Chapter 1 – A Contract Written In Blood

“To make sure that when you married my wife, neither of you discovered she had already promised Carlo the Bellini family.”

The words echoed off the crystal chandeliers.

No one in the dining room moved.

Thirty-six guests sat frozen in their seats.

Roman stared at the financial agreement resting beside his untouched dinner plate.

His eyes traced the signatures. Victoria’s elegant cursive. Carlo’s sharp, heavy strokes.

Twenty million dollars.

He slowly lifted his gaze to Carlo, who was gripping his wine glass so tightly his knuckles had turned stark white.

“You sold my future for a payout, Carlo?” Roman’s voice was dangerously soft.

Carlo swallowed hard. “You’re looking at it wrong, Roman. That contract wasn’t a takeover. It was an insurance policy.”

“Insurance?” Gabriel stepped forward, his gray suit catching the dim light. “You call draining the family trust insurance?”

Victoria suddenly slammed her hands on the table, rattling the silverware.

“He’s lying!” She pointed a trembling finger at Gabriel. “Gabriel forged that document! He’s been broke and desperate for a decade. He came back to extort us!”

Roman looked at the woman he was supposed to marry in three weeks.

Her emerald gown suddenly looked like armor. The sweet, understanding smile she had worn for two years was completely gone, replaced by something frantic and hard.

“Is it forged, Victoria?” Roman asked.

“Of course it is!” She reached for the paper, but Roman slammed his hand down on it.

“Then why are your hands shaking?” Roman asked.

Teresa Bellini let out a ragged breath. She reached over and touched Gabriel’s arm, as if needing to make sure her eldest son was truly real.

I stood by the serving cart, my heart pounding against my ribs.

I was just the housekeeper. I shouldn’t have been standing in the middle of a mafia family’s implosion. But my feet were rooted to the floor.

Gabriel looked down at his mother, his eyes softening for a fraction of a second before turning back to his brother.

“It’s real, Roman,” Gabriel said quietly. “But that contract is only half the truth. Victoria didn’t just promise Carlo the company.”

Gabriel reached into his coat pocket.

He pulled out a heavy, tarnished silver pocket watch.

I recognized it immediately. It belonged to Roman and Gabriel’s late father, the former head of the Bellini family. It had been missing since the day he died.

Teresa gasped. “Your father’s watch. Where did you get that?”

Gabriel didn’t look at his mother. He kept his eyes locked on Victoria.

“I found it in a pawn shop in Chicago six months ago,” Gabriel said. “The same city Victoria lived in after she supposedly separated from me.”

Victoria stepped back, her face draining of color.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she whispered.

Roman stood up slowly.

He walked around the long banquet table, ignoring the murmurs of the guests. He stopped right in front of Victoria.

“My father died of a heart attack in his study,” Roman said, his voice terrifyingly calm. “His watch was missing when the paramedics arrived. We thought it was lost in the chaos.”

He took the watch from Gabriel’s hand.

“Turn it over, Roman,” Gabriel instructed.

Roman flipped the heavy silver timepiece.

The back casing had been pried open and scratched, but that wasn’t what made Roman freeze.

Tucked inside the protective cover was a tiny, folded piece of lined paper.

Roman pulled it out with trembling fingers. He unfolded it.

I watched his broad shoulders stiffen. His breathing stopped.

“Answer One, Open Two,” Samuel Grant, the family attorney, whispered from the end of the table.

Roman looked up, his eyes entirely changed. The betrayal was gone, replaced by a cold, burning rage.

He held up the tiny piece of paper.

It wasn’t a note.

It was a photograph.

“Victoria,” Roman said, his voice cracking like ice. “Why is there a picture of you holding a newborn baby in my father’s watch?”

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