Chapter 2 – THE BLOOD ON THE MARBLE FLOOR

A gunshot shattered the silence of the dressing room.

It was deafening.

Marcus stopped mid-lunge, his eyes going wide. The switchblade slipped from his fingers, clattering against the pristine marble floor.

He collapsed.

Luca lowered his weapon. Smoke curled from the barrel.

He hadn’t hesitated. He hadn’t blinked.

He had just killed a man to save a housemaid.

Katie screamed, burying her face in my shoulder. I held her tight, staring at the blood pooling on the white stone.

“Don’t look,” Luca said gently, stepping between us and the body.

He pulled out his phone.

“Daniel. Get up here. East wing dressing room.”

Luca turned back to me. His eyes were unreadable, but his jaw was clenched so tight it looked like carved granite.

He looked at the photograph again.

The vial in Richard’s hand. The smile on Vanessa’s face.

“Five years,” Luca whispered to himself. “She played the grieving daughter-in-law for five years.”

Daniel, the head of security, burst into the room.

He looked at Marcus’s body, then at Luca.

“Boss?”

“Marcus was working for Richard Vale,” Luca said coldly. “He tried to kill Emma.”

Luca handed the photograph to Daniel.

Daniel’s face drained of color as he looked at the image of the late Don Moretti.

“They poisoned him,” Daniel realized.

“Yes,” Luca said. “And they thought they could use this house as their personal playground because they believed I was blind.”

Luca looked at me and Katie.

“Daniel, take Emma and her sister to my private study. Lock the door from the inside. Post two men outside. Nobody touches them.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked, my voice trembling.

Luca reloaded his weapon.

“I’m going downstairs to have a conversation with my fiancée.”

He walked out of the room.

Daniel escorted us down the back staircase. We bypassed the dining room, but I could hear the panicked murmurs of the guests.

We reached Luca’s private study. The heavy oak doors clicked shut, and Daniel locked us inside.

The study was massive, lined with leather-bound books and smelling of expensive cigars and cedar.

I sat Katie on the leather sofa, wrapping a cashmere blanket around her shaking shoulders.

“We’re going to be okay,” I promised her, though I wasn’t sure I believed it myself.

I walked over to Luca’s massive mahogany desk.

I just needed to steady myself. To breathe.

But as I leaned against the desk, my hand brushed against a small, silver tray.

Resting on the tray was a gold pocket watch.

It belonged to Luca. I polished it every week.

But underneath the watch, half-hidden, was a piece of heavy stationery.

It was a marriage certificate.

I didn’t mean to look. But the names caught my eye.

It wasn’t a marriage certificate for Luca and Vanessa.

It was dated three years ago.

The groom was Richard Vale.

The bride was Vanessa Bellini.

My breath caught in my throat.

They weren’t just business partners. They were legally married. Vanessa was playing Luca to absorb his empire, all while secretly married to the man who killed his father.

Suddenly, the heavy oak doors of the study rattled.

Someone was trying to open them.

“Open the door, Emma,” a voice whispered from the hallway.

It wasn’t Daniel. It wasn’t Luca.

It was Richard Vale.

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