Chương 5
"Everyone in this family loves that word."
"What word?"
"Protecting."
I looked around the room.
"People say protecting when they mean making decisions without someone else."
Nobody argued.
Because they knew I was right.
My phone had no signal inside the estate.
I had noticed earlier.
Now it felt intentional.
I walked toward the hallway.
"I need air."
Luca followed.
Not immediately.
Not like a guard.
Like he was giving me the choice to leave.
That difference mattered.
Outside, the mountain air was colder than I expected.
The lake below looked peaceful.
Almost annoyingly peaceful.
A gardener worked near the edge of the property, trimming bushes.
A delivery truck passed through the lower gate.
Life continued.
People watered plants.
People carried boxes.
People checked their phones.
Nobody knew my entire understanding of my family had changed in one afternoon.
Luca stood several feet away.
Not crowding me.
"I am sorry."
I looked at him.
"For what?"
"For bringing you into this."
"You didn't."
"My family did."
"That is not the same."
"It is close."
I shook my head.
"You really believe that, don't you?"
"What?"
"That everything bad that happens around you is somehow your responsibility."
He did not answer.
Which meant yes.
I looked at the man everyone feared.
The man who could probably make people disappear with a phone call.
And somehow his biggest weakness was believing he had failed to protect everyone.
"My mother used to say something," I said.
Luca waited.
"She said people who carry everything eventually forget what it feels like to have empty hands."
His expression changed slightly.
"Was she right?"
"Usually."
"And now?"
I looked at him.
"Now I think she would tell you to put something down."
The wind moved between us.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then Luca's phone rang.
He answered immediately.
His expression changed before he said anything.
"What happened?"
A pause.
"Where?"
Another pause.
Then his eyes moved to me.
"Sophia, we need to go inside."
The calm was gone.
"What happened?"
He lowered the phone.
"The person who sent the photograph just contacted the estate."
"How?"
"They sent a message through our security system."
My skin went cold.
"That is impossible."
"Yes."
He looked toward the house.
"That is why it is a problem."
I followed his gaze.
The estate that had seemed impossible to enter suddenly felt less like a fortress.
More like a place someone had already found a way into.
The estate did not feel like a fortress anymore.
It felt like a house where someone had already found the hidden door.
Luca moved quickly, but he did not run.
That was the first thing I noticed.
A frightened person rushed.
An angry person rushed.
A person who had been trained to survive walked with control even when everything around them changed.
"Inside," he said again.
This time I followed.
Not because he ordered me.
Because I wanted answers.
The moment we entered the foyer, the atmosphere had shifted.
People were moving faster.
The guards who had looked bored earlier were suddenly checking phones, radios, and entrances.
Elena stood near the security desk, speaking quietly with one of the employees.
"What happened?" Luca asked.
The employee turned.
"We don't know how they accessed the system."
"Show me."
The man pulled up the screen.
A message was displayed.
No name.
No number.
No location.
Just a sentence.
You are protecting the wrong person.
Luca stared at it.
My stomach dropped.
"Is that all?"
The employee nodded.
"There was also an attachment."
He clicked.
A file opened.
It was a photograph.
Not of the bakery this time.
Of me.
Standing outside the estate earlier.
The picture had been taken from a distance.
I remembered that moment.
The garden.
The cold air.
Luca standing several feet away.
Someone had been watching us.
"When was this taken?" Elena asked.
The employee checked.
"Twenty minutes ago."
Luca's face became unreadable.
"Impossible."
"Why?"
I asked.
He looked at the security monitor.
"Because there are no blind spots here."
That sentence did not comfort me.
It made everything worse.
I looked around the foyer.
The old stone walls.
The expensive furniture.
The people who believed this place could keep danger outside.
Someone had proven them wrong.
"Could it be someone inside?" I asked.
Everyone looked at me.
I immediately regretted speaking.
Not because I thought I was wrong.
Because I realized I had just accused everyone in the room.
Luca studied me.
"Why do you think that?"
"Because if the outside security is as good as you say, then either someone got through it or someone didn't need to."
Nobody answered.
The silence told me the possibility had already existed in their minds.
Elena crossed her arms.
"We need to check access records."
Luca nodded.
"Everyone."
One of the guards hesitated.
"Mr. Moretti, some employees have been here for years."
"I know."
His voice softened slightly.
"That does not make them impossible."
The guard looked uncomfortable.
But he nodded.
That was the difference between loyalty and blindness.
Luca trusted people.
He just refused to confuse trust with certainty.
I followed him toward the security room.
"Are you always like this?"
He glanced at me.
"Like what?"
"Like you expect every person you meet to eventually betray you."
A pause.
Then he said, "Usually they do."
I stopped walking.
That answer hurt more than I expected.
Not because I felt sorry for him.
Because I believed him.
"What happened to you?"
He looked ahead.
"My father built a business where trust was expensive."
"That is not an answer."
"It is the only one I have."
I wanted to push.
Instead, I noticed his hands.
The same hands that had looked impossible to hurt anyone were tense at his sides.
There were scars across his knuckles.
Old ones.
Not the kind someone got from one fight.
The kind that came from years of using your body as a solution.
May you like
"You fight a lot?" I asked.
His eyes moved toward me.
