Chapter 6 – THE STORM BREAKS

“Vanessa, what are you doing?” Dominic snapped, stepping back.

Vanessa’s hand shook, but the silver revolver remained pointed squarely at Atlas’s chest.

The dog snarled, holding his ground in front of Mia.

“I’m finishing this, Papa,” Vanessa said.

Her voice was frantic, bordering on hysterical.

“If that dog bites one of your men, Marco will have the second he needs to draw his backup weapon. I know how Marco works.”

It was a terrifyingly accurate assessment.

Marco’s eyes narrowed. He had been shifting his weight, preparing for exactly that.

“Then shoot the animal and let’s go,” Dominic ordered impatiently.

Mia screamed.

She pushed past Luca and threw herself over Atlas, wrapping her arms around the dog’s neck.

“No! Don’t hurt him!”

I didn’t think.

I just moved.

I threw myself in front of Mia and the dog.

I stood facing Vanessa’s gun, my apron covered in mud, my heart beating so hard it hurt my ribs.

“You’re not shooting a dog and a little girl, Vanessa.”

Vanessa stared at me.

Her mascara was running down her cheeks like black tears.

“Move, Emma. You’re just the help. You don’t have to die for this family.”

“I’m not dying for them,” I said, my voice surprisingly steady.

“I’m standing up for a child. Something you never had the courage to do.”

That hit her.

Vanessa’s breath hitched.

The gun trembled in her hand.

Dominic scowled.

“Enough of this theater.”

He reached out to snatch the gun from Vanessa’s hand.

But as his hand closed around her wrist, Vanessa did something nobody expected.

She pivoted, tearing her arm from her father’s grip.

She stepped backward, out of the shed, into the pouring rain.

And she turned the revolver.

She aimed it directly at her father’s chest.

Dominic froze.

The four gunmen hesitated, confused by the sudden turn of events.

“Vanessa,” Dominic warned, his voice turning deadly. “Put the gun down.”

“No.”

Vanessa’s voice broke, but she held the weapon steady.

“For eleven years, you made me believe I had to survive by marrying into this family. You made me spy on Michael. You made me stand there while you murdered him.”

She looked at Mia.

Her eyes softened with a pain that looked entirely genuine.

“I didn’t lie to you about Leo to protect the family, Papa. I lied to you to protect her. I knew if you found out I had a daughter with Michael Moretti, you’d use her as a bargaining chip. Or worse.”

Luca watched her, his expression unreadable.

“You let my father take her?” he asked.

“I begged him to,” Vanessa sobbed.

“I begged Michael to hide her from my father. Michael hated me, but he loved his blood. He promised me Dominic would never find her.”

She looked back at her father.

“And he was right. Until you raided that school.”

Dominic sneered.

“You are weak, Vanessa. You always were. You think holding a gun on me changes anything? My men outnumber Luca’s outside. We have the estate.”

“You don’t have the vault,” Luca said softly.

Everyone stopped.

Luca stepped out of the shed, standing beside me in the rain.

He held up the scratched silver watch.

“You didn’t come here tonight just to kill me, Dominic. You came for my father’s ledger. The one that proves your union with the cartel.”

Dominic’s silence confirmed it.

“It’s in the estate vault,” Luca said.

“A vault that requires two things. My biometric print.”

He tapped the watch.

“And the eight-digit code engraved on the back of this watch. A watch you couldn’t find because Elias buried it.”

Dominic’s eyes locked onto the silver watch.

Greed flashed across his face.

“Let them go,” Luca said.

“Let Emma, the girl, the dog, and Elias walk out the front gates. Let them leave in a car. When they are safe, I will open the vault for you.”

“No, Luca!” Marco yelled.

Dominic smiled.

“A noble sacrifice. Done.”

He gestured for his men to step aside.

“Go,” Luca told me without looking back. “Take Mia. Take Atlas.”

I grabbed Mia’s hand.

But Vanessa slowly lowered her gun.

She looked at Luca, a strange, tragic smile on her face.

“My father isn’t coming for the vault, Luca,” she whispered. “He’s already emptied it.”

TITLE: The Master Of The House

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