Chapter 13 - The Stripping of the Crown
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By five o’clock in the morning, the heavy rain had stopped, giving way to a gray, somber dawn over Lake Michigan.
Luca’s elite cleanup crew had already sanitized the grand foyer, removing the bodies and washing the marble until it shone clean.
In the grand drawing room, a roaring fire crackled in the stone hearth, casting long, dancing shadows across the velvet furniture.
Vanessa sat bound in a wooden armchair, her right shoulder tightly bandaged, her designer silk dress torn and stained with soot.
She had no jewelry left; her wedding ring lay on the coffee table beside an official set of divorce and property relinquishment papers.
The double doors opened, and Don Antonio Bellini walked in, flanked by two armed Moretti enforcers.
The proud Bellini patriarch looked like an old, broken man, his face gaunt with terror and shame.
"Papa!" Vanessa sobbed, squirming in her seat as she looked at her father.
"Papa, help me, tell them they can't do this to me!"
Antonio didn't even look his daughter in the eye; instead, he walked straight over to Luca, who sat behind the antique desk.
"Luca," Antonio said with a trembling voice, bowing his head in complete submission.
"I have brought the deeds to our family shipping docks and the transfer papers for our five casino properties."
"I hand them over freely as restitution for the treason committed under my name."
Luca glanced at the stack of legal documents and nodded slowly.
"Your docks and casinos are mine, Antonio," Luca declared smoothly.
"Your life is spared because you told me the truth on the phone before Falcone breached my gates."
"But your daughter belongs to the streets now."
Luca pushed the divorce papers toward Antonio, handing him a gold fountain pen.
"Sign as her legal witness."
Antonio hesitated for a fraction of a second, glancing at his weeping daughter, whose eyes pleaded for salvation.
Then, with a heavy hand, he signed his name across the bottom of the documents, officially stripping Vanessa of all inheritance.
"Papa, no!" Vanessa shrieked, tears pouring down her face.
"You can't abandon me!"
Antonio finally turned to her, his voice trembling with bitter rage and disappointment.
"You orchestrated the torture of Luca's mother, an innocent elderly woman who welcomed you with open arms," Antonio spat.
"You allied with the very dog who ruined our family's finances."
"You are no longer a Bellini."
Luca stood up, picked up a single brown paper envelope from the desk, and dropped it into Vanessa’s lap.
"Inside that envelope is a one-way bus ticket to a small mining town in rural Montana and five hundred dollars in cash," Luca said coldly.
"Every bank account in your name has been liquidated to fund a new charity in my mother's name."
"If you ever set foot within five hundred miles of Chicago, my men will not ask questions."
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The guards unstrapped her, hauled her to her feet, and dragged her out into the freezing morning mist.
As the heavy oak doors slammed shut behind her, the poisonous shadow that had hung over the Moretti mansion vanished forever.
