Chapter 5 - The Ashes of the Empire
Dust and concrete rained down from the ceiling as the shockwave rattled Lorenzo’s teeth.
The emergency red lights of the bunker flickered to life, casting sinister shadows against the walls.
Serena hadn't waited for Marco to report back.
She had rigged the west wing of the estate with explosives, intending to blame it on a rival family.
Lorenzo pulled Maria and Leo under a heavy steel table, shielding them from the falling debris.
"She blew up the house," Maria sobbed into her hands.
Lorenzo wiped the blood from his forehead, his jaw clenching with a lethal fury.
"She blew up the wrong room," he corrected her softly.
He realized now how Leo had gotten the car keys.
The brilliant toddler had sneaked into Lorenzo's office earlier and taken them, anticipating they would need to run.
"You are a very smart boy," Lorenzo whispered to the child, taking the keys.
They navigated the secret tunnels beneath the estate, emerging into the cold night air of the hidden garage.
The armored SUV was waiting in the darkness, completely untouched by the blast.
Lorenzo loaded Maria and Leo into the back, covering them with heavy tactical blankets.
He climbed into the driver's seat and started the engine, the V8 roaring to life.
As he drove out into the tree line, he looked back at his ancestral home.
Flames licked the night sky, consuming the Corinthian columns and the beautiful marble statues.
Serena was likely standing on the lawn right now, shedding crocodile tears for the police.
Lorenzo drove to a safe house in Brooklyn, a miserable little apartment under a fake name.
It was a place only he knew about, unrecorded in any mafia ledger.
For three days, he sat in the dark, watching the news on a tiny television.
The headlines proclaimed him dead, his body allegedly burned beyond recognition.
Serena was giving heartbreaking interviews, wearing black lace and playing the perfect grieving widow.
She announced that she was taking over the Duca family operations to honor his memory.
Lorenzo smiled in the dark, meticulously cleaning a collection of heavy firearms he had stored in the walls.
He was not going to hide forever.
He was going to attend his own funeral.
On the third night, a knock echoed through the quiet apartment.
Lorenzo raised his rifle, aiming directly at the heavy wooden door.
The door slowly swung open, revealing a towering man covered in rain.
It was Don Romano, Serena's father, standing alone without a single bodyguard.
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"Put the gun down, Lorenzo," the old man said gruffly.
"My daughter has lost her mind, and I need your help to kill her."
