Chapter 5 - THE PHANTOM HEIRESS
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Luca threw the stack of papers across the desk, scattering them over the blotter like a deck of playing cards.
One photograph landed right near my shoes, face up on the polished parquet floor.
I looked down and felt my stomach drop into a bottomless pit.
The photograph showed Vanessa sitting intimately at an outdoor cafe in Miami with a man I recognized instantly.
It was Victor Moretti, Luca’s uncle and the most powerful underboss in the entire syndicate.
The timestamp in the corner proved the photograph had been taken three years ago.
That was an entire year before Vanessa had conveniently bumped into Luca at a charity gala in downtown Chicago.
“You told me you grew up an orphan in Seattle,” Luca said, his voice dropping into a deadly whisper.
“You told me your family died in a house fire when you were sixteen years old.”
Luca picked up a certified birth certificate from the desk and read the printed ink aloud.
“Vanessa Sirena.”
“Daughter of Carlos Sirena, the man my father ran out of Illinois twenty-five years ago for selling narcotics to children.”
Vanessa didn't cry or scream this time.
Instead, a chilling transformation came over her features as she realized her disguise was completely destroyed.
Her posture straightened, her trembling vanished, and her glossy lips curled into a cold, wicked smirk.
“Carlos Sirena was twice the man your father ever was,” Vanessa spat, her voice dripping with venom.
“Lorenzo ruined my family and left my mother to die in a state hospital while you grew up in luxury.”
“Did you really think I fell in love with a brutal monster like you at an art auction?”
“You were a mark, Luca, nothing more than an arrogant target with a massive bank account.”
Arthur gasped, clutching his chest as he listened to her cruel confession.
“God forgive you, child,” the old butler murmured weakly.
“Shut up, Arthur!” Vanessa snapped, her eyes flashing with pure malice.
“You should have taken the hundred thousand dollars and died quietly in a retirement home like the dog you are!”
Luca stepped around the desk, his fists clenched so hard his knuckles turned stark white.
“Where did the money go, Vanessa?”
“My father’s records show forty million dollars vanished from our shipping accounts over the last thirty months.”
Vanessa let out a mocking laugh that made my skin crawl with disgust.
“Where do you think it went, darling?”
“It went to the people who are about to take over every single block of this city from you.”
“Your father figured it out too late, just like you.”
She reached into her cleavage with lightning speed before Marco could grab her arms.
Luca drew a concealed pistol from his shoulder holster in a fraction of a second, aiming it directly between her eyes.
“Don't move!” Luca commanded, his finger resting lightly on the hair-trigger.
Vanessa didn't flinch at the sight of the gun; instead, she pulled out a cheap black burner phone.
She held the illuminated screen high in the air for everyone in the room to see.
A single green button was highlighted on the screen, connected to an active call.
May you like
“Shoot me, Luca,” Vanessa purred with sickening confidence.
“Pull the trigger and see what happens to little Lily Collins before my body even hits this carpet.”
