Chapter 5 – THE HUSBAND I NEVER KNEW

“He’s a Rossi,” I whispered, staring at the yellowed paper.

Teresa leaned closer, her eyes widening as she read the name. “Dear God. He married you to get close to the Romano bloodline. He’s been playing a long game from the very beginning.”

My mind spun backward, replaying eight years of marriage.

The sudden disappearances. The unexplained cash. The way he always seemed to know exactly how to manipulate the legal system during our divorce to drain my bank accounts, forcing me to take a job as a live-in maid.

He orchestrated my poverty. He drove me into the Moretti household.

He used me as a Trojan horse.

“He didn’t come tonight to kidnap Sophie to pay off a debt,” I realized, nausea rising in my throat. “He came to steal Luca’s father’s watch, take Sophie, and cripple the Moretti family from the inside.”

On the security monitors, I watched Luca standing on the front steps, flanked by his men. He was negotiating with the men who had breached the gates.

I needed to tell him. I needed to warn him that the man in his basement wasn’t a scared gambler, but the heir to his enemy’s empire.

“Watch Sophie,” I told Teresa, turning toward the heavy steel door.

“Emily, you cannot go out there!” Teresa warned.

“If Luca goes down to that basement to interrogate Andrew without knowing who he really is, Andrew will kill him,” I said.

I hit the release button. The steel door hissed open, and I ran.

I sprinted through the empty, darkened halls of the mansion. The sounds of shouting echoed from the front lawn, but the interior was eerily silent.

I reached the door to the basement stairs and threw it open.

“Luca!” I screamed as I ran down the concrete steps.

I reached the holding room.

The two guards Luca had ordered to watch Andrew were lying on the floor, unconscious.

The chair Andrew had been tied to was empty. The ropes were cleanly sliced.

I backed up, panic seizing my chest.

“Looking for me, Emily?”

I spun around.

Andrew stood in the shadows of the basement hallway, holding a suppressed pistol. His expensive suit was wrinkled, but his perfect, arrogant smile was back.

“You’re a Rossi,” I breathed.

Andrew chuckled, stepping into the dim light. “You found the paper in the locket. I’ve been trying to get that off your neck for years, but you never took the damn thing off.”

“You used us,” I said, tears of pure rage filling my eyes. “You used your own daughter.”

“She’s a means to an end,” Andrew said coldly. “Now, be a good girl and walk upstairs. We’re going to get Sophie, and we’re walking out the back.”

“I will never let you take her.”

Andrew raised the gun, aiming it directly at my chest.

“Then I’ll just have to leave you down here.”

Before he could pull the trigger, a voice echoed from the top of the stairs.

“If you pull that trigger, Andrew, I will spend the rest of my life making sure you die screaming.”

Luca descended the stairs, his dark eyes fixed on my ex-husband, a loaded weapon in his own hand.

But Andrew didn’t look afraid anymore. He just smiled and pressed a button on a small detonator in his left hand.

“I wouldn’t take another step, Moretti. Look at the camera feed from your panic room.”