Chapter 11 - Blood and Betrayal
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The music of the ballroom faded into memory, but the danger surrounding our lives only grew more suffocating.
Three days after the gala, a chilling discovery shattered the temporary peace inside the estate.
Marco cornered me in the security monitoring room beneath the west wing, his scarred face grim under the fluorescent lighting.
"Look at this, Nora," Marco said, pointing a heavy finger at the digital time logs on the console.
The screen displayed the encrypted security logs from the afternoon Ethan was attacked outside his school.
"Someone inside this house disabled the GPS tracking beacon on Ethan's backpack twenty minutes before dismissal," Marco revealed, his voice shaking with restrained fury.
My stomach plummeted into an icy abyss.
"That means Vanessa didn't just guess his schedule," I gasped, clapping a hand over my mouth.
"Someone gave it to her."
"Someone on our payroll sold out the boy," Marco confirmed, leaning over the keyboard.
"And we're going to find out who it is before the boss executes the entire staff."
Luca’s wrath upon learning of the betrayal was cold, calculated, and absolute.
He did not shout.
He gathered all forty estate employees into the great marble foyer, locking the exterior iron doors behind them.
Armed security guards lined the second-floor mezzanine, rifles held at low ready.
Luca stood at the top of the grand staircase, looking down at his staff like an ancient king preparing to pass judgment.
Beside him stood Mrs. Carter, her face pale and devastated.
"One of you betrayed my son," Luca spoke, his voice echoing off the high ceilings like rolling thunder.
"One of you took money from the Bellini family to put Ethan in the hands of a madwoman."
Nobody dared to breathe.
Housekeepers, gardeners, cooks, and chauffeurs stood trembling, eyes glued to the marble floor.
Luca started down the stairs, one slow step at a time.
"I am giving that person five seconds to step forward," Luca continued, his hand resting on the holster beneath his jacket.
"If you confess now, you will leave this city alive with the clothes on your back."
"If my security team proves it through our digital forensics, you will leave this property in a wooden box."
"One."
A young junior butler named Thomas began to sweat profusely in the third row.
"Two."
Thomas's knees were shaking so hard his trousers trembled.
"Three."
"It was me!" Thomas shrieked, collapsing onto his knees on the cold marble, burying his face in his hands.
"Please, Mr. Moretti! I had no choice!"
A collective gasp of shock erupted from the staff.
Mrs. Carter shook her head in tearful disbelief; Thomas had been an orphan she had personally trained for two years.
Marco stepped forward immediately, kicking Thomas’s hands away and pinning him to the floor with a heavy combat boot.
Luca walked over, stopping right beside the weeping traitor.
"Why, Thomas?" Luca asked, his voice disturbingly calm.
"They... they had my sister!" Thomas sobbed, snot and tears smearing against the stone.
"Vanessa’s men kidnapped her from her college dorm in Ohio!"
"They said if I didn't disable the tracker and give them the dismissal route, they would send her back to me in pieces!"
"They paid me fifty thousand dollars to ensure I stayed quiet!"
Luca looked over at Marco.
"Is his sister missing?"
Marco spoke into his radio headset, listening intently for thirty agonizing seconds.
"Boss," Marco reported, looking up.
"Ohio team just checked the dorm."
"The girl was found bound and gagged in a motel room outside Columbus three hours ago."
"Bellini enforcers were holding her."
"Our men just neutralized the guards and secured the girl."
"She's alive and safe."
Thomas looked up, his red-rimmed eyes wide with shock and disbelief.
"She's... she's safe?"
"My men protect the families of everyone who works for me," Luca said, looking down at the broken young man.
"Even when you don't have the courage to ask for help."
Luca signaled to the guards.
"Take him to the border."
"Put him on a bus to his sister."
"If either of them ever enters Illinois again, execute them."
The guards dragged Thomas away, his frantic cries of gratitude echoing down the long hall.
Luca turned to the remaining staff, his eyes sweeping across the shaken faces.
"Mrs. Carter and Nora will conduct a full review of all estate security clearance from this day forward," Luca commanded.
"Dismissed."
The staff dispersed in hurried, terrified silence.
I remained standing near the bottom of the staircase, my hands shaking from the adrenaline.
Luca walked toward me, his imposing posture slumping slightly as the exhaustion of constant war finally caught up to him.
"Are you alright, Nora?" he asked softly, stopping beside me.
"I am, Mr. Moretti," I replied, looking up into his tired, handsome face.
"I'm just so sorry you have to live like this."
"Surrounded by people who smile at you while holding knives behind their backs."
Luca reached out, his warm, strong hand gently taking mine in the empty foyer.
"Not everyone holds a knife, Nora," he whispered, squeezing my fingers with deep tenderness.
"Some people hold silver forks to save my son."
May you like
"Come to the library tonight."
"There's something I need to tell you."
