The narrow chamber felt smaller with Mayor Bellini standing in the entrance.
His flashlight illuminated the skeleton on the floor.
Lucia Bellini.
His own sister.
Yet his face showed no grief.
Only quiet annoyance.
"You broke the wall," he said calmly, glancing at the fallen stones.
Daniel stepped slightly in front of Elena.
"You knew she was here."
Bellini shrugged faintly.
"My father knew," he corrected.
The rain thundered above them, but down in the tunnels everything felt unnaturally still.
Elena's voice trembled with anger.
"You left her here to die."
For a moment, the mayor didn't respond.
Then he sighed.
"You don't understand the situation we were facing."
Daniel's eyes hardened.
"Explain it."
Bellini lowered the flashlight slightly, its beam sliding across the damp stone walls.
"Lucia was going to destroy this town," he said.
Elena stared at him.
"That's a lie."
"No," Bellini replied quietly. "It's the truth."
He leaned against the stone entrance as if telling a simple story.
"She discovered something about the vineyards… about the land ownership."
Daniel frowned.
"What kind of discovery?"
Bellini's expression darkened slightly.
"Your beloved Moretti family," he said, looking directly at Elena, "didn't actually own half the land they claimed."
Elena's heart skipped.
"My grandfather bought that land legally."
Bellini laughed softly.
"That's what everyone believed."
The mayor's voice lowered.
"But Lucia found records proving otherwise.
Old contracts. Fraudulent transfers. Your grandfather manipulated the boundaries decades earlier."
Elena shook her head slowly.
"That's impossible."
"Lucia planned to expose it," Bellini continued. "If she had succeeded, the entire economy of Seravalle would have collapsed. Families would have lost everything."
Daniel's voice was sharp.
"So you locked her in a tunnel?"
Bellini looked toward Lucia's skeleton.
"My father only meant to scare her. Make her stop digging into things that didn't concern her."
Elena's voice cracked.
"She was trapped here for days."
Bellini's expression hardened again.
"When my father returned… it was already too late."
Silence filled the chamber.
Daniel stepped forward.
"And then he sealed the tunnel."
Bellini nodded once.
"To protect the town."
Elena felt sick.
"Protect the town… or protect your family?"
Bellini didn't answer.
Instead, he raised the flashlight again.
And now his gaze shifted between Elena and Daniel carefully.
"You two were never supposed to find this," he said quietly.
Daniel's muscles tensed.
"And now that we have?"
Bellini's expression grew cold.
"Now I have another problem to solve."
The narrow tunnel behind him suddenly filled with movement.
Two more men stepped into the entrance.
And both of them were blocking the only way out.