The gunshot echoed through the office.
For a moment, silence filled the room as the principal's body collapsed to the floor with a dull thud.
Raven Moretti didn't even look back.
"Find Liam," she said.
The enforcers moved immediately, spreading through the building.
Raven stood still for a second, her red eyes dark with something dangerously close to fear. She inhaled slowly, forcing the emotion down.
Kelvin was missing.
Nothing else mattered.
She pulled out her phone.
"Ghost."
On the other end, Dante Ferrara answered almost instantly.
"Yeah?"
"Check the mansion's CCTV," she said. "Compare it with the school's footage."
"Already on it."
Minutes later the meeting room was lit only by the glow of screens.
Dante sat cross-legged in his chair, fingers flying across the keyboard as footage from the mansion and the school played side by side.
Luciana "Luce" Vitale stood near the table, a digital map of the city projected behind her.
"I've already sent teams out," she said. "Abandoned warehouses, empty docks, storage yards. Anywhere someone could hide a hostage."
Dante replayed the footage again.
Then again.
He leaned closer.
"…Teleportation?" he muttered.
Luce frowned. "What?"
Dante pointed at the screen.
"The real Liam left the mansion at the exact same time someone who looked like him picked Kelvin up at the school."
He leaned back slowly.
"So unless he learned how to teleport…"
No one laughed.
The door opened.
Marco "Hammer" Rossi stepped inside, wiping dark stains from his face like it was nothing.
Raven looked up.
"Well?"
Marco shook his head.
"He's not talking."
Raven's hand slammed onto the table.
"Keep searching."
She turned and walked out.
The door slammed behind her so hard the sound echoed through the room.
Even Dante stopped typing.
The Dungeon
The heavy door creaked open.
Cold air drifted into the dark room as Raven stepped inside.
Liam lay on the floor.
His legs had been broken earlier—cleanly. Hammer's work.
He looked up slowly as she approached.
Her red eyes glowed faintly in the darkness.
"Still not talking, pet?"
He tried to push himself up, but pain shot through his body and he dropped back down.
"…Not gonna talk."
"So you agree you're guilty."
Her boot struck his side.
"Speak," she said coldly. "Where is my brother?"
Liam groaned.
"I… didn't take him…"
Raven grabbed his collar and pulled him up before slapping him across the face.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Then she threw him aside.
"Bastard."
She ran a hand through her hair before turning back to him.
"Liam Moretti," she said quietly. "I won't ask again."
Her voice echoed through the dungeon.
"Where the f* did you take Kelvin?"
"I didn't…" he whispered. "You have to believe me."
She laughed.
"Believe you?"
In seconds she crossed the room and grabbed his hair, forcing him to look at her.
"You betrayed me once already."
Her grip tightened.
"This would be the second time."
She leaned closer.
"Let me make something very clear."
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"The only reason you're alive… is because Kelvin likes you."
She released him with a shove.
"So you better pray nothing happens to him."
Her eyes were ice.
"Because if even one hair on his head is missing…"
She didn't finish the sentence.
She didn't need to.
"Strap him in."
Two enforcers lifted Liam into a metal chair and locked restraints around him.
Raven paced slowly around the room.
Then suddenly—
Her foot slammed into the chair, sending it rolling backward until it hit the wall.
"Hand it over."
An enforcer handed her a taser.
She held it up, the faint electric hum filling the room.
"Last chance."
"I'm telling the truth," Liam said, voice shaking. "I didn't take Kelvin."
"You expect me to believe that?"
Her voice cracked slightly.
"After you sold my weapons to my enemies?"
The taser buzzed softly.
"And now you take the only person in my world that matters and you want me to—"
She laughed.
A tear slid down her cheek.
"—pray nothing happens to him?"
She waved a hand.
The enforcers left the room.
Raven dropped the taser onto the metal table.
Then she picked up another tool, turning it slowly in her hand.
"I would never hurt Kelvin," Liam said.
Her answer was a punch.
Then another.
She stopped herself before the next strike.
Her hand tightened on his jaw, forcing him to look up.
"If you're not going to say something useful," she said quietly, "then shut your mouth."
Her eyes burned.
"Or you lose your tongue."
Just as she reached for another tool—
The door burst open.
"Raven!"
Luce rushed inside.
"We found something."
Raven turned slowly.
"What do you mean?"
"Ghost analyzed the footage again," Luce said quickly. "The person who took Kelvin… his movements are wrong. Too stiff."
She placed a tablet on the table.
"And the signatures don't match perfectly."
Raven stared at the screen.
"That proves nothing," she said coldly.
"He could have left those clues on purpose."
Behind them, Liam spoke weakly.
"It wasn't me."
Raven's fist clenched.
For a moment it looked like she might knock him unconscious.
Instead she turned toward the door.
"Until Kelvin is found," she said without looking back, "he gets no food."
The door slammed shut.
And Liam was left alone in the dark.
—————
The meeting room was tense enough to suffocate a man.
Dante "Ghost" Ferrara stood beside the glowing monitors, explaining the discrepancies in the footage to the others when the door suddenly slammed open.
"Show it to me."
Raven stepped inside.
Her voice was calm, but there was something dangerous simmering beneath it.
Ghost didn't argue. He simply turned the laptop toward her and rewound the footage.
"Here," he said.
Two videos played side by side.
On one screen, Liam could be seen leaving the mansion.
On the other, a man with Liam's face appeared at Kelvin's school.
Ghost paused the footage.
"The timestamps match," he explained quietly. "Exactly the same minute."
Raven's eyes narrowed.
"Which means?"
"Either Liam learned how to teleport," Dante said dryly, "or someone used his face."
Silence settled across the room.
Raven closed the laptop slowly.
"Bring Luca."
The order was immediate.
Within minutes the door opened again and Luca was escorted inside.
He looked pale.
Everyone in the organization already knew what had happened. Kelvin was missing.
And when Raven summoned someone personally, it was rarely good news.
"G–good evening, b-boss," Luca stammered.
The moment the words left his mouth he regretted them.
Good evening.
In a room like this.
With Kelvin missing.
Raven didn't react to the greeting.
Her gaze stayed fixed on him.
"Tell me something," she said.
Her voice was quiet.
"Were you with Liam at twelve forty-five?"
Luca swallowed.
"And don't lie," Luce added from the side, her tone sharper than usual.
The entire room watched him.
Every movement.
Every breath.
No one in that organization trusted words alone.
"Yes, ma'am," Luca said quickly.
He straightened slightly as he forced himself to remember clearly.
"It was after he'd gotten ready to pick up Young Master Kelvin."
Several eyes flicked toward Raven.
Luca continued.
"I asked him if he didn't need bodyguards."
He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"But he was rushing. You told him to pick Kelvin up by one, and the school is about twenty-five minutes away."
He hesitated.
"That's… that's all I know."
Silence followed.
Not the comfortable kind.
The dangerous kind.
Around the table, the senior members of the Moretti organization studied him carefully—his tone, posture, breathing, even the way his eyes moved.
No one here believed anything blindly.
Especially not now.
Kelvin's life was on the line.
And trust was a luxury none of them could afford.
Raven remained perfectly still.
But for the first time since the kidnapping…
A small crack had appeared in the story.