Chapter 2 - The Shattered Gala|
The crystal chandelier above the long dining table seemed to hum in the suffocating silence.
Not a single fork moved against porcelain among the thirty elite guests.
Vanessa’s manicured fingers gripped the edge of the mahogany table until her knuckles turned ghostly white.
Luca did not raise his voice, but the quiet venom in his tone made two armed bodyguards by the archway stiffen.
“I asked you a question, Vanessa,” Luca said, stepping between his fiancée and his trembling little brother.
“You are making a public scene out of childhood confusion,” Vanessa whispered, her voice trembling with forced indignation.
“My brother walked through the freezing rain because he thought I abandoned him,” Luca replied, his dark eyes burning into hers.
Samuel pulled the rough wool of his father’s coat tighter around his thin chest.
“She told Aunt June that Dad was out of his mind at the end,” Samuel choked out, tears cutting clean lines through the dirt on his cheeks.
Luca flinched as if a blade had slipped between his ribs.
“Did you say that to my aunt?” Luca asked, taking a slow, predatory step forward.
“Frank was delirious on morphine during his final forty-eight hours, Luca!” Vanessa snapped, her composure fracturing into jagged panic.
“He didn’t know what he was signing or what he was saying!”
The word hung in the chilled air of the ballroom like an executioner’s axe.
“Signing?” Luca repeated, his voice dropping into a register that made the hair on my arms stand up.
Hannah, standing quietly near the service door, noticed Vanessa’s eyes dart toward her small satin evening bag on the console table.
“You told me my father passed away peacefully in his sleep before the revised testament could be certified,” Luca whispered.
Vanessa stepped backward, her red satin train catching on the leg of an ornate dining chair.
“The Bellini family has poured millions into stabilizing your northern docks, Luca,” she hissed, trying desperately to shift the ground beneath her feet.
“We are uniting two empires next month, and you are throwing it away over an undisciplined child’s bedtime stories!”
Samuel shrank back, his shoulders curving inward as if expecting a physical blow.
Luca noticed the movement immediately.
Without looking away from Vanessa, he reached out his left hand and caught Samuel’s trembling fingers, anchoring the boy to his side.
“Every dollar your father loaned my shipping firm was repaid with forty percent interest three weeks ago,” Luca said coldly.
“You are not my business partner, Vanessa.”
“And after tonight, you are not my family.”
Gasps echoed around the grand banquet room as socialites and syndicate lieutenants exchanged stunned glances.
Luca turned his back on her completely, dismissing her presence as though she were already a ghost.
He knelt on the polished marble floor directly in front of Samuel, leveling his gaze with the boy’s tear-stained eyes.
“Did Aunt June take anything from you, Sammy?” Luca asked softly.
Samuel hesitated, his bottom lip trembling violently.
“She took Dad’s metal lockbox from under my bed the night after the funeral.”
Luca’s jaw set like carved granite.
“Hannah,” Luca said without looking up from his brother.
“Yes, Mr. Moretti?” I answered, stepping out of the shadows.
May you like
“Escort our guests to their vehicles,” Luca commanded quietly.
“The engagement is over.”
