Chapter 4 - The House of Serpents
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The silence on the other end of the telephone line dragged on until Antonio Bellini finally let out a defeated, trembling sigh.
"Luca, please don't hurt her," Antonio begged, his arrogant voice completely broken.
"I had no choice in the matter, son."
"Salvatore came to me six months ago with financial ledgers proving my shipping docks were bankrupt."
"He promised to erase my fifty-million-dollar debt if I pressured you into marrying Vanessa and placed her inside your inner circle."
Vanessa listened to her father’s confession in paralyzed horror, realizing that the patriarch she worshiped had treated her like currency.
"So the entire wedding was an orchestrated execution plot from day one," Luca stated, his eyes never leaving Vanessa’s face.
"Yes," Antonio choked out through the speaker.
"Salvatore never died twenty years ago; he bought a coroner, faked dental records, and fled to Bogota to rebuild his army."
"He hates your family with a demonic obsession, Luca."
"He wants the entire Moretti territory, and he wants you to watch your mother die before he ends your life."
Luca slammed his fist down onto the red disconnect button, cutting off Antonio’s desperate apologies mid-sentence.
He stood up slowly and walked around the desk until he stood directly behind his weeping, deceitful wife.
"You made my mother beg for a glass of water while you strutted around this house in four-thousand-dollar dresses," Luca murmured into her ear.
"You made her scrub your filthy shoes until her hands bled, all while plotting to let my father's killer into our sanctuary."
Vanessa broke down into unhinged wailing, rocking violently back and forth in the chair.
"I did what I had to do to survive, Luca!" she screamed through her running mascara.
"Your mother is an old relic who should have been put into a nursing home years ago!"
Luca did not raise his hand; he was far too disciplined to strike a defenseless woman, even a traitorous one.
Instead, he looked toward two stone-faced guards standing motionless by the steel door.
"Take her down to the sub-basement holding cells and lock her behind the vault door."
"Strip her of every stitch of designer clothing, take her shoes, and give her the exact same dirty rags she gave my mother."
"If she screams, gag her."
The guards stepped forward efficiently, unbuckling Vanessa and dragging her kicking and screaming down the concrete hallway.
Luca stood alone in the dim corridor for a long moment, rubbing his tired temples as the weight of the betrayal settled on his shoulders.
May you like
Then he straightened his spine, buttoned his cuffs, and took the elevator up to his mother’s room.
He needed to see with his own eyes that the only woman who had ever truly loved him was still breathing.
