Chapter 4 – [THE BOY FROM THE ORPHANAGE]

“Secure the perimeter!” Luca roared.

His men instantly drew their weapons, moving to the windows and doors.

The dinner guests were panicking, ducking behind the heavy oak tables.

I stood completely frozen.

David.

My sweet, quiet brother who studied architecture.

The boy I had spent every dime protecting.

He was here. And he had just taken down a mafia guard.

“Emily,” Luca said, grabbing my arm and pulling me behind the thick stone pillar. “Does your brother know how to fight?”

“No!” I cried. “He’s a student! He doesn’t know anything about this world!”

Elena Moretti stood calmly near the fireplace.

“He knows more than you think, Emily. Blood always remembers.”

“Shut up!” Vanessa screamed at Elena. “This is your fault! You brought this on us!”

“I brought the truth,” Elena said coldly.

Before anyone else could speak, the lights in the mansion abruptly went out.

The crystal chandeliers went dark.

The room plunged into pitch blackness.

The guests screamed.

“Nobody move!” Luca commanded, his voice slicing through the panic.

I could hear the click of safeties being turned off.

My heart pounded so hard I thought my ribs would crack.

Then, a voice echoed from the hallway.

“Vanessa.”

It was David.

But his voice didn’t sound like the boy I knew. It was cold. Hollow.

Vanessa whimpered, hiding behind Marco.

“Vanessa, I know you’re in there,” David called out from the dark. “Dad sent me.”

Luca tightened his grip on his gun. “David Carter! Step into the light with your hands up!”

“My name isn’t Carter,” David replied from the shadows. “And I’m not here for you, Moretti. I’m here for my sister.”

For a second, I thought he meant me.

I started to step forward. “David, please—”

But Luca pulled me back roughly.

“He doesn’t mean you, Emily,” Luca whispered.

He pointed his flashlight toward the hallway.

The beam of light cut through the dark.

David was standing there.

He was holding a heavy iron crowbar.

And around his neck, hanging over his black shirt, was a tarnished silver rosary.

I gasped.

I knew that rosary.

Our foster mother gave it to him when we were children.

David didn’t look at me.

He looked directly at Vanessa.

“Our father is bankrupt, Vanessa,” David said, stepping into the room. “The police raided Bellini Imports an hour ago. The money is gone.”

Vanessa let out a choked sob. “No… the wedding…”

“There is no wedding,” David said. “Dad told me to get the one thing that can save us.”

He looked at Marco.

“Give it to me.”

Marco shook his head, stepping back against the wall. “I don’t have it.”

“You took the deposit,” David said, gripping the crowbar. “Two hundred thousand dollars. Dad paid you to steal Anthony’s ledger. The one with the offshore account numbers. Hand it over, Marco.”

Luca turned his flashlight on his brother.

“Marco,” Luca said, his voice lethal. “Did you steal Dad’s ledger?”

Marco was shaking violently.

“I had to, Luca! I owe money! Bad money! If I didn’t pay them, they were going to kill me!”

“So you sold out our father?” Luca stepped toward him, raising his gun.

“Luca, don’t!” Marco begged.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out.

Not from Luca.

From the hallway.

The flashlight shattered in Luca’s hand.

We were plunged into darkness again.

I screamed as someone grabbed my arm and yanked me backward.

“Emily!” David’s voice hissed in my ear.

“David, what are you doing?!” I cried.

“I’m getting you out of here,” he whispered. “Before she kills us both.”

“Who?!”

David pulled me into the dark corridor.

“Elena Moretti,” David whispered. “She’s not here to expose the Bellinis, Emily. She’s here to finish what she started ten years ago.”

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