Chapter 3 - THE SECRET IN THE VAULT
|
The silence inside the grand dining room was so absolute you could hear the rain beginning to strike the tall leaded glass windows.
Vanessa slid down the mahogany door until her knees struck the marble floor, her red silk dress pooling around her like spilled wine.
“I don't know where they went,” she sobbed, clutching her hands against her collarbones.
“Salvatore handled the logistics! My father took care of everything!”
“Your father took care of exiling my wife and my firstborn son from this city?” Luca asked, his voice deathly calm.
“She wanted to leave, Luca!” Vanessa screamed, looking around the room for an ally who did not exist.
“Elena hated this life!”
“She hated the bodyguards, she hated the guns, and she hated the blood on your hands!”
“She knew that if the boy grew up in this house, he would become a monster just like you!”
Uncle Carmine, seated at the head of the side table, stood up so violently his chair tipped backward onto the carpet.
“Shut your mouth, Bellini,” Carmine growled, his hand instinctively resting on the lapel of his jacket.
“You don't speak to the head of this family about his blood.”
Luca held up a single tattooed hand, signaling his uncle to remain still.
He crouched down until he was eye-level with the woman who was supposed to be his bride on Saturday morning.
“Vanessa,” Luca whispered, the gentleness of his tone far more terrifying than a roar.
“You walked into my home twelve months ago pretending to care for my sister.”
“You pretended to accept Mara’s illness while quietly feeding her isolation.”
“You hired private nurses to keep me away from her clinic during the holidays.”
He reached out, picking up the small gold credit card from the marble floor and turning it over in his fingers.
“And tonight, you stood in front of forty-eight witnesses and humiliated Claire because she refused to help you break Mara’s spirit.”
Vanessa looked up, her eyes wide with terror as she realized there was no escape.
“Claire is a servant, Luca! She had no right to defy me!”
Luca slowly stood up, letting the credit card drop onto Vanessa’s lap.
“Claire protected my sister’s recovery while you were trying to destroy it,” Luca said.
“Claire showed more honor in five minutes than your entire bloodline has shown in thirty years.”
He turned his back on her, walking toward the head table where Mara and I were standing.
Every step he took seemed to restore order to a room that had been on the verge of madness.
He looked down at my soaked housekeeping dress, his eyes lingering on the dark stain where the champagne had ruined the fabric.
“Claire,” he said softly.
“Yes, Mr. Moretti?” I replied, my voice shaking despite my best efforts to keep it steady.
“Take my sister up to her suite on the third floor.”
“Lock the outer iron gate at the landing.”
“Nobody enters that wing without my direct verbal clearance.”
I nodded immediately.
“Yes, sir.”
Mara reached out, taking my cold hand in hers, her grip fierce and protective.
“Come with me, Claire,” Mara whispered.
“You need dry clothes.”
As we turned toward the side terrace doors, Luca’s deep voice stopped us one more time.
“Claire.”
I paused, looking back over my shoulder at the towering mafia patriarch.
“Thank you,” Luca said, his dark eyes holding mine with an intensity that made the breath catch in my throat.
“For standing between my family and the wolves.”
Before I could answer, Daniel entered the room through the terrace corridor, carrying a heavy metal lockbox under his arm.
“Boss,” Daniel said, his voice clipped and urgent.
“We just breached the Bellini corporate offices downtown.”
“Salvatore’s personal safe was opened ten minutes ago.”
Daniel set the heavy box on the head table, right beside the untouched wedding cake.
“Inside were thirty-two wire transfers sent to a private post office box in Door County, Wisconsin.”
Luca’s jaw set like granite as he stepped toward the table.
“Whose name is on the accounts, Daniel?”
Daniel looked at Vanessa, then back at his boss.
May you like
“Elena Moretti,” Daniel answered.
“And a six-year-old child named Mateo.”
