Chapter 10 - The Unspoken Confession
Salvatore lowered the phone from his ear and looked down at his son, ignoring the violent flashes of police lights against the stained glass.
"Who called the authorities, Victoria?" Salvatore asked, his voice dead, devoid of any anger or panic.
Victoria looked between the bolted doors and her husband's icy demeanor, her confusion curdling into renewed paranoia.
"I did, you psychotic monster!" she spat back, her chest heaving against the torn bodice of her emerald gown.
"I set a delayed emergency dispatch from my private phone before I walked onto that staircase!" she confessed with wild eyes.
"If I wasn't out of this fortress by midnight, they were instructed to breach the gates and search for my body!" she gloated.
"They're going to find this dungeon, Salvatore; they're going to find what you did to your own boy and lock you away forever!" she screamed.
A low, agonizing sound rose from the floor beside Salvatore's polished leather shoes.
Marco was struggling to lift himself, his frail fingers clawing at the fabric of his father's trousers until he pulled himself to his knees.
"Dad..." Marco whispered, the sound cutting through Victoria's manic rant like a razor blade.
Salvatore knelt down immediately, cradling the back of his son's neck with an open, protective palm.
"Don't speak, Marco; save your strength for the medics," Salvatore said softly, his dark eyes brimming with paternal devotion.
Marco gripped his father's lapels with a sudden, desperate surge of strength, pulling Salvatore's ear down to his trembling lips.
"She didn't... she didn't act alone, Dad," Marco whispered, his voice trembling with an unspeakable, horrifying truth.
Salvatore's posture stiffened into rigid stone as he felt his son's shallow breath against his cheek.
"The lock on that hatch... it wasn't her combination," Marco gasped, his blue eyes wide with pure, unadulterated dread.
"The man who put the chains on me... the man who brought the food every night..." Marco struggled to breathe, his chest rattling violently.
Salvatore turned his head slightly, his piercing dark eyes locking onto his son's pale, haunted face.
"Who was it, Marco?" Salvatore demanded in a whisper that chilled the very air of the entrance hall.
Marco looked past his father's broad shoulder, his gaze bypassing the terrified Victoria entirely.
His bloodshot eyes locked onto the towering shadow standing silently near the grand double doors of the mansion.
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Outside, heavy footsteps began to sprint up the stone steps of the portico as police officers prepared to breach the entrance.
Marco's trembling lips parted to whisper the name of the traitor standing within their inner circle, and Salvatore's world tore apart once more.
