Chapter 9 – [THE RUIN OF THE RED SILK BRIDE]

The digital clock on the SUV’s dashboard read 11:45 AM.

The wedding was scheduled for noon.

I sat in the passenger seat, gripping the door handle as the black SUV tore up the private mountain road toward the Moretti estate.

“How did you fake your own arrest?” I asked, breathless.

Luca kept his eyes on the winding road. “I didn’t. The police pulled me over exactly like Vanessa planned. They searched the trunk. They found the unregistered weapons she had her brother plant in my spare tire compartment.”

He shifted gears, the engine roaring.

“But Vanessa forgot one crucial detail,” Luca said coldly. “The Chief of Police owes his career to my father. He held me in a room for three hours to make Vanessa think she won. Then, he handed me my keys and told me to clean up my house.”

I felt a rush of adrenaline. “And my mother?”

“I sent my two most trusted men to her hospital the moment Vanessa threatened CPS. I knew she’d use your mother as leverage.”

He glanced at me, his dark eyes softening for a fraction of a second. “Margaret is safe, Hannah. She’ll never be touched.”

Tears blurred my vision, but I wiped them away fiercely. We weren’t done yet.

“Do you have the file from Tommy?” I asked.

Luca patted his jacket pocket. “Dr. Evans’ medical records. Detailing exactly how much money Carlo Bellini paid him to prescribe heavy sedatives to a perfectly healthy seventy-eight-year-old woman.”

We cleared the final hill.

The Moretti estate sprawled out before us. The back gardens had been transformed. Rows of white folding chairs sat on the manicured lawn. A massive floral archway stood at the altar.

More than two hundred guests were already seated.

Standing at the altar, looking incredibly smug, was Dominic Bellini. He was serving as the groomsman.

A string quartet was playing softly.

Vanessa’s plan was in full motion. She had assumed Luca would either be released just in time to submit to the wedding to save his daughter, or he wouldn’t show up, allowing her to take control of the estate as his legal proxy.

Luca didn’t drive toward the front gate.

He drove the massive SUV directly across the lawn.

Tires tore through the perfectly manicured grass, throwing dirt into the air. Guests screamed and scattered as the heavy black vehicle skidded to a violent halt directly in the center of the wedding aisle, crushing three rows of white chairs.

The string quartet stopped playing abruptly.

Absolute silence fell over the garden.

Luca kicked his door open and stepped out.

He didn’t look like a groom. He looked like an executioner.

Vanessa, standing near the altar in a stunning white lace gown, dropped her bouquet. Her face drained of all color.

“Luca?” she gasped, her voice trembling. “What are you doing? The CPS workers are sitting right there!”

She pointed frantically toward the front row, where two women in grey suits sat clutching clipboards, looking horrified.

“I know,” Luca said loudly, his voice booming across the silent garden. “I invited them.”

He walked to the back door of the SUV and opened it for me. I stepped out, my maid’s uniform dirty and torn from the night before.

The guests murmured in shock.

Luca walked straight toward the CPS workers. He pulled the manila folder Tommy had stolen from his jacket and dropped it onto their laps.

“You’re here for a welfare check,” Luca stated clearly. “Inside that folder are the bank statements and medical records proving that woman—” he pointed directly at Vanessa “—bribed a physician to chemically sedate my elderly mother to manufacture a diagnosis of dementia.”

Vanessa let out a strangled cry. “That’s a lie! He’s lying!”

Luca ignored her. He turned to the crowd.

“Marco!” Luca bellowed.

The crowd parted. Marco, the traitorous head of security, was dragged forward by three of Luca’s loyal men. He was bleeding from the lip, his hands zip-tied behind his back.

“Marco confessed ten minutes ago,” Luca announced to the frozen guests. “He confirmed Vanessa planted a bug on my eight-year-old daughter to monitor her movements.”

Dominic Bellini suddenly lunged forward from the altar, reaching into his jacket.

But Luca was faster.

He drew his pistol and aimed it directly between Dominic’s eyes.

“Do it,” Luca whispered, a lethal calm in his voice. “Give me a reason, Dominic.”

Dominic froze, his hands trembling in the air.

“You broke into my wife’s car four years ago,” Luca said, his voice carrying over the wind. “You cut her brakes. You stole her purse while she bled to death. And I have the bloody coat you wore when you did it sitting in a police evidence locker right now.”

Gasps erupted from the crowd. Carlo Bellini, Vanessa’s father, collapsed into a chair, clutching his chest.

“It’s over,” Luca said.

Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder by the second. The Chief of Police wasn’t just letting Luca clean house; he was coming to collect the trash.

Vanessa fell to her knees in the dirt, her pristine white lace dress soaking up the mud. She was sobbing, her perfect facade entirely shattered.

I didn’t watch her cry.

I was scanning the crowd.

Then, I saw her.

Standing on the back patio, clutching Teresa’s hand, was Sophie.

She was wearing her pale-yellow dress. The heavy silver bracelet was gone.

I ran past the stunned guests, past the ruined chairs, and dropped to my knees on the patio.

Sophie let go of her grandmother’s hand and ran as fast as her little legs could carry her. She slammed into my arms, burying her face in my shoulder.

“You came back,” she cried, hugging my neck tightly.

“I promised I would,” I whispered, kissing the top of her head.

I looked up. Teresa was leaning heavily on her cane, but she was smiling. A real, bright, unburdened smile.

Luca walked up the patio steps, holstering his weapon as police officers swarmed the garden behind him, cuffing Dominic and Vanessa.

He knelt beside me and wrapped his large arms around both me and his daughter.

“Daddy,” Sophie sniffled, looking at him. “Is the bad lady gone?”

“She’s gone, baby,” Luca said softly, pressing his forehead against hers. “She’s never coming back.”

Sophie wiped her eyes, then looked over at her grandmother.

“Grandma?” she called out.

Teresa stepped forward. “Yes, my angel?”

“Can you still sit next to me at dinner tonight?”

Teresa’s eyes filled with happy tears. “For the rest of my life, sweetheart.”

The nightmare was finally over. The truth was out. The family was safe.

But as I stood up, smoothing down my ruined apron, I knew my job here was done. The crisis had passed. The debt was paid.

I quietly turned to walk toward the servants’ quarters to pack my bags.

“Hannah,” Luca’s deep voice stopped me in my tracks. “Where do you think you’re going?”

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