Chapter 6 – THE BLOOD ON THE FLOORBOARDS

“Please, Dominic, I’m your sister!” Vanessa begged, coughing up black smoke as she struggled under the heavy, burning oak beam.

Dominic didn’t lower the gun. His pristine white tuxedo was ruined, smeared with ash and soot. His eyes were wild, completely detached from reality.

“You’re a liability, Vanessa,” he said coldly over the roar of the fire. “You couldn’t even handle an old woman in a wheelchair. If Caprese’s men take you alive, you’ll sell me out in a heartbeat.”

He cocked the hammer of the gun.

Answer One: Dominic was completely ruthless. He was willing to murder his own sister to cover his tracks.

I didn’t have a weapon. I didn’t have a plan. But I couldn’t watch a man execute his own blood.

I grabbed a heavy brass fire extinguisher from the wall bracket beside the door.

“Hey!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Dominic spun around.

I hurled the heavy red cylinder with all my strength. It didn’t hit him, but it smashed directly into the roaring fireplace next to him. The pressurized tank exploded violently, sending a massive cloud of chemical foam and burning embers outward.

Dominic cried out, dropping his gun as the hot ash blinded him.

I didn’t wait. I sprinted through the smoke, grabbed Vanessa by her shoulders, and pulled.

“Help me push!” I yelled at her.

Vanessa, fueled by pure terror, kicked her legs against the floor while I hoisted the burning beam just enough for her to slide out. Her silk dress was singed, her hands blistered, but she was alive.

“Why?” Vanessa sobbed, staring at me in shock as I pulled her to her feet. “I ruined you.”

“Shut up and run,” I snapped, shoving her toward the door.

Before we could take three steps, a heavy hand grabbed my hair, yanking me backward so violently my feet left the floor.

I slammed into the ground, all the air rushing from my lungs.

Dominic stood over me, his face red and blistered from the explosion. He picked up his gun, wiping his tearing eyes.

“You just cost me my empire, you stupid little maid,” Dominic spat, aiming the gun at my forehead.

Vanessa had reached the doorway. She stopped. She looked back at me, the woman who had just saved her life, and then looked at her brother’s gun.

The reversal happened in a split second.

I expected Vanessa to run. I expected her to save herself.

Instead, she grabbed a heavy marble bookend from the nearest table and threw it directly at her brother’s head.

It struck Dominic in the temple with a sickening crack.

He staggered sideways, the gun firing into the ceiling. He collapsed onto the burning floorboards, unconscious.

Vanessa fell to her knees, staring at her brother’s bleeding head in horror.

“Go,” a voice commanded from the doorway.

Luca stepped into the burning room. He looked at Vanessa, his eyes devoid of any pity or love.

“Run, Vanessa,” Luca said quietly over the fire. “Run as far away from Chicago as you can. If I ever see your face again, I will finish what your brother started.”

Vanessa didn’t say a word. She scrambled to her feet and vanished into the smoke.

Luca walked over to me, extending a large, soot-stained hand. I took it, and he pulled me up effortlessly.

“You are either the bravest woman I’ve ever met, or the most foolish,” Luca said, his chest heaving.

“Probably both,” I coughed, leaning against him for a second.

We hurried out of the library just as the ceiling began to collapse.

When we reached the kitchen, the gunfire in the front of the house had died down. Caprese’s men had retreated, taking whatever they came for and leaving the Rossi syndicate in ruins.

Mrs. Moretti was holding Leo in her lap, stroking his hair gently.

Luca knelt beside them. He took the silver pocket watch from his pocket, pulling the microchip out. He placed the chip on the heavy granite counter and smashed it into dust with the butt of his gun.

The evidence, the blackmail, the empire—it was all gone.

“It’s over,” Luca whispered, kissing his mother’s forehead, then Leo’s.

He stood up and turned to me.

“Claire,” Luca said softly. “You saved my mother. You saved my son. I owe you my life.”

I shook my head, my adrenaline finally crashing. “You don’t owe me anything. Just… please, just let me go home. I need to take care of my sister.”

Luca reached into his pocket and pulled out his heavy leather wallet. He didn’t hand me cash. He handed me a platinum card.

“Pay for her surgery,” Luca commanded gently. “Pay for a new apartment. Pay for whatever you want.”

I stared at the card. It was enough money to change my family’s life forever.

Open Two: If it was over, why did I feel an overwhelming sense of dread as I walked out the kitchen door?

I stepped out into the freezing Chicago rain, pulling my coat tight around my shoulders. The police sirens were wailing in the distance. I just wanted to go home.

I walked down the long, winding driveway toward the main gate.

But as I reached the wrought-iron bars, a black town car was idling in the shadows, blocking my path.

The back window slowly rolled down.

Sitting in the backseat was my deaf father.

And sitting next to him, holding a very large, silenced pistol to his ribs, was a man I had never seen before.

TITLE: The Debt Never Paid

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