Chapter 2 - The Name on the Card
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The name written in blue ink on the paper was Dante.
Luca Moretti stared at the trembling letters for nearly ten seconds without blinking.
The quiet in the grand ballroom grew so heavy that even the crystal pendants on the chandeliers seemed to freeze.
Forty guests from Chicago’s most powerful families held their breath in the candlelight.
Vanessa Bellini’s hand hovered in the air, trembling slightly against the silk of her red gown.
Luca slowly raised his head and looked at his younger brother.
“You told Mom she would never see Dante again?”
Michael Moretti shifted his weight, his fingers tightening around the stem of his wine glass.
“Luca, she’s confused.”
Teresa took a step forward, leaning her weight against my shoulder.
“I am not confused, Michael.”
Her voice was cracked, but it carried across the entire room with stunning clarity.
“You stood at the foot of my bed on Tuesday morning while Hannah was downstairs preparing my tea.”
Vanessa stepped between Luca and his mother, her smile stretched tight and unnatural.
“Teresa, sweetheart, you had a fever on Tuesday.”
“Do not call me sweetheart, Vanessa.”
The old woman’s eyes flashed with a fire no one had seen in her since her stroke.
“You took my wedding ring off my nightstand three weeks ago and told me I lost it in the garden.”
A collective murmur swept through the dinner guests.
Luca’s gaze cut through Vanessa like an iced blade.
“Where is my mother’s wedding ring?”
Vanessa swallowed hard, her painted crimson lips parting in disbelief.
“Luca, you cannot honestly be listening to this.”
“Answer the question, Vanessa.”
“It’s being cleaned!”
Her voice cracked beneath the sudden pressure.
“The jeweler in Gold Coast has it for polishing before our wedding.”
“My mother’s ring has not left her bedroom since my father died twelve years ago,” Luca said, his voice dropping into a deadly whisper.
He turned his body fully toward Michael.
“Why did you bring up Dante’s name to our mother?”
Michael set his glass down so hard the base chipped against the mahogany table.
“Because Dante is a ghost, Luca!”
“Dante is your brother,” Luca said quietly.
“Dante betrayed this family five years ago!”
Michael pointed an accusing finger at Teresa.
“He walked away from the business, took his inheritance, and left us to fight the Bellinis alone!”
“That is a lie,” Teresa whispered, tears finally spilling over her wrinkled cheeks.
I felt the tremors running through her arm, but her grip on my hand was surprisingly strong.
“Tell him the truth, Michael.”
Michael looked around the room, realizing that forty of his peers were recording every second in their minds.
“This is a private family matter,” Michael sneered, glaring directly at me.
“And it certainly doesn’t concern a hired girl who makes twenty dollars an hour emptying trash cans.”
Luca stepped between Michael and me before I could even lower my head.
“Hannah Collins has done more to protect my mother in eleven months than you have done in five years.”
The silence that followed was absolute.
Vanessa reached out to touch Luca’s shoulder, but he brushed her arm away without looking at her.
“You told Mom that Sophie was ashamed of her letters,” Luca said to Vanessa.
“Luca, please—”
“You told the woman who raised three sons in an alleyway apartment that her granddaughter couldn’t stand to look at her handwriting.”
Vanessa’s eyes welled with furious tears.
“I did it for your sanity, Luca!”
“My sanity?”
“You carry the weight of this entire empire on your shoulders!”
Vanessa gestured wildly at the room of silent socialites and mob bosses.
“Your mother wanders down the halls at midnight calling for a dead man and an exiled son!”
“She is recovering from a stroke!”
Luca’s voice suddenly boomed like thunder, shattering the polite mask he always wore.
Two champagne flutes rattled on the serving cart behind me.
“She spent forty years keeping this family alive while my father fought in the streets!”
He took the small blue card and held it right in front of Vanessa’s face.
“This card was meant for my nine-year-old daughter.”
“Luca—”
“Get out of my house.”
Vanessa froze, her jaw dropping open in pure shock.
“What did you say?”
“I said get out of my house.”
Michael lunged forward, grabbing Luca’s arm.
“Luca, are you out of your mind? Her father is sitting right there!”
Salvatore Bellini, the aging patriarch of the Bellini syndicate, slowly stood from his seat at the far end of the table.
His silver hair gleamed under the chandeliers, his dark eyes fixed on Luca.
“Be careful what you say to my daughter, Moretti.”
Luca didn’t even flinch as he stared the old Don down.
“Your daughter has ten minutes to pack her belongings, Salvatore.”
Teresa leaned closer to me, her breathing shallow and ragged.
“Hannah,” she whispered softly against my ear.
“Yes, Mrs. Moretti?”
“Look in the blue vase on the mantelpiece in my sitting room.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“What is inside it?”
May you like
The old woman’s eyes filled with raw terror.
“The paper Michael tried to make me sign this morning.”
