Chapter 7 – THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE

Vanessa’s words hung in the freezing air.

Dominic’s smile vanished.

Luca didn’t move.

“What did you just say?” Dominic demanded, turning on his daughter.

Vanessa dropped the silver revolver in the mud.

She looked exhausted, as if the weight of the last eleven years had suddenly crushed her posture.

“The vault is empty, Papa. I cleared it out three days ago.”

Dominic took a step toward her.

“You’re lying. The vault requires Luca’s biometric print.”

“It requires a Moretti print,” Vanessa corrected softly.

She looked at Mia.

“And an eight-digit code. Which I already had.”

I looked at the little girl gripping my hand.

Mia. A Moretti by blood.

“Three days ago, when your men raided Mia’s school, I got to her first,” Vanessa confessed, looking at Luca.

“I brought her to the mansion while you were in the city. I used her handprint on the scanner. And I used the code.”

“How did you have the code?” Luca asked. “The watch was buried.”

“I gave the watch to Michael for our anniversary,” Vanessa said, tears mixing with the rain on her face.

“I had it engraved. I knew the numbers. 1-0-2-4-1-9-9-7. The day we met.”

Dominic grabbed Vanessa by the shoulders, shaking her violently.

“Where is the ledger?!”

“It’s gone,” she spat, finally looking her father in the eye with pure defiance.

“I sent it to the federal prosecutor in Chicago. The hard copies, the digital drives, everything. By tomorrow morning, the FBI will be tearing down your front door.”

Dominic’s face twisted into absolute fury.

He raised his hand to strike her.

“Marco!” Luca shouted.

Marco didn’t hesitate.

He dropped to one knee, sweeping his leg out, catching the closest gunman behind the knees.

As the man fell, Marco snatched the rifle from his hands.

Gunfire erupted.

Deafening in the small stone courtyard.

I pulled Mia down into the mud, covering her body with mine.

Atlas barked wildly, standing over us like a shield.

The chaos lasted only seconds.

When I opened my eyes, the rain was washing blood into the dirt.

Two of Dominic’s men were on the ground, groaning.

The other two had dropped their weapons, their hands raised.

Marco stood over them, his stolen rifle leveled perfectly.

Dominic Bellini stood frozen.

Luca had crossed the distance between them.

He was pressing Marco’s discarded pistol directly against Dominic’s chest.

Right over his heart.

Exactly how Dominic had shot Michael eleven years ago.

“Tell your men in the dining room to stand down,” Luca whispered.

“Or you die in the mud, just like my father did.”

Dominic looked into Luca’s eyes.

He saw no hesitation. No mercy.

The old boss reached into his pristine white jacket, pulled out a two-way radio, and pressed the button.

“Stand down. Drop your weapons. The operation is over.”

Almost instantly, the sound of sirens bled through the storm.

Distant at first, then rapidly growing louder.

“You called the police?” Dominic sneered at Vanessa.

“No,” Luca said.

He stepped back, lowering the gun.

“I did. Before Marco and I ever came out to the carriage house.”

I stared at Luca.

“You knew?”

Luca looked at me, a faint, respectful smile touching his lips.

“I knew Vanessa was hiding something. When you told me Atlas had red clay on his paws, I knew she had been to the shed. I texted my capos to lock the doors and called the authorities ten minutes ago.”

Red and blue lights suddenly strobed across the ivy-covered walls of the courtyard.

Armed tactical units flooded through the garden gates.

Dominic was handcuffed and dragged away, shouting obscenities at his daughter.

Vanessa didn’t fight as an officer gently placed cuffs on her wrists.

She looked at Mia one last time.

“I’m sorry,” Vanessa whispered to the little girl.

“I wasn’t strong enough to be your mother. But I was strong enough to end him.”

Mia didn’t say anything.

She just buried her face in Atlas’s fur.

Luca walked over to us.

He knelt down in the mud, ignoring the ruin of his expensive suit.

He looked at the little girl who shared his blood.

“Mia,” he said softly.

She looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes.

“You don’t have to hide anymore,” Luca promised her.

“This is your home. You’re a Moretti. And no one will ever force you to leave again.”

TITLE: The Morning After

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