chapter 9

Chapter 9 – Beneath the Villa

Florence, Present Day

The spiral staircase was steep and narrow, curling down into darkness thick enough to swallow light whole. Sofia's fingers gripped the cold stone railing as she followed Marco, whose lantern cast flickering shadows on ancient walls damp with age.

At the bottom, the passage opened into a cavernous room carved from bedrock—rough, raw, and untouched by time. Dust motes floated in the lantern's glow, settling on a wooden chest cracked with age, and a faded tapestry depicting the Caravello crest.

Sofia's breath caught.

"This must be it," she whispered.

They approached the chest carefully. Marco knelt and pried it open, revealing brittle papers, a small carved box, and a faded silk scarf stained with deep crimson.

Sofia lifted a brittle journal from the chest. The leather cover bore a single embossed initial: B.

She opened it carefully. Inside were Beatrice's final words, written in a hand trembling but resolute.

"If you have found this, know that I escaped what they tried to bind me to—only by sacrificing what I loved most. This place kept my secrets, and now, it keeps yours too. Find the truth, and you will find me."

Marco held the carved box out to her. Inside lay a simple gold ring—engraved with two intertwined vines.

Sofia traced the delicate pattern.

"Promise me," she said softly, "that this story won't end in silence."

Marco looked up, eyes steady. "It won't. Not if we have anything to say about it."

The walls seemed to hum around them—as if the past had been waiting, breathing beneath the stones all along.