Chapter 8 – THE SISTER’S RENT AND THE FAMILY TABLE

This chapter will fully resolve the main plot.

Matteo saw the blood drain from my face.

He took the phone from my hand, read the text, and looked at Luca.

“Send a team to Emma’s apartment,” Matteo ordered. “Do not let anyone touch her mother.”

We drove back to the city at a hundred miles an hour. Mia slept in the backseat, her head resting on my lap.

By the time we pulled up to my mother’s rundown apartment building, three black SUVs were already parked outside. Luca’s men had Richard’s goons pinned against a brick wall.

Matteo stepped out of the car. The rain had stopped, leaving the streets slick and dark.

I ran up the stairs to my mother’s unit. She was sitting on the couch, shaking, holding a kitchen knife.

“Mom!” I hugged her tight.

“Emma, they said you stole from them,” she cried.

Matteo walked through the door. His presence filled the small, shabby room.

“She didn’t steal anything,” Matteo said gently to my mother. “She saved my family tonight.”

Matteo turned to Luca. “Bring him in.”

Two guards dragged Richard Vale into the living room. His nose was bleeding. He looked broken.

“You sent men to threaten a maid’s mother?” Matteo asked in disgust.

“You gave up the ledger!” Richard spat. “I own the city now!”

Matteo pulled the gold money clip and the safety deposit key from his pocket.

Richard’s eyes locked onto the key. He stopped breathing.

“Leo left me a present,” Matteo said coldly. “The original tapes. The ones that prove you orchestrated the hit on the mayor three years ago. The microfiche was just financial crimes. This key? This key is twenty-five to life in federal prison.”

Richard fell to his knees. “Matteo, please.”

“You have until sunrise to transfer every share of your company to Arthur Quinn’s pension fund,” Matteo commanded. “Then you get on a plane, and you never come back. If you stay, the tapes go to the FBI.”

Richard nodded frantically, his arrogance completely shattered.

The guards dragged him away.

Matteo looked around our tiny apartment. He looked at me.

“Pack your things,” Matteo said. “Both of you.”

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Home,” Matteo smiled.

Two days later, the Moretti mansion was quiet. The wedding decorations had been burned.

In the grand dining room, a new dinner was being served.

Arthur sat at the head of the table, looking healthy and wearing his gold pocket watch.

Mia sat next to him, eating spaghetti and giggling as Arthur told her stories about her grandfather. She was safe, loved, and finally home.

Matteo sat across from them. He raised a glass of wine.

“To Arthur,” Matteo said. “My father’s partner. And my family.”

Arthur raised his glass, tears in his eyes.

I stood by the service door, holding a tray, smiling at the scene. It was a perfect, happy ending.

Matteo noticed me standing there.

He stood up, walked over, and took the tray from my hands.

“What are you doing?” I asked, startled.

“Serving my guests,” Matteo said softly. He pulled out the chair next to his. “Sit down, Emma.”

“I’m the housekeeper, Mr. Moretti.”

“Not anymore,” he said. “I need an executive manager for the new restaurant we are opening. Someone who understands loyalty.”

I sat down at the table. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t invisible.

The main conflict was over. The family was whole.

But as Arthur reached across the table to pass the bread, his sleeve pulled back.

Above his wrist, hidden under his cuff, was a fresh, deep scratch. It looked exactly like the scratch a woman with long manicured nails makes when she’s fighting back.

And Celeste Vale had been missing since the night of the dinner.

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