Chapter 8 – THE ASHES OF BOOTH SEVEN

“Luca!” I screamed, shoving the phone into his chest.

Luca looked at the screen, his triumphant smile vanishing instantly.

“Marco!” Luca roared, sprinting toward the exit. “Lock down the perimeter! Vanessa is making a play!”

But it was too late.

A massive, concussive boom rattled the crystal chandeliers of the Bellini ballroom, though the sound was distant.

It hadn’t come from inside the estate.

It had come from the city.

June Harper, who had been escorted into the back of the room by Marco’s men, fell to her knees, her hands flying to her mouth.

“My diner,” June whispered, tears instantly flooding her eyes. “She blew up my diner.”

Luca caught her before she hit the floor, his face twisted in pure fury.

“Why?” I asked, my voice trembling as the horror set in. “Carlo is dead. Vanessa is ruined. Why blow up an empty diner?”

Luca looked at the text message on my phone again. He zoomed in on the picture of the bomb inside the blue coffee mug.

“Look at the background,” Luca said, his voice deadly quiet.

I squinted at the screen. Behind the mug, resting on the vinyl seat of Booth Seven, was a thick, leather-bound book.

“A ledger?” I asked.

“No,” June choked out, her face ghostly pale. “It’s the deed.”

Luca went rigid.

“The deed to what, June?”

“To the entire Moretti port authority,” June sobbed. “Anthony hid the physical bearer bonds and the unrecorded deeds to your family’s shipping empire in a floor safe under Booth Seven. He said if the Commission ever turned on you, you could use it to buy your freedom.”

My heart plummeted into my stomach.

Vanessa hadn’t just fled in shame. She had realized she was going to be stripped of her wealth and exiled.

She didn’t want revenge. She wanted a golden parachute.

“She blew up the diner as a distraction,” Luca realized, his tactical mind racing. “She sent her loyalists to crack the safe, plant the bomb to cover their tracks, and steal the deeds.”

“She has your entire empire, Luca,” I whispered.

Luca stood up, his dark eyes flashing with a terrifying, cold resolve.

“No, she doesn’t,” Luca said. “Because bearer bonds and unsigned deeds are useless unless you can cash them out. And there is only one offshore bank in the world that processes untraceable mafia assets at this hour.”

He looked at Marco.

“Prepare the jet. We’re going to Switzerland.”

Marco nodded sharply and sprinted out the door.

Luca turned to me.

“Megan, you stay here. You’ve done enough. You saved my life.”

I grabbed his arm, my grip like iron.

“Vanessa tried to kill my mother. She destroyed June’s life. She threatened my daughter,” I said, my voice hardening. “I’m not a maid anymore, Luca. I am in this until it’s finished.”

Luca stared into my eyes, searching for any hesitation. He found none.

A slow, fierce smile spread across his bruised face.

“Get in the car,” he said.

Eight hours later, the private jet touched down on a rain-slicked runway in Geneva, Switzerland.

The transition from the blood-soaked ballroom in Chicago to the pristine, sterile wealth of the Swiss banking district was jarring. I was still wearing the emerald gown, though I had borrowed a thick black cashmere trench coat from the jet’s closet to ward off the freezing alpine air.

We pulled up to the grand, marble-columned entrance of the Banque Privée Suisse.

“The bank is neutral ground,” Luca explained as we stepped out of the car. “No weapons. No violence. If we shed blood in there, the Swiss authorities will lock us away forever.”

“Then how do we stop her?” I asked, matching his long strides.

“We don’t shoot her,” Luca said. “We outsmart her.”

We walked through the revolving glass doors into the cavernous, silent lobby.

Standing at a massive mahogany teller desk, arguing frantically with a pristine Swiss banker, was Vanessa Bellini.

She was still wearing her torn, blood-stained red dress, clutching a leather briefcase to her chest.

“I told you, I have the bearer bonds!” Vanessa shrieked, slamming her hand on the desk. “Open the anonymous account and initiate the transfer immediately!”

“I apologize, Madame,” the banker said smoothly, unbothered by her panic. “But as I explained, these bonds are tied to the Moretti estate. A physical transfer of this magnitude requires the presence of a blood heir.”

“I am his fiancée!” Vanessa screamed. “He’s dead! I have power of attorney!”

“You are nothing.”

Luca’s voice echoed across the marble floor.

Vanessa spun around, her eyes widening in absolute terror.

“You…” she gasped, backing away from the desk.

Luca walked slowly toward her, his presence dominating the massive room.

“Did you really think Carlo’s men could finish me, Vanessa?” Luca asked quietly. “Did you really think you could steal my father’s legacy and disappear?”

Vanessa looked desperately toward the heavy glass doors, but Marco and two massive guards were already blocking the exit.

She was trapped.

“I have the bonds, Luca!” Vanessa panicked, holding the briefcase up like a shield. “If you touch me, I’ll shred them! I’ll destroy everything!”

“Destroy them,” Luca said calmly, stopping five feet away.

Vanessa blinked, confused.

“What?”

“Tear them up,” Luca challenged, crossing his arms. “Burn them right here on the floor. I don’t care.”

“This is your empire!” Vanessa screamed. “It’s worth billions!”

“It was worth billions,” Luca corrected.

He reached into his coat and pulled out his cell phone, tossing it onto the mahogany desk in front of her.

“Look at the news, Vanessa.”

Vanessa hesitantly reached out and tapped the screen.

Her face drained of all color.

“No,” she whispered.

I looked over her shoulder.

The headline on the global financial news network read in bold letters: MORETTI SHIPPING EMPIRE SEIZED BY FEDERAL AUTHORITIES FOLLOWING MASSIVE DATA LEAK.

“When we were in the air,” Luca said, his voice laced with venom, “I authorized Salvatore’s consigliere to release the encrypted files on that gold chip to the FBI. The files didn’t just expose Carlo’s murders. They exposed the entire illegal infrastructure of the shipping ports.”

Vanessa stumbled backward, dropping the briefcase.

“You burned your own empire to the ground,” she breathed, horrified.

“I burned the corruption,” Luca said. “I gave up the blood money. My family will rebuild legitimately. But those bearer bonds in your briefcase? They are tied to assets that the federal government just seized.”

He smiled, a dark, satisfying smile.

“You are holding a briefcase full of worthless paper, Vanessa. You have no money. You have no family. And when you walk out those doors, you have no protection from the Commission.”

Vanessa fell to her knees, sobbing openly on the cold marble floor.

The Swiss banker politely stepped around her, picking up the phone.

“I will notify the local authorities that a trespasser is disturbing the peace,” the banker said smoothly.

Luca turned to me, offering his arm.

“Let’s go home, Megan.”

I took his arm, feeling a profound, overwhelming sense of closure.

The monsters were dead or ruined. My mother was safe. Lily was waiting for us.

“It’s really over,” I whispered, looking up at the snow-capped mountains.

“It is,” Luca smiled, wrapping his coat tighter around me.

But as we approached the waiting car, Marco’s radio crackled to life.

“Boss,” a frantic voice yelled over the static. “We have a situation at the hospital in Chicago.”

Luca’s smile vanished. “What is it?”

“It’s Helen, Boss. She’s gone.”

My heart stopped. “What do you mean she’s gone? Did she have the surgery?”

“No,” the voice replied, terrified. “Someone bypassed our security. They took her from the ICU.”

Luca grabbed the radio. “Who took her?!”

“They left a message on the mirror in lipstick, Boss.”

The voice hesitated.

“It says: Anthony’s debts are inherited.”