Chapter 1 – WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHILDREN
“What happened to my children?”
Sofia’s voice wasn’t a scream. It was a hollow, desperate whisper that cut through the silence of the dining room.
Fifty guests held their breath.
Luca Moretti didn’t blink. His dark eyes locked onto Daniel, his voice dropping to a dangerous, terrifying calm. “Where are my nephew and niece, Daniel?”
Daniel took a step back, knocking his chair over. It hit the marble floor with a sharp crack. “I—I only did what Vanessa told me to do. She said they needed to be out of the city tonight.”
Vanessa lunged forward, her red gown flashing under the chandelier. “He’s lying! Luca, he’s a desperate man trying to save himself!”
But my eyes weren’t on Vanessa. They were on the floor near Daniel’s fallen chair.
A folded piece of paper had slipped from his suit jacket.
I ignored the wine still dripping from my hair. I knelt down and picked it up. It wasn’t just a piece of paper. It was a child’s drawing. Crayons. A stick figure family. But the mother had been scribbled out with violent, heavy black lines. On the back, in an adult’s handwriting, were flight details.
“Mr. Moretti,” I said, my voice shaking.
Luca turned.
I handed him the drawing. “They’re not at Sofia’s friend’s house. Someone is putting them on a plane.”
Sofia screamed. She lunged at Daniel, pounding her fists against his chest. “Where are they? Leo is only six! Mia is four! What did you do to them?”
Daniel grabbed her wrists, pushing her back so hard she stumbled. Before she could fall, Luca was there. He caught his sister, pulling her behind him. Then, with a speed that terrified me, he grabbed Daniel by the throat and slammed him against the mahogany wall.
“The flight is out of O’Hare,” Luca read from the drawing, the veins in his neck bulging. “Boarding in forty minutes. Who is taking them, Daniel?”
“I owed people money!” Daniel gasped, clawing at Luca’s tattooed hand. “A lot of money! Vanessa said she’d pay it off! She said she just needed leverage against you!”
Luca froze.
He didn’t look at Daniel. He slowly turned his head to look at the woman he was supposed to marry.
Vanessa’s face was completely drained of color. “Luca, it isn’t what you think. I was protecting our future.”
It was a staggering discovery. Vanessa hadn’t just been having an affair with Daniel. She had orchestrated the kidnapping of Luca’s own blood to use as bargaining chips.
But as Luca stared at her, I noticed something else. Vanessa wasn’t looking at Luca with fear. She was looking at the grand doorway.
She was waiting for someone.
“You’re right, Luca,” Vanessa suddenly said, her voice completely changing. The panic was gone. A cold, victorious smile spread across her face. “The children are boarding a plane. But Daniel doesn’t know where they’re going. Because I never paid his debts.”
Daniel’s eyes widened in horror. “What?”
Vanessa reached into her purse and pulled out a silver pocket watch. Not just any watch. Luca’s father’s watch.
“You shouldn’t have trusted me with the safe combination, darling,” Vanessa whispered. “Because the people who actually have your niece and nephew? They don’t want money. They want the territory you stole from them five years ago. And they’re already waiting outside.”
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