Chapter 8 - Flames in the Hallway
Back at the Bedford estate,the adrenaline of the Brooklyn showdown finally gave way to a heavy,Suffocating quiet.The children were fast asleep in the guest wing,exhausted from the day's madness.Sophie and the triplet had spent the evening building blanket forts in the living room,Their laughter echoing through the halls for the first time in six months.
Dominic sat at his dark walnut desk in the library,staring into the flickering flames of the fireplace.
The door opened softly,and Hannah walked in,holding two cups of hot coffee.She put one down on the desk beside him and pulled up a chair.
"The federal marshals took Moretti and his associates into custody an hour ago,Dominic said quietly,Not looking up from the fire."Your husband..."he must have been an extraordinary man."
He was,Hannah said softly,wrapping her hands around the warm ceramic mug."He believed in protecting people who couldn't protect themselves.Even when it costs him everything."
Dominic finally looked at her,his dark eyes searching her face."And you?"You walked into a mafia warzone today without blinking an eye.You saved my life.Hannah."
"I saved my employer's life,She corrected gently."And more importantly,I saved a father's life for those four kids upstairs."
Dominic stood up slowly,walking around the desk until he stood right next to her chair.The air between them shifted,charged with a raw,unspoken tension that had been building since the moment she walked through the front gates.
Before either of them could speak,a shrill,piercing alarm echoing through the estate.
Warning: Smoke detected in the East Wing corridor.
Dominic's head snaps toward the door."The nursery.""
Panic,clean and absolute,gripped his heart.Without a second thought,Dominic bolted out of the library,sprinting down the hallway with Hannah right on his heels.
As they reached the second-floor landing,thick,billowing black smoke poured from the doorway of the guest wing.An electrical short in the old-fashioned wiring behind the wainscoting had ignited the antique wall panels.
Kids!Dominic roared,coughing as he threw himself through the smoke into the hallway.
Hannah grabbed a heavy wool tapestry from the wall,ripped it down,and wrapped it around herself as she plunged into the burning corridor right behind him.
The heat was blistering.Flames licked up the wallpaper,blocking the main path to the children's rooms.
"Dad!"Hannah!"
Lucas's disenchanted voice rang out through the smoke from the far bedroom.
Dominic didn't hesitate.He threw his shoulder against the burning wooden door,Shattering it inward.Inside,all four children were huddled near the open window,coughing and crying like smoke filled the room.
"Get them out!"Dominic shouted,scooping up Sophie and Theo in his arms,handing them off to the arriving security guards who were rushing up the stairs with fire extinguishers.
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Lucas and Mason were guided out safely by the guards,but as Dominic turned back to help,a massive section of the ceiling timber groaned and crashed down directly in front of the doorway,trapping Dominic and Hannah inside the burning room.
Flames shifted upward,creating a wall of fire that blocked the exit entirely.
