Chapter 8 - The Sanctuary
The Duca family estate was a sprawling fortress set on forty acres of secluded woodland outside the city, surrounded by twelve-foot electrified walls and monitored by thermal imaging cameras.
Lena was transported in a retrofitted mobile intensive care unit, with Marco sitting beside her holding her IV line steady the entire drive. When they arrived, she was carried upstairs not by orderlies, but by Marco himself. He lifted her carefully from the stretcher, cradling her against his chest as if she were made of spun glass, entirely ignoring the pain it clearly caused him to see her wince.
He laid her down in the master suite—a massive room with vaulted ceilings and a roaring fireplace.
"Where is Maya?" Lena whispered, sinking into the silk pillows.
The door opened, and a young girl with dark hair and a limp rushed into the room, crying freely. "Lena!"
"Careful," Marco commanded softly, stepping back to let Maya approach the bedside.
Maya grabbed Lena’s hand, burying her face in the mattress. "They told me what you did. They told me you got shot... I was so scared, Lena."
Lena stroked her sister’s hair, tears rolling down her own cheeks for the first time since the ordeal began. "I'm okay, Danny. I'm right here. We're safe now."
Marco watched the two sisters in silence. For years, his life had been defined by blood, betrayal, and cold calculations. But watching Lena—wounded, fragile, yet possessing a strength that defied death itself—something fundamentally shifted inside him. He realized that protecting his empire meant nothing if he couldn't protect the woman who had saved its soul.
He stepped out into the hallway, pulling the door shut behind him. Caruso was waiting in the shadows.
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"Did you find the traitor?" Marco asked.
"We narrowed it down," Caruso replied, handing over a tablet. "It's inside the house, Boss. Someone in your inner circle sold the codes to the Russians."
