Chapter 4 – THE CHILD’S DRAWING

“No!” David shouted, lunging forward.

One of the men grabbed David by the throat and shoved him brutally against the wall.

“Stop it!” I screamed, grabbing the man’s arm, but he backhanded me across the face.

I fell to the floor, my lip splitting against my teeth.

Rose threw herself in front of the hallway doors.

“You will not touch my daughter!” she screamed, her voice echoing down the sterile corridor.

Vanessa laughed. “Oh, Rose. You’re a sixty-three-year-old cook. You can’t stop my men from walking into that room and unplugging an incubator.”

“No,” a deep voice echoed from the end of the hall. “But I can.”

We all turned.

Luca stood at the entrance of the blood donor wing.

He looked exhausted, pale from blood loss, holding a cotton swab to the crook of his arm.

But his eyes were completely lethal.

Behind him stood Daniel, the head of Moretti security, along with four armed guards.

“Take them,” Luca ordered quietly.

Daniel and his men moved with terrifying speed. In seconds, Vanessa’s guards were disarmed, pinned to the floor, and zip-tied.

David slid down the wall, gasping for air.

I touched my bleeding lip, pulling myself up from the linoleum.

Vanessa backed away, her arrogance faltering for the very first time.

“Luca,” she stammered. “Darling, they attacked me. I was just trying to bring you home.”

Luca didn’t look at her. He walked straight past her to Rose.

“Megan is out of surgery,” he told her softly. “She’s asking for you.”

Rose let out a sob of pure relief. “The baby?”

“A boy,” Luca smiled. “He’s small, but he’s strong. He has Enzo’s chin.”

Rose threw her arms around Luca, burying her face in his chest. For the first time in twenty-one years, she didn’t treat him like a boss. She treated him like family.

Luca held her tight, his own eyes shining.

Then he gently pulled away and turned toward Vanessa.

“The engagement is over,” he said calmly.

Vanessa’s face twisted in panic.

“You can’t do that! Our families have an alliance! If you break this engagement, my father will declare war!”

“Let him,” Luca replied.

“Luca, please!” she begged, stepping toward him. “I love you!”

“You love power,” Luca said. “And you love cruelty.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

“Do you know what this is, Vanessa?”

He unfolded it.

It was a piece of construction paper, faded and yellowing at the edges.

It was a child’s drawing in bright crayons. A picture of a little boy and a little girl holding hands in a garden.

“I found this in my father’s desk,” Luca said, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “I never knew who drew it. Until I saw the signature on the back today.”

He flipped it around.

Written in a clumsy, childish scrawl was the name: Megan.

“You knew,” Luca said, staring directly into Vanessa’s eyes. “You’ve always known Megan was my cousin. You’ve known Rose was my aunt.”

Vanessa swallowed hard, her bravado completely gone.

“Luca, I was protecting you. Your father wanted her dead!”

The Reversal hit me so hard I felt dizzy.

Luca’s father?

“What?” Luca whispered, freezing in place.

Vanessa smiled nervously, realizing she had a card left to play.

“You think my father ordered the hit on Enzo?” she laughed bitterly. “Oh, Luca. You’re so naive. My father only pulled the trigger.”

She pointed a manicured finger directly at Rose.

“Ask the sweet old cook who paid for the bullet.”

Rose lowered her head, closing her eyes as tears spilled down her cheeks.

“It was your father, Luca,” Rose sobbed. “Your father paid the Bellinis to kill his own brother.”

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