Chapter 1 – THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN POCKET WATCH

The dining room went completely silent.

Every eye turned toward the man who had just spoken.

He looked perfectly calm, sitting halfway down the long banquet table.

Fifty years old. Silver hair neatly trimmed. He wore a charcoal suit that looked expensive without being ostentatious.

He reached into his vest pocket, pulled out a golden pocket watch, checked the time, and set it carefully beside his water glass.

“Mr. Moretti,” the man said smoothly. “I believe an introduction is overdue.”

Luca didn’t move. His posture was perfectly rigid, but his dark eyes burned.

“Who are you?” Luca demanded.

The man smiled, picking up his linen napkin and dabbing the corners of his mouth.

“My name is Elias Vance. Perhaps your father mentioned me.”

Luca went completely still.

His jaw tightened.

“My father died twenty-two years ago,” Luca said softly. “Before he died, he spent a decade trying to put your family in federal prison.”

Elias Vance nodded slowly.

“He certainly tried. And he failed. Just as your family has failed to repay the ten million dollars you currently owe me.”

A collective gasp swept through the remaining dinner guests.

Ten million dollars.

I stood frozen near the wall, clutching my uniform.

Luca turned slowly toward Vanessa’s father, Robert Bellini.

“You took ten million dollars from a Vance?” Luca’s voice was dangerously low.

Robert Bellini looked like he might faint. He wiped a handkerchief across his forehead.

“Luca, please understand. Three months ago, my shipping company lost a massive municipal contract. If the news got out, we would have been ruined. Our stock would have tanked. I needed capital to keep the firm afloat until the wedding.”

“So you went to a loan shark?” Luca asked.

“He isn’t a loan shark!” Vanessa cried, defending her father. “He runs an investment firm!”

“He runs a money laundering operation,” Luca corrected sharply. “And you guaranteed this loan using my name?”

Robert swallowed hard.

“I didn’t forge your signature, Luca. But Elias knew Vanessa and you were getting married. I… I told him that as your future father-in-law, my debts would soon be covered by the Moretti estate. He agreed to front the money based on your family’s assets.”

“And you were selling my mother’s brooch to make the interest payments,” Luca realized, turning to Vanessa.

Vanessa looked away, tears ruining her perfect makeup.

“The interest was crushing us,” she whimpered. “I was trying to protect you, Luca! If he didn’t get his payment by Monday, he said he was going to come to you directly.”

“I’m here directly,” Elias Vance interrupted calmly.

He tapped the face of his golden pocket watch.

“And the situation has changed. I am no longer interested in interest payments, Mr. Bellini.”

Elias looked at Luca.

“I want the principal. Ten million dollars. Or I begin foreclosing on the Bellini shipping ports tomorrow morning.”

Robert Bellini grabbed his chest, panic setting in. “Elias, you can’t! Those ports are our livelihood!”

“They are my collateral,” Elias corrected.

Luca stepped forward, placing himself between Elias and the Bellini family.

“You won’t touch those ports, Vance.”

Elias smiled coldly.

“And why is that? Will the great Luca Moretti pay the debt himself? Or will he let his fiancée’s family lose everything?”

Luca looked at Vanessa. She was sobbing into her hands. He looked at Robert, who looked broken and desperate.

Then Luca looked back at Elias Vance.

“I am not paying you a single cent,” Luca said.

Vanessa gasped. “Luca!”

“You orchestrated this,” Luca said to Elias, ignoring her. “You knew Robert was desperate. You offered him money you knew he couldn’t repay, just so you could take control of the Bellini shipping ports. If you control their ports, you control fifty percent of the cargo coming into Chicago.”

Elias chuckled, picking up his pocket watch.

“A brilliant deduction, Mr. Moretti. But it doesn’t change the contract. Robert signed the papers. He owes me the money. If he can’t pay, I take the ports. Unless you are willing to bail them out.”

Luca’s expression didn’t change.

“I won’t.”

“Luca, please!” Robert begged. “You can’t let him ruin us!”

“You ruined yourselves,” Luca said coldly. “You stole from my mother’s memory. You tried to frame an innocent girl.” He gestured toward me. “And you used my family’s name to broker a deal with our oldest enemy.”

Luca looked at Vanessa.

“The engagement is over.”

Vanessa screamed, a hysterical, shattering sound. She grabbed Luca’s arm.

“You can’t do this! The invitations are sent! My dress is fitted!”

Luca gently but firmly pulled his arm away.

“Daniel,” Luca said to his head of security. “Escort the Bellini family out. Now.”

The security guards moved in. Robert Bellini looked completely defeated. He turned and walked out, followed by a sobbing Vanessa, who threw a venomous glare at me as she passed.

The remaining guests quickly began gathering their coats, desperate to escape the implosion of Chicago’s most powerful families.

Within five minutes, the dining room was almost empty.

Only Elias Vance remained.

He stood up, adjusting his charcoal suit.

“Well,” Elias said, a satisfied smile on his face. “That was dramatic. I suppose I’ll have my lawyers draft the foreclosure paperwork for the ports tomorrow.”

“You do that,” Luca said.

Elias walked toward the door.

But as he passed me, he stopped.

He looked at my uniform. He looked at my face.

And then, his eyes locked onto something hanging around my neck.

A small, silver locket resting against my apron.

Elias Vance’s smile vanished completely.

He took a step closer, his eyes wide with sudden, terrifying recognition.

“Where did you get that?” he demanded, pointing at my chest.

I took a frightened step backward.

Luca immediately intervened, stepping between us.

“Stay away from her, Vance.”

Elias didn’t look at Luca. He was staring at the locket.

“That locket,” Elias whispered, his voice shaking. “Open it.”

“I said stay away from her,” Luca warned.

“I don’t care about your threats, Moretti!” Elias yelled, his composure shattering. He looked at me with frantic eyes. “Inside that locket. Is there a picture of a little boy with a scar on his chin?”

The room seemed to freeze.

My hand flew to my chest, clutching the cold silver.

“How do you know that?” I breathed.

Elias Vance looked like he had seen a ghost.

“Because,” Elias said, his voice cracking. “I put that picture inside before I gave it to my son.”

He pointed a shaking finger at me.

“My son disappeared twenty years ago. And you are wearing his necklace.”