Chapter 4 — The Silent Fortress

Bella

The iron gates of Dante Russo’s estate loomed ahead, their sharp, wrought-iron tips slicing into the overcast sky like silent sentinels. Bella sat stiffly in the back seat of the sleek black sedan, her fingers clenched tightly around the strap of her purse. The gravel hissed beneath the tires as the car crunched to a halt, the sound oddly loud in the surrounding stillness. Her pulse quickened as the gates groaned open, revealing a winding driveway bordered by towering cypress trees. Their skeletal shadows stretched long and thin in the late afternoon light, like fingers reaching for something just out of grasp.