Chapter 8 – The Rescue and the Reunion
“You’re bluffing,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a terrifying, deadly register.
“Call them,” Vanessa challenged, crossing her arms.
Luca kept his gun trained on her while he dialed his head of security. It rang and rang. No answer. His face went pale.
“What do you want?” Luca demanded.
“Everything,” Vanessa smiled. “The company, the offshore accounts, the properties. You sign it all over to me, and you get your daughter back.”
I looked at the ransom note on the floor. It was written on hotel stationery. The Grand Plaza.
“She’s lying about having backup,” I whispered to Luca.
“What?”
“Look at her dress. Look at her shoes. They’re ruined from the rain. If she had a team, she wouldn’t be standing in a dusty theater doing her own dirty work. She hired local muscle for this.” I pointed to the groaning bodyguard on the floor. “Sophie isn’t at the penthouse. She never sent anyone.”
Vanessa’s smile faltered for a fraction of a second.
“Call the penthouse landline,” I urged. “Not the guards’ cells. The landline.”
Luca dialed. After two rings, a small, frightened voice answered. “Hello?”
“Sophie!” Luca exhaled, his whole body shuddering with relief. “Are you okay? Where are the guards?”
“They’re outside the door, Daddy. They told me not to answer the cell phones because someone was trying to hack the signal.”
Vanessa had used a jammer to fake a kidnapping. She was playing her last, desperate card.
Luca hung up. He looked at Vanessa, all the mercy gone from his eyes.
“You’re done,” he said.
Police sirens began to wail in the distance. Daniel had managed to hit a panic button on his smartwatch before the firefight started.
When the police burst through the doors, Vanessa didn’t fight. She smoothed her red dress, lifted her chin, and walked out in handcuffs, playing the victim until the very end. Daniel was loaded into an ambulance, destined for prison the moment he healed.
By dawn, the nightmare was over.
We returned to the brownstone. The sun was rising, casting a warm golden light through the windows. Maya was asleep on the guest room sofa, safe and exhausted.
Sophie ran down the stairs and threw her arms around Luca. Then, she turned and hugged me, burying her face in my shoulder.
“You came back,” Sophie whispered.
“I’ll always come back for you,” I promised, smoothing her hair.
Luca stood by the window, watching us. For the first time since I met him, he looked truly at peace. His empire was safe, his daughter was smiling, and the shadows of his past had finally been dragged into the light.
He walked over and gently took my hand. “You don’t have to be a maid anymore, Emily. Unless you want to stay.”
“I think I’d like to stay,” I smiled, looking at our intertwined fingers. “But maybe just as Emily.”
It was a perfect morning.
Until I went to the laundry room to wash the smoke out of Luca’s clothes.
As I emptied the pockets of his black suit jacket, my fingers brushed against something hard.
It was a small, velvet box.
