“Where’s Arianna?” Antonio’s panicked voice surprised Alex. He stood up. Antonio looked distraught.

“What do you mean, where’s Arianna? Didn’t you see her outside? She was talking to someone on the phone.” Alex was confused.

“There was nobody outside. Where is my daughter?” Antonio demanded.

“Antonio, why the commotion?” The Sheriff came over to see what was happening.

“Sheriff, I came here to see my daughter, and she is missing. I demand you arrest this man right here.” He pointed to Alex.

“Excuse me? First of all, how did you know where to find me? Arianna and I have roamed a lot today. We could have been anywhere, yet you come here, where we are. What does that say about you?” Alex questioned.

“Boy’s right. Let’s go to my office.” The Sheriff led the way. Alex gestured to Buzz and he followed them inside.

“Now tell me. What has got you so tied up, Antonio?” The Sheriff took a seat.

“My daughter is missing. I demand you send your best personnel to find her.” Alex’s disbelief at his words turned to fear. Where is Arianna? She wouldn’t be talking to someone for so long. He dialed her number and got an automated message telling him the phone was switched off. Something is wrong.

“Sheriff, I can’t reach Arianna on the phone. Has Brian got to her as well?” Alex said. The Sheriff got to his feet and rushed out to check the CCTV camera footage.

“Smith, have you seen anything on the CCTV?” he barked. The police officer named Smith rewound the CCTV footage. Alex stared at the screen, willing Arianna to be safe. He saw her walk out to talk on the phone. A masked man came up to her and she began walking away from the camera. Smith pressed a few controls and they accessed the camera from the end of the street. Arianna looked scared as she walked. As they took a turn, the masked man took off the piece of cloth on his face and looked straight into the camera. It was Brian!

“It’s Brian. He abducted her right in front of our noses.” The Sheriff banged the table in anger. “Find out what the guards outside were doing. How could he do this in front of a police station?” The Sheriff barked orders to get his team in action.

Buzz glared at Antonio. He nudged Alex and Antonio to enter an interrogation room. The Sheriff followed.

“Now that we’re comfortable, why don’t you start by telling me why you were searching for Arianna in the first place,” Buzz yelled at Antonio.

“Is it not right for a father to want his daughter? You’re asking me why I want my daughter?” Antonio was not the one to back down.

“You saw her walking away. You saw someone threaten her. Someone gagged her and forced her to walk away. Still think you can deflect the question?” Buzz banged the table. Antonio jumped.

“Ever since Arianna came to me with this case, I haven’t understood why you were so intent on covering something up. Sophie got attacked, you didn’t give a hoot. Arianna is kidnapped by the man we think is your son, and you still protect him. What sort of a father are you?” Alex’s words were laced with venom. He bent down to look at Antonio, his face contorted with fury. I want to break your neck, Antonio.

“Alex, you better sit this one out,” Sheriff said.  “We’re going to interrogate him. You can watch from the observation room.” Alex looked at the Sheriff and then back at Buzz. When Buzz shook his head, he growled and walked out of the room.

“Now, before Sheriff runs an arrest warrant for obstruction of justice, I want the story, Antonio. I want every single detail. I’m going to keep asking you till you spill your guts. And if you don’t, I’m prepared to use more than a little bit of force.” Buzz flexed his muscles.

“I’ve known you a long time, Antonio. Can’t say I like you much, but I won’t sit still when someone hurts the residents of my town. What’s your connection to Brian Trellis?” Sheriff took a seat.

Antonio wrung his hands and looked at both the police officers standing in front of him. Sensing no way out, he crumbled.

“He’s not Brian. He’s Niccolo. The person who hurt Sophie and kidnapped Arianna is their brother.”

Buzz and Sheriff were unmoved. They didn’t react to the news. Antonio stared at them in shock.

“You’ve got to give us more than that. We already figured that one out,” Buzz spat out.

“What is your connection to the Morettis?” Sheriff asked. “You better start talking, or else I’m throwing you in jail. Stop wasting our time. We have to find your daughter.” Sheriff looked intently at Antonio, who deflated.

“Brian… Sorry, Niccolo came to me earlier in the day.” His voice was low.

“What?” Buzz was surprised. He looked at the glass. Alex was fuming on the other side.

“My son came to me earlier. He came to the estate. He was crazy. He kept talking about wanting to own the winery. He kept making threats against me and everyone else. He even knew about Tina and Vana and what they were doing. I just had to come and check on Arianna. Please. You have to believe me. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t hand over all the control to him,” Antonio said.

Buzz narrowed his eyes. “I don’t believe you. I don’t think you came to the station worried about Arianna. I think you came because, this time, Brian got to you. He threatened you. And when the threat was to your life, you ran.”

“No. No, it’s not like that. You have to believe me,” Antonio pleaded.

“I don’t believe a word of what you say,” Buzz replied. “Not unless you tell me how you knew Brian was your son.”

Antonio didn’t reply for a while. When he did, his voice was so soft, Buzz had to strain his ears to hear it.

“Niccolo reached out to me five years ago. He wanted to be a part of the family, and he wanted to take his share in the estate. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t give him what he wanted.”

There was a sound of knuckles banging against glass. Buzz looked at Alex and gestured, asking him to be patient.

“Tell me why, Antonio. I saw a birth certificate made out to Niccolo. He’s your son.” Antonio shook his head.

“He’s my son, but he’s not my wife’s son. He’s my son with Franco Moretti’s wife.”

“What?” Buzz was shocked. This information had completely knocked him over. There was no way he anticipated that.

“Franco was into insider trading and money laundering. I wanted to make some extra cash on the side because I was newly married. And I got sucked into Franco’s network of transporting cash. I made it to the inside circle and that’s where I interacted with Lucia.” He looked tortured.

It must hurt his smug face to confess about all of this, Alex thought from behind the glass. He was disgusted with Antonio, and his confession made Alex hate him.

“Lucia and I were in love. But she couldn’t leave Franco. Not with his network so well established. We had our moments, until we got caught. Lucia was pregnant.”

Buzz and Sheriff stared at Antonio without reacting.

“My wife was already pregnant when Lucia conceived. I couldn’t choose. I didn’t want to choose. I loved my wife, but I wanted Lucia. I promised her I would get her out of this. She kept my baby. She kept my Niccolo.” The shame in his eyes was replaced with pride.

“Niccolo was born a day after Sophie. I did what I could to be with Lucia when Niccolo was being born. Holding him in my arms was the most magical feeling.” A feeling of wonder came over Antonio’s face.

“Franco knew something was wrong the moment Lucia conceived. The two had not been intimate for several months. But when he saw me with Lucia in the hospital, he knew. Since Lucia was his wife, he kept quiet, until one evening when I got a call from Lucia. She sounded scared and said someone wanted to take her life. I rushed to her only to find her dead. I took my Niccolo and ran.”

Antonio completely broke down.

“The love of my life lay in front of me, in a bloody heap, and I couldn’t even bury her. I had to run. I took my wife, Sophie, and Niccolo and came to my father’s estate in St. Helena. I thought he couldn’t find me here. But his network prevailed. They found me and they took Niccolo away. They took away my son.” Antonio sobbed.

“All this is the past, but what happened five years ago?” Buzz was relentless in his questioning.

“Niccolo reached out to me, asked me about ownership. But I couldn’t, for obvious reasons. And so, he left. My son pushed me away and ran out of my life. I hated Sophie so much after that day. I wanted a son so badly, and the son I had, I couldn’t embrace. It killed me.”

“So, you knew all of this when Sophie was attacked, and yet you didn’t say one word?” Sheriff asked.

“How could I? I had already disappointed my son by not giving him ownership of the estate. If I had filed a complaint, I would have lost him forever.”

Buzz banged the table in anger. “How can you be so thick, Antonio? How can you still protect him?”

Before he could question him further, a deputy opened the door in excitement.

“The tracking device was just turned on. We have a location.”

Alex rushed out of his room the same time as Buzz and Sheriff. We found you, Arianna. His heartbeat escalated.

“They seem to be in some sort of warehouse outside of town,” the deputy said.

“Assemble the whole team and let’s move out. Inspector Malcolm, I guess you’ll be coming with me?” Sheriff said.

“I’m coming too,” Alex said. “What? There’s no way I’m sitting here when Arianna is out there all alone.”

Buzz nodded.

“Keep Antonio Belmonte in custody until further orders. He is pending investigation,” the sheriff instructed.

They quickly got in the Sheriff’s car.

I’m coming for you, Arianna. I’m coming.