Chapter 6 - The Door Locked From the Outside
The first thing Lorenzo did after Matteo's call was move Leo.
Not to another bedroom.
Not to a guest wing.
To a reinforced safe room hidden behind the library.
Maya didn't know the mansion had one.
She suspected there were many things about the house she didn't know.
The safe room looked less like a bunker than she expected.
Pale walls.
A sofa.
Medical supplies.
Independent ventilation.
A secure internal communication system.
Gabriel stationed two guards inside and four outside.
Dr. Grant remained with Leo.
Maya stood near the doorway, unsure what she was supposed to do.
Lorenzo noticed.
"Stay."
It wasn't a command this time.
Almost a request.
"Why?"
"Leo settles when you're near him."
Maya looked toward the sleeping baby.
"And what happens when I can't be?"
The question landed harder than she intended.
Lorenzo looked at Leo too.
"We figure out why he stopped eating first."
Maya entered.
Gabriel remained in the library with Lorenzo.
Their voices carried faintly through the open passage.
"Matteo's access needs to be revoked."
"Already done."
"Properties?"
"Checking."
"Accounts?"
"Frozen."
"Men loyal to him?"
"That's harder."
"Make it easy."
Maya looked at Dr. Grant.
"Is he always like that?"
The doctor smiled tiredly.
"Usually worse."
Leo stirred.
Maya sat beside the portable crib.
She didn't touch him.
She didn't want anyone believing her presence was some magical cure.
She wasn't a doctor.
She wasn't even a mother anymore.
That thought hurt.
Dr. Grant seemed to read something in her face.
"You helped him tonight."
"I fed him."
"You noticed something the rest of us missed."
"I got lucky."
"Maybe."
The doctor adjusted Leo's blanket.
"Medicine gets dangerous when people assume the problem must fit the diagnosis they've already made."
Maya looked toward him.
"What diagnosis?"
"Feeding intolerance. Possible metabolic disorder. Severe reflux. Neurological concerns."
"All wrong?"
"I don't know."
"But if somebody was tampering with his food..."
"Then we may have been treating symptoms someone deliberately created."
Maya felt sick.
"Why would anyone do that to a baby?"
Dr. Grant looked toward the doorway.
"In families with money, inheritance has caused worse."
Lorenzo entered just in time to hear.
His eyes narrowed.
"You have something to say, Doctor?"
Dr. Grant didn't flinch.
"You hired me for medical judgment."
"I did."
"Then here's mine. If sabotage is confirmed, stop assuming family loyalty protects your son."
Lorenzo stared at him.
Then nodded.
"Fair."
Maya was beginning to understand why Dr. Grant remained employed.
He was one of the few people willing to tell Lorenzo things he didn't want to hear.
Gabriel entered next.
"We found Matteo's route."
"Where?"
"Service tunnel beneath the west garage."
Lorenzo cursed quietly.
Maya frowned.
"There's a tunnel?"
"Old prohibition-era construction," Gabriel said. "Closed decades ago."
"Apparently not."
"We found fresh footprints."
"Outside exit?"
"Utility building half a mile east."
"So he's gone."
"Most likely."
Lorenzo's phone vibrated.
A message.
He read it.
His expression hardened.
"What?" Maya asked before remembering she wasn't supposed to.
Lorenzo handed her the phone.
A photograph filled the screen.
Daniel.
Alive.
Sitting in what looked like an abandoned warehouse.
He held a newspaper dated that morning.
Below the photograph was one sentence.
SHE KNOWS WHERE THE KEY IS.
Maya stared.
"I don't."
Lorenzo took back the phone.
"Key to what?"
"I have no idea."
"Think."
"I am thinking."
"Daniel talked about money. Matteo. Business. Did he ever give you anything?"
"No."
"Ask you to hide something?"
"No."
"Storage unit?"
"No."
"Bank account?"
"No."
Maya stopped.
Lorenzo noticed.
"What?"
She remembered the night Daniel pushed her.
Before the argument.
He had arrived carrying a small metal box.
He placed it on the kitchen counter.
Later, during the shouting, it disappeared.
"Maybe nothing."
"Say it."
"He had a box."
"What kind?"
"Small. Metal. Like one of those document cases."
"When?"
"The night I fell."
"Did you open it?"
"No."
"Did he?"
"Not in front of me."
"Where did it go?"
"I don't know."
Lorenzo paced once.
"Why would Matteo think you know where a key is?"
"I don't."
"Could Daniel have hidden something among your possessions?"
Maya thought about her apartment.
The mess after she returned from the hospital.
She hadn't cleaned properly.
Hadn't unpacked half the baby supplies.
Daniel's remaining belongings still occupied a closet because she couldn't bear sorting them.
"Possibly."
Lorenzo immediately turned to Gabriel.
"Send a team."
"No."
Both men looked at Maya.
"Nobody searches my apartment without me."
Lorenzo's patience visibly thinned.
"Maya—"
"It's my home."
"It may be compromised."
"It's still mine."
Gabriel looked between them with a faint expression suggesting he had no desire to be present for this argument.
Lorenzo said, "Someone has been watching the building."
"I know."
"You cannot safely return."
"Then we go together."
"Absolutely not."
"Then nobody goes."
Lorenzo stared.
Maya crossed her arms.
Rosa once told her Lorenzo could make grown men confess things with one look.
Maya had spent three years with Daniel.
Intimidating male silence had lost most of its power.
Finally Lorenzo said, "Fine."
Gabriel blinked.
"Boss?"
"We go together."
Gabriel opened his mouth.
Lorenzo cut him off.
"Secure the building first."
"You're not leaving this estate while Matteo's location is unknown."
"That wasn't a suggestion."
"Neither is mine."
The two men stared at each other.
Maya almost felt sorry for Gabriel.
Almost.
Eventually they compromised.
Security would clear Maya's building.
Lorenzo and Maya would enter afterward.
Four vehicles.
No predictable route.
Dr. Grant would remain with Leo.
Before leaving, Maya stood beside the crib.
The baby slept peacefully.
She touched one finger to the blanket near his hand.
Leo gripped it instinctively.
Maya's throat tightened.
"Don't do that."
Lorenzo stood behind her.
"Do what?"
"Hold my finger."
"He's a baby."
"I know."
She gently freed herself.
"I'm trying not to forget that."
Lorenzo understood more than she wanted him to.
"You think caring about him betrays your daughter."
Maya looked at him sharply.
"Don't."
"I know grief."
"You lost your wife."
"Yes."
"It's not the same."
"No."
He nodded.
"It isn't."
That answer disarmed her.
He didn't pretend to understand.
Didn't compare pain.
Didn't tell her Lily would want her to move on.
Maya looked back at Leo.
"I still wake up expecting to feel her kick."
Lorenzo remained silent.
"And sometimes I forget for half a second."
Her voice cracked.
"Half a second is long enough to be happy."
She wiped her cheek angrily.
"Then I remember."
Lorenzo spoke quietly.
"After Elena died, I kept calling her phone."
Maya looked at him.
"For what?"
"I don't know."
A sad smile touched his face.
"Maybe I thought she'd answer and tell me everybody made a mistake."
"How long?"
"Six weeks."
Maya exhaled.
For one moment, the mafia boss disappeared again.
There was only Lorenzo.
A widower.
A father.
A man who understood the cruelty of forgetting for half a second.
Then Gabriel appeared.
"We're ready."
The drive to Maya's apartment took twenty-three minutes.
Security entered first.
The building was cleared.
No sign of Daniel.
No sign of Matteo.
Maya climbed the stairs with Lorenzo beside her.
Her apartment door showed marks around the lock.
"Someone's been inside."
Gabriel confirmed it.
Maya entered carefully.
Drawers were open.
Cushions overturned.
Her bedroom closet emptied.
"They searched."
"For the key," Lorenzo said.
"If they didn't find it?"
"Then maybe Daniel hid it well."
Maya stood among the remains of her life.
Then she noticed something.
The nursery corner.
She had created it in her bedroom because the apartment only had one room.
A bassinet.
A small dresser.
Boxes of diapers.
Tiny yellow blankets.
Most had remained untouched since the hospital.
Someone had searched everything.
Except one thing.
A stuffed white rabbit.
Lily's rabbit.
Maya had bought it during her sixth month.
Daniel hated it.
Called it stupid.
Said newborn babies didn't need toys.
Which meant he never touched it.
Maya slowly picked it up.
The rabbit felt heavier than she remembered.
Her heartbeat changed.
She turned it over.
Along one seam, the stitching looked uneven.
"Lorenzo."
He approached.
"What?"
Maya found scissors.
Cut three stitches.
Something metallic dropped into her palm.
A small brass key.
Everyone in the room went still.
Attached to it was a plastic tag.
A number.
117.
Lorenzo stared.
"Storage locker."
Maya whispered, "Daniel hid it inside Lily's toy."
Then a phone rang.
Not Maya's.
Not Lorenzo's.
The sound came from beneath the overturned sofa.
Gabriel drew his weapon.
One of the guards pulled out a cheap prepaid phone.
It was ringing.
Lorenzo answered on speaker.
Matteo's voice came immediately.
"Congratulations."
Maya's skin went cold.
"You found it."
Lorenzo looked toward the windows.
"You watching us?"
Matteo laughed.
"Always."
Then he addressed Maya.
"Locker 117, Union Central Station."
Maya tightened her grip around the key.
"What's inside?"
"Something Daniel stole from me."
"What?"
"Something Elena stole first."
Lorenzo's face changed.
Matteo continued.
"Bring me the key by midnight."
"And Daniel?" Maya asked.
"Still breathing."
She felt no relief.
Matteo added, "For now."
Lorenzo's voice became cold.
"You touch her or the baby again—"
"You still don't understand, cousin."
Matteo interrupted him.
"This was never about the maid."
A pause.
"It was always about Leo."
The call ended.
Maya looked at Lorenzo.
"Why your son?"
He didn't answer.
But she saw something in his face.
He knew.
Or at least suspected.
May you like
And whatever waited inside locker 117 had started long before Maya ever entered the Rossi mansion.
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