Chapter 3 - The Traitor in the Hallway
Within fifteen minutes, the master wing of the mansion felt less like a home and more like an interrogation chamber.
Paramedics had checked Leo one final time and quietly departed, sworn to absolute secrecy under the watchful eyes of the Romano syndicate. Dr. Rossi stayed behind, standing near the doorway with a grave expression.
I had finally managed to get Leo back to sleep, swaddling him tightly in a clean blanket and placing him in his crib—though this time, I pulled the rocking chair directly beside the rails so I could keep watch.
The heavy oak door opened again, and Dominic walked in, flanked by two armed enforcers. Between them was Marcus, the senior butler of the estate.
Marcus looked immaculate in his charcoal vest and crisp white shirt, but his face was deathly pale. A fine sheen of sweat coated his forehead, and his eyes darted nervously around the room before landing on Alessio.
"Mr. Romano," Marcus stammered, his voice trembling slightly. "Dominic said... he said there was an emergency in the nursery. Is the young master alright?"
Alessio didn't move from his spot by the window. He was examining a small, flat electronic device he had unscrewed from the underside of the nursery wall—the housing for the room's security camera.
"He’s fine, Marcus," Alessio said softly. He held up the device. "Do you know what this is?"
"It’s... it’s the nursery monitor feed, sir."
"Incorrect," Alessio walked forward, tossing a small, modified black microchip onto the mahogany changing table. "That is a localized signal jammer and loop-recorder. It didn't broadcast the live feed to the security room between 1:58 and 2:04 AM. Instead, it played a six-minute pre-recorded loop of a sleeping infant while someone walked into this room, opened the crib rail, and placed a foreign object into my son’s mouth."
Marcus swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing violently. "I... I don't understand electronics, Mr. Romano. You know that’s not my department."
"No, it’s not," Alessio agreed smoothly. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small leather wallet, tossing it onto the table beside the microchip. "But this is your wallet. Dominic found it lying on the service stairs directly outside the third-floor linen closet."
I watched from the rocking chair, my breath catching in my throat.
Marcus stared at the wallet as if it were a venomous snake. "I... I must have dropped it earlier today when I was checking the linens."
"Really?" Alessio stepped closer, towering over the butler. "Because the service stairs are motion-activated, Marcus. And the server logs show that at exactly 1:59 AM, someone used a master override code—your code—to unlock the heavy fire door leading directly into this wing."
The silence in the room became absolute. The storm outside seemed to pause, holding its breath.
Marcus’s knees buckled slightly. The facade completely crumbled.
"The Falcone family," Marcus sobbed, dropping to his knees on the Persian rug, pressing his forehead against the floor. "They have my daughter, Mr. Romano! They took her from her college dorm in Boston three days ago! They said if I didn't make sure the heir didn't survive the night, they’d send her back to me in pieces!"
A collective dark shadow fell over the room.
Alessio’s face didn't soften with pity. If anything, his eyes turned into chips of black ice.
"You betrayed my house," Alessio said, his voice dangerously quiet. "You put a lethal object into the mouth of a four-month-old infant to save your own flesh and blood."
"I had no choice!" Marcus screamed, tears streaming down his face. "What was I supposed to do?"
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"You were supposed to come to me," Alessio growled, signaling Dominic with a flick of his wrist. "My family protects its own. But a traitor who harms my blood signs his own death warrant."
Before Marcus could scream, Dominic and the enforcers grabbed him by the arms, hauling him up and dragging him out of the room. The heavy door slammed shut behind them, cutting off the butler's desperate pleas.
