Chapter 2 - THE GUNSHOT THAT SILENCED THE WEDDING
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I saw Dario Moretti's fingers close around the black handgun beneath his tuxedo jacket.
For one terrifying second, nobody else moved.
Luca was still staring at the letter his dead brother had written.
Sofia sat beside him, her face wet with tears.
And Vanessa stood frozen in her beautiful wedding gown, looking more frightened of the truth than of the weapon.
Then Dario raised his arm.
“LUCA, GET DOWN!” I screamed.
The gun wasn't pointed at Luca.
It was pointed directly at Sofia.
I didn't have time to think.
I snatched the glass of water from the table and threw it as hard as I could.
The glass struck Dario's wrist.
A deafening gunshot exploded through the ballroom.
Crystal shattered above our heads.
Women screamed as pieces of a chandelier rained onto the wedding table.
Luca grabbed Sofia and pulled her behind him.
I dropped to the marble floor, covering my head as guests scrambled toward the exits.
“DARIO!” Luca roared.
His cousin fired another shot toward the ceiling.
“STAY BACK!”
Two security guards rushed forward, but Dario kicked over a serving cart and disappeared through the side entrance.
The emergency lights flickered.
Then the ballroom went dark.
For several seconds, all I heard was screaming, breaking glass, and the pounding of my own heart.
Someone grabbed my shoulder.
I nearly screamed again.
“Claire, it's me.”
Luca's deep voice sounded beside my ear.
“Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
“No, sir.”
He helped me stand.
Blood was running down his hand.
“Your hand,” I whispered.
“It's nothing.”
But it wasn't nothing.
A piece of shattered crystal had sliced across his knuckles.
For five years, I'd watched Luca Moretti walk through danger without showing fear.
Tonight, his hands were shaking.
Not because he'd almost been shot.
Because he'd nearly lost the last person his younger brother had left behind.
“Sofia,” he said urgently.
She was crouched beside an overturned chair.
Her black lace dress was covered in broken glass.
“I'm here,” she whispered.
Luca knelt and pulled her into his arms.
For the first time since Matteo's funeral, I saw them hold each other without pretending everything was all right.
“I'm sorry,” Luca whispered.
Sofia began sobbing.
“Matteo tried to warn you.”
“I know.”
“He tried to protect you.”
Luca closed his eyes.
“And I didn't listen.”
Across the ballroom, Vanessa suddenly started screaming.
“Somebody help me!”
She was sitting on the floor, clutching her wedding veil.
“My husband almost died!”
Luca looked toward her.
The expression on his face made her fall silent.
“My brother did die,” he said quietly.
“And someone at this table knows why.”
Vanessa's lips trembled.
“Luca, you can't seriously believe I had anything to do with Matteo's accident.”
He didn't answer.
Instead, he carefully folded Matteo's letter and handed it to me.
“Claire, keep this safe until the police arrive.”
I stared at the envelope.
“Sir?”
“I trust you.”
Those three words almost broke me.
A maid wasn't supposed to become the keeper of a mafia family's darkest secret.
But Matteo had always treated me with kindness.
And Sofia had never once made me feel beneath her.
I tucked the envelope into my apron.
Minutes later, police officers flooded the ballroom.
Detective Maya Reyes, a serious woman with dark hair and exhausted eyes, arrived with two uniformed officers.
She had investigated Matteo's crash eleven months earlier.
I recognized her immediately.
She recognized Luca, too.
“Mr. Moretti,” she said, surveying the broken chandelier.
“Your wedding receptions certainly aren't boring.”
Luca didn't smile.
“My brother was murdered.”
Reyes stopped writing.
“What did you say?”
Luca pointed toward my apron.
“Claire has his last letter.”
I handed it over.
The detective read silently.
Her expression hardened.
“Where is Dario?”
“He escaped through the east service entrance,” Luca said.
Reyes turned toward the head of security.
Graham Beck stood near the doors, speaking into his radio.
He had worked for the Moretti family for nearly eight years.
“Why weren't those doors secured?” she demanded.
Graham lowered his eyes.
“The system malfunctioned during the shooting.”
I remembered how quickly the lights had gone out.
It hadn't felt like an accident.
But before I could speak, Vanessa approached us.
“Detective, my husband needs a doctor.”
Reyes barely glanced at her.
“Your husband needs to give a statement.”
Luca reached toward the leather folder beside his overturned wedding chair.
“These are the documents Vanessa asked me to sign this morning.”
He opened the folder.
I saw several cream-colored pages beneath an embossed wedding certificate.
There were signatures everywhere.
Luca turned one page.
Then another.
Suddenly, his face became dangerously still.
“What is this?”
Vanessa reached for the folder.
“Darling, those are just financial arrangements for our marriage.”
Luca stepped away.
At the top of the document were the words Moretti Holdings — Conditional Transfer of Voting Authority.
Below them, two names had been typed in bold.
Dario Moretti.
Vanessa E. Vale.
And beneath those names was a clause giving them control of the family company if Luca died or became legally incapacitated.
Sofia stared at the page.
“Luca, why is my signature there?”
I looked down.
Beside her name was an elegant handwritten signature.
Sofia's face went white.
“I never signed that.”
Vanessa opened her mouth.
No words came out.
Luca slowly turned toward his new wife.
“You didn't marry me for love.”
She began crying.
“Luca, please.”
He held up the papers.
“You married me for everything I own.”
Then Detective Reyes pointed toward the signature at the bottom.
“Mr. Moretti, there's something else you need to understand.”
She turned the document toward the light.
“According to this agreement, your wife and cousin weren't waiting for you to die.”
Luca frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Reyes tapped a paragraph near the bottom.
“They were preparing to declare you incapable of managing your own affairs.”
I felt my stomach drop.
And then Graham Beck's radio crackled.
A guard's terrified voice filled the ballroom.
“Sir, we found Dario's getaway vehicle.”
Graham lifted the radio.
“Where?”
The answer made every person standing near us turn silent.
“Behind the east gate.”
A pause followed.
May you like
“There's a second wedding suit inside.”
“And a body.”
