Chapter 5 – THE FATHER’S THREAT

A scream tore from Emily’s throat. She lunged forward, grabbing Ben and pulling him tightly against her chest. David stepped in front of his wife and son, putting himself between his family and Don Bellini.

“You can’t do that!” David yelled, his mild manners entirely gone. “I didn’t steal anything! You fabricated those charges to punish my mother-in-law!”

Don Bellini chuckled softly, leaning on his silver cane. “The law doesn’t care about your conspiracy theories, David. The law cares about the fifty thousand dollars transferred into an offshore account bearing your signature.”

He turned his cold eyes toward me.

“You should have kept your mouth shut, Linda,” Bellini sneered. “You were a good maid. You paid your husband’s tax on time. Now, because you wanted to play grandmother today, your daughter loses her child, your husband goes to prison, and you will spend the rest of your life on the street.”

I felt my knees buckle. I reached out and grabbed the back of a chair to keep from collapsing.

They were going to take Ben. The boy who had asked me to be his grandma in the dirt of my tomato garden. The boy who brought me a stuffed bear when I was sick.

Vanessa walked over to her father, standing by his side with a smug, victorious smile. “I told you, Luca. This is what happens when you blur the lines. Let the police handle them. We have a wedding to plan.”

Luca Moretti didn’t move. He stood at the head of the table, perfectly still.

Then, he began to unbutton his suit jacket.

He took it off and draped it over the back of his chair. He slowly rolled up the sleeves of his crisp white shirt, revealing the intricate, dark ink that covered his forearms.

The restaurant fell silent. Even Don Bellini’s smile faltered.

“Carmine,” Luca said, his voice dangerously calm. “You walked into my restaurant. You threatened my staff. You threatened a child. And you did it in front of my family.”

“I am protecting our interests, Luca,” Bellini warned.

“You don’t have interests here anymore,” Luca replied. He picked up the red ledger. “My father recorded everything. Including the hit-and-run on October 14th. He knew it was your car, Carmine. He knew you killed Antonio.”

Bellini stiffened. “Your father was a paranoid old fool.”

“My father was a strategist,” Luca corrected. “He knew if he went to war with you, thousands of people would die. So he kept the peace. But he left me the evidence. Robert Parker’s silence was the only thing keeping you out of prison.”

Luca walked slowly toward Bellini.

“You extorted a widow for three years to keep her quiet. You fired an innocent man. And now you’re trying to take a nine-year-old boy from his mother.”

Luca stopped inches from the older man.

“The wedding is off,” Luca said, his voice echoing off the walls. “Take your daughter and get out of my city.”

Vanessa gasped, covering her mouth. “Luca, no! You can’t! I own half this restaurant! My name is on the deed!”

She reached into her purse and pulled out a folded legal document, slamming it onto the table. “We signed the partnership papers last month! You throw us out, I liquidate this building tomorrow. You’ll lose the Moretti legacy.”

Luca looked at the partnership document. He looked at the restaurant that had been in his family for three generations.

I stepped forward, tears streaming down my face.

“Mr. Moretti,” I choked out. “Please. Don’t lose your family’s legacy for me. I’ll leave. David and Emily can fight the charges. Just… just don’t let her take your restaurant.”

I felt a small tug on my uniform skirt.

I looked down. Ben was standing beside me. He reached up and placed something small and heavy into my palm.

It was a beautiful, antique silver rosary.