Chapter 8 - The Viper Unmasked
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The grandfather clock struck midnight, its deep chimes echoing through the vaulted corridors of the Moretti estate.
Upstairs in the master suite, Sophia was packing three designer leather suitcases with frantic, trembling hands.
She was not a stupid woman; she had noticed the cold distance in Vincent’s eyes and the sudden disappearance of her favorite guards.
Her phone vibrated continuously on the marble vanity, displaying frantic messages from her brother urging her to flee the country immediately.
She grabbed an armful of diamond necklaces from the velvet-lined safe and shoved them haphazardly into her purse.
Suddenly, the heavy double doors of the bedroom swung open with a resounding bang that rattled the crystal wall sconces.
Vincent stood in the entryway, flanked by four of his most ruthless enforcers, all of them dressed in black tactical suits.
Sophia jumped, dropping a diamond tennis bracelet onto the hardwood floor, where it glittered mockingly in the dim light.
“Vincent! You scared me half to death!” she cried, trying to summon her usual breathy, flirtatious laugh.
“I was just… I was organizing my jewelry for our upcoming trip to Miami.”
Vincent walked into the room slowly, his heavy dress shoes making no sound against the thick wool rug.
His face was completely devoid of emotion; it was the terrifying, emotionless mask he wore when passing death sentences upon rival mobsters.
He tossed the genetic laboratory report onto the bed beside her half-packed suitcase.
Sophia glanced down at the paper, and the artificial smile on her face froze, then melted into sheer, unadulterated horror.
“Zero percent probability of paternity,” Vincent recited the words softly, each syllable dripping with venomous precision.
“Seven years, Sophia.”
“Seven years I raised that boy as my heir, showered you with millions, and treated you like a queen.”
“All while my real flesh and blood was living in another state, wearing secondhand coats and eating store-brand cereal.”
Sophia dropped to her knees on the rug, crawling toward his polished shoes with tears streaming down her contoured cheeks.
“Vincent, listen to me! It was an accident! I was young, I was terrified of losing you to Claire!” she wailed, clutching at the cuffs of his trousers.
Vincent looked down at her with an expression of pure, unadulterated disgust, stepping back so her manicured hands grasped only empty air.
“You paid Dr. Vance three hundred thousand dollars to tell me my baby was dead,” Vincent whispered, his voice vibrating with lethal intensity.
“You tried to kill Claire by denying her medical care in that hallway.”
“You turned me into a monster who abandoned his own daughter!”
“I did it for us, Vincent! Claire was weak! She could never survive this life!” Sophia screamed, her voice turning shrill and hysterical as the truth stripped her bare.
“And what about Lucas’s real father?” Vincent asked, his eyes narrowing into cold slits.
Sophia choked on her own breath, her lips trembling violently as she realized she had reached the absolute end of her rope.
“Julian Rossi,” Vincent answered his own question, watching the last shred of color vanish from her face.
Julian Rossi was the underboss of the rival Chicago faction that Vincent had wiped out five years ago.
“You brought a Rossi bastard into the Moretti house and placed him in the cradle of my ancestors,” Vincent said with chilling calm.
He turned his back on her, walking toward the open doorway without another glance.
“Take her to the federal detention facility,” Vincent ordered his men, his voice flat and merciless.
“Hand over all evidence of her financial fraud, the hospital bribery, and her tax evasion to the United States Attorney.”
“Let her spend the next thirty years in a gray prison cell wearing orange cotton and eating institutional slop.”
“Vincent, please! Have mercy! What about Lucas?” she shrieked as two burly guards seized her by the arms and dragged her across the floor.
“Lucas will be sent to a private boarding school in Switzerland with a modest living trust,” Vincent replied coldly over his shoulder.
May you like
“He is innocent of your crimes, but he will never bear my name, and he will never see this city again.”
Her frantic screams echoed down the long hallway, fading into the night as the front iron gates closed behind her forever.
