Chapter 8 - The Siege
Inside the dark, quiet vault, time lost all meaning for Adeline. The stone walls muffled the chaos above, but she could still feel the low, rhythmic thuds of gunfire and explosions reverberating through the bedrock.
She paced back and forth across the rug, her hands clasped together, praying for Enzo’s safety. Every minute felt like an eternity. What if Marco Moretti’s men breached the estate’s defenses? What if Enzo was outnumbered?
An hour passed. Then two.
Suddenly, the muffled sound of footsteps echoed outside the heavy steel vault door. The sound of metal scraping against metal filled the air as someone attempted to unlock the heavy mechanism from the outside.
Adeline backed away from the door, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. She looked around the vault for anything she could use as a weapon, finally grabbing a heavy brass candlestick from a side table.
The heavy door creaked open slowly.
A shadow fell across the threshold.
Adeline raised the candlestick, ready to strike—but stopped instantly.
Enzo stood in the doorway.
His suit jacket was gone, his white dress shirt torn at the shoulder and stained with gunsmoke and blood. A dark crimson cut ran along his left jawline, but his eyes—dark, wild, and blazing—were fixed entirely on her. Behind him, the corridor was quiet, filled with the haze of lingering smoke.
"Enzo!" Adeline cried, dropping the candlestick.
She threw herself into his arms. Enzo caught her tightly, lifting her slightly off her feet as he buried his face in her neck, holding her as if she were the only real thing left in a shattered world.
"I told you I would come back," he murmured, his voice raspy from smoke.
"Are you hurt?" she sobbed, pulling back to inspect the cut on his face.
"It's not my blood," Enzo replied quietly, wiping a smudge of soot from her forehead with his thumb. "Marco Moretti is dead. His men have surrendered or fled. The estate is secure."
Adeline let out a long, trembling breath of relief, leaning her forehead against his chest. She could hear the strong, steady beat of his heart beneath his blood-stained shirt.
"What about Don Mateo?" she asked softly.
Enzo’s face darkened, his jaw tightening into iron. "Mateo fled the city when he learned his son’s attack failed. But he left something behind."
Enzo stepped aside, gesturing into the hallway. Luca was standing there, holding a bound and gagged prisoner by the collar.
Adeline gasped as she recognized the captive.
It was Camilla Ashford.
Camilla was dressed in a dirt-streaked coat, her high heels missing, her hair wild and matted. Her eyes were wide with terror as she looked at Adeline and Enzo.
"We found her in Marco Moretti’s getaway vehicle," Luca explained grimly. "She wasn't a victim, boss. She was the one who gave Marco the blueprints to our security system and the codes to the front gate."
Adeline stared at the heiress in absolute shock. "Camilla... you allied with the man who tried to poison you?"
"She didn't care about the poison," Enzo said, his tone icy. "She only cared about revenge. When I broke our engagement, her pride couldn't take it. She traded the security of my home to Mateo in exchange for a promise that she would get her family’s territory back after I was dead."
Camilla muffled a frantic scream behind her gag, shaking her head violently, tears streaking through the dirt on her cheeks.
Enzo looked down at the woman who had once been his fiancée, his face completely devoid of emotion.
"Take her to the basement cell," Enzo ordered Luca flatly. "We will hand her over to the Commission tomorrow morning. Treason against a sovereign family carries a permanent sentence."
Luca nodded and dragged the weeping heiress down the dark corridor.
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Enzo turned back to Adeline, reaching out to take her bandaged hands into his own. "It is over, Adeline. The Morettis are finished, and the Ashfords are erased."
"And us?" Adeline whispered, looking up into his dark, intense eyes. "What happens to us now?"
