Chapter 3 - THE VOICE IN THE WALLS
By 1:00 A.M., the grand mansion was under absolute tactical lockdown.
In Lorenzo’s private medical suite on the top floor, Dr. Harrison—a trusted military surgeon on the Bellandi payroll—used a precision laser scalpel to neutralize the electronic latch on the black collar.
With a soft, metallic click, the collar fell onto a stainless steel tray.
Lorenzo picked up the heavy device. Upon closer inspection under the surgical lamp, he saw a tiny micro-engraving near the sensor chip: NORTHERN ASSET TRACKER – PROPERTY OF V.B.
Victoria Bellandi.
"The device is a biometric containment collar, Don Lorenzo," Dr. Harrison reported, examining Isabella’s neck with gentle fingers. "It administers a micro-dose of a sedating paralytic whenever the wearer crosses beyond a fifty-foot radio perimeter. That is why the child was so lethargic and silent behind the plaster."
Lorenzo held his daughter close, his heart breaking as Isabella whimpered in her sleep, her small fingers tightly holding his thumb.
"Is she going to be okay, Doctor?" Lorenzo asked, his voice raw with emotion.
"Physically, the chemical will flush out of her system in twenty-four hours," Dr. Harrison affirmed. "Psychologically... she has been kept in a dark, confined space for weeks."
Lorenzo’s chest heaved. For three months, Victoria had told Lorenzo that Isabella was at a private pediatric health retreat in Switzerland recovering from a rare respiratory illness. Victoria had provided fake video calls, forged medical reports, and letters from bogus specialists.
In reality, his baby girl had never left the mansion. She had been trapped inside the hollow service tunnels behind the mahogany walls of her own home.
Suddenly, Isabella blinked her eyes open. She looked at Lorenzo, her small voice trembling in the quiet room.
"Daddy...?" she whispered.
"I'm here, baby," Lorenzo said, kissing her forehead gently. "Daddy’s got you. Nobody is ever going to hurt you again."
"The lady... the lady put me in the box when the sun went down," Isabella whimpered, pointing a small finger toward the hallway. "She said if I cried, the monsters in the dark wall would eat my bear."
Lorenzo felt a rage so cold and absolute it eclipsed anything he had ever known. "Which lady, Isabella?"
"Auntie Victoria," the child whispered. "She talked to the man with the gun. They said... they said Daddy was going away like Mommy."
Lorenzo froze.
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His wife—Isabella’s mother, Elena—had died two years ago in what was ruled a tragic balcony collapse during a storm.
Now, a terrifying truth slammed into Lorenzo’s soul: Elena hadn't fallen. She had been murdered. And Isabella had been hidden away because she was the only witness to what happened that night.
