambling backward against the stone. When she saw it was me, her shoulders slumped, but she didn't come forward.
I raised my hands into the beam of the moonlight.
I'm here, sweetheart, I signed. You're safe.
She shook her head rapidly.
Not safe, she signed, her small hands shaking violently. The bird man is coming.
Daddy won't let them take you, I promised.
Isabella’s face crumpled. She looked down at her hands, then slowly raised them.
He's not my daddy.
I froze. What do you mean? Of course he is.
Vanessa told me last night, Isabella signed, tears spilling down her cheeks. Before the dinner. She said I was a stolen secret. She said my real dad is the bad man. The one who killed Mommy.
My blood ran completely cold.
Before I could process the horror of what she was saying, a heavy footstep crunched on the gravel behind me.
I spun around, expecting to see Luca.
Instead, a massive man in a dark trench coat stood blocking the path. The moonlight caught the silver metal of the silencer attached to his gun.
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And on his right hand, resting near the trigger, was the dark ink of a hawk in flight.
"Well," the man rumbled, his voice like grinding stones. "Vanessa said the maid was a busybody." He raised the gun, pointing it directly at my chest. "Say goodbye to the kid."
