I WAS POURING CHAMPAGNE WHEN LUCA MORETTI’S SISTER TOOK THE MICROPHONE AND SAID TO HIS LATE BROTHER’S WIDO

The red clay on the white tablecloth looked like dried blood.

Marcus stared at it, his carefully constructed mask finally cracking.

Rosa Moretti stood tall, her dark eyes pinning him to his chair. For eighteen months, she had played the quiet, grieving widow. Tonight, she was the matriarch of a family that had been betrayed from the inside.

“I kept that handkerchief, Marcus,” Rosa whispered, her voice carrying across the silent room. “I didn’t show the police. Because if you were the one who killed my son, I wanted to look you in the eye when you were finally cornered.”

“Rosa, you are misunderstanding,” Marcus stammered, stepping backward. “I was at the ravine, yes! But I didn’t push him! I went looking for him after he didn't show up for a meeting. I found the car already in flames!”

“And you didn’t call 911?” Luca asked, stepping closer.

“It was too late! The heat was unbearable. I panicked. I knew it would look suspicious if I was found at the scene.”

“So you reached into a burning car, pulled a silver watch off his dead wrist, and went to my mother’s house for tea?”

Luca’s voice was a weapon. Every word was designed to strip away Marcus’s defenses.

“It fell off in the grass!” Marcus yelled, his composure shattering. “I took it as a keepsake! I loved him like a son, Luca!”

“Don’t you dare say you loved him,” Rachel hissed, wrapping her arms tightly around Ethan.

The little boy was shaking violently now, his face buried in his mother’s side. I took a half-step closer to them. If shooting started, I was going to pull them behind the heavy oak bar.

Marcus looked frantically around the room. The guests had backed away, leaving a wide circle of empty space around the main table. Luca’s security team had silently moved in, blocking the main exits.

Marcus was trapped.

And a trapped animal is the most dangerous kind.

“You want the truth?” Marcus spat, his face turning an ugly shade of purple. “Fine. Michael was going to destroy this family.”

Luca stopped walking. “Explain.”

Marcus pointed a shaking finger at Rachel. “Ask her! Ask the grieving widow what her saint of a husband was planning to do!”

Every eye in the ballroom turned to Rachel.

Rachel went incredibly pale, her grip on Ethan tightening.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she whispered.

“Liar!” Marcus barked. He looked at Luca. “Your brother came to me three days before he died. He told me he was taking his money out of the business. He was liquidating his shares. He said the life was too dangerous for his son, and he was taking his family away.”

Luca turned slowly to Rachel. “Is this true?”

Rachel’s eyes filled with fresh tears. “Michael and I talked about moving. About starting fresh somewhere safe. But he never said he was leaving immediately.”

“He was leaving that night!” Marcus yelled. “He had already started moving the funds. If he pulled out, the entire New York deal would have collapsed. We would have lost millions. The rival families would have seen us as weak. I did what had to be done to protect the Moretti empire!”

“You murdered my brother over a business deal?” Luca’s voice cracked, a rare display of raw, unfiltered agony.

“I protected your father’s legacy!” Marcus roared. “Michael was weak! He let a woman make him soft!”

Bianca, who had been standing frozen in terror, suddenly stepped forward.

“You told me he was stealing,” Bianca cried. “You told me Michael was hoarding money for himself and leaving us with the debt! That’s why I helped you!”

The ballroom went deathly silent.

Luca slowly turned his head toward his sister.

“You helped him?” Luca whispered.

Bianca collapsed to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably. The elegant silk of her designer dress pooled around her on the floor.

“I didn’t know he was going to kill him, Luca! I swear to God! Marcus told me we just needed to stall Michael. To stop him from going to the bank that morning. He asked me for the spare keys to Michael’s car.”

Rachel let out a sound that wasn’t human. It was a guttural, agonizing wail of absolute heartbreak.

Her sister-in-law.

The woman who had tormented her for twelve years. The woman who had told her to her face that she didn't belong.

She had handed the keys to her husband’s murderer.

“You gave him the keys,” Rachel sobbed, collapsing onto a chair, pulling Ethan into her lap. “You let him cut the brakes.”

“I thought he was just going to slash the tires!” Bianca screamed, crawling toward Luca, begging for mercy. “I just wanted to stop him from taking the money!”

Luca looked down at his sister with absolute disgust. He didn't reach out to help her up. He didn't offer a word of comfort.

He simply looked at his head of security.

“Take my sister to the basement,” Luca ordered. “Lock her in. If she speaks, tape her mouth.”

“Luca, please!” Bianca shrieked as two massive men dragged her by her arms out of the ballroom. Her screams echoed down the marble hallway until the heavy doors slammed shut.

I felt sick to my stomach. I was witnessing the complete destruction of a dynasty.

Marcus started laughing.

It was a dry, hollow, terrifying sound.

“You think locking her up changes anything, Luca?” Marcus sneered. “You think you’ve won?”

Marcus reached into his breast pocket.

Instantly, three of Luca’s guards drew their guns, aiming directly at Marcus’s chest.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Marcus chided, raising a small, rectangular object in the air.

It wasn’t a gun.

It was a sleek, black smartphone.

“If my thumb presses this button,” Marcus said, his thumb hovering over the screen, “a message goes to a team waiting outside Rachel’s house.”

Rachel gasped, her eyes going wide.

“I’m not a fool, Luca,” Marcus said, his smile returning. “I knew Michael had hidden the offshore account passwords. I’ve spent eighteen months searching for them. I finally figured out where he left them.”

Marcus pointed the phone directly at the little boy trembling in his mother's arms.