Chapter 6 - THE NAME ON THE STORAGE RECEIPT
The silence in the storage unit was absolute.
I stopped breathing, pressing my back so hard against the concrete wall it bruised my spine.
Luca didn't move. He didn't gasp. He stood entirely still, his broad back rigid as a stone pillar in front of me.
“You’re lying,” Luca’s voice finally cut through the darkness. It was terrifyingly calm.
Marco laughed again, a harsh, grating sound. He took another step into the unit, his gun tracking the shadows.
“Am I? Go ask Mommy,” Marco sneered. “Thirty-eight years ago, Eleanor had a quiet affair with a man named Carlo Rossi. A rival captain. When Frank Moretti found out, he put a bullet in Carlo’s head and threw him in the river.”
Marco kicked a duffel bag, testing the space.
“Frank thought he had handled it. He raised you as his own because he couldn't have kids. But my father knew the truth. When the Bellini business started going bankrupt five years ago, I went to Eleanor. I told her if she didn’t start funneling cash into our accounts, I’d tell the commission the truth.”
Marco’s voice dripped with poison.
“If the other families find out the great Luca Moretti is a bastard child of a dead rival, they won’t just take your territory, Luca. They’ll kill you. Eleanor knew that. She’s been paying our ransom ever since.”
I stared at the back of Luca’s head.
The man who had built an empire, the man who demanded absolute loyalty from his crew, was having his entire identity shredded in front of me.
“Vanessa wasn't just marrying you for the money,” Marco continued, moving closer to our hiding spot. “She was marrying you for the control. Once you were tied to us, we owned you forever. But you had to go and play white knight for a little maid and her brat.”
Rage, pure and blinding, flared in my chest. He was talking about Sophie.
“Come on out, Luca,” Marco taunted. “Hand over the ledger, and maybe I’ll let the girl live.”
Luca didn’t speak. He reached his free hand behind his back and pressed two fingers against my thigh, a silent command to stay exactly where I was.
Then, Luca moved.
He didn't step out with his hands up. He didn't try to negotiate.
Luca lunged from the shadows like a panther.
The movement was so fast Marco didn't have time to aim. Luca grabbed Marco’s gun hand, twisting it violently upward. A suppressed shot hissed, sparking against the steel ceiling.
Marco grunted in pain as Luca drove a devastating knee into his stomach. The gun clattered to the concrete floor.
Luca grabbed Marco by the throat, driving him backward with the force of a freight train. He slammed Marco into the orange steel doorframe so hard the metal buckled.
“You killed an innocent father!” Luca roared, his calm facade shattering completely.
He hit Marco across the jaw with the butt of his pistol. Marco’s head snapped back, blood spraying from his lip, and he crumpled to the floor, semi-conscious.
Luca stood over him, chest heaving, his eyes wild with adrenaline and heartbreak.
He aimed his gun at Marco’s chest.
“Luca, no!” I screamed, stepping out from behind the bags.
Luca froze, his finger tightening on the trigger.
I ran to him, grabbing his arm. “Don't. If you kill him, you’re exactly what they think you are. You’re a murderer. Sophie doesn't need a murderer, Luca. She needs you.”
Luca stared at Marco’s bleeding face. The muscles in his neck strained against the collar of his shirt.
Slowly, agonizingly, Luca lowered the weapon.
He stepped back, breathing heavily. He looked at me, his dark eyes filled with a vulnerability that broke my heart.
“He’s right, Emily,” Luca whispered, the weight of the revelation crushing him. “My whole life is a lie.”
“Your life is what you make it,” I said fiercely, grabbing both sides of his face. I didn't care about boundaries anymore. “You are the man who stood up for a seven-year-old girl. You are the man who protected me. I don’t care whose blood is in your veins, Luca. You are a good man.”
Luca closed his eyes, leaning into my hands for a fraction of a second.
Then, the mafia boss returned.
He stepped away, pulling a zip-tie from his pocket—something I realized he always carried. He bound Marco’s hands tightly behind his back.
He grabbed the heavy leather ledger off the folding table and tucked it under his arm.
“Let’s go,” Luca said, his voice hard as steel again. “We’re paying my mother a visit.”
We left Marco bound in the dark storage unit and drove straight back to the Lake Forest estate.
Dawn was just beginning to break over the trees, casting the world in a cold, gray light.
Instead of going to the guest wing where Sophie was sleeping, Luca led me straight to the East Wing’s master suite.
He didn't knock. He threw the heavy oak doors open.
Eleanor Moretti was sitting in a velvet armchair by the window, wearing a silk robe, sipping a cup of tea. She looked up, startled by the intrusion.
“Luca? What on earth—”
Luca walked across the Persian rug and dropped the heavy leather ledger onto the glass coffee table in front of her.
The loud thud made Eleanor jump.
She looked at the book. All the color instantly drained from her elegant, aging face.
“I found Marco Bellini in a storage unit tonight,” Luca said, his voice void of any emotion. “He was guarding five million dollars of our money. And this book, filled with your handwriting.”
Eleanor’s hands began to tremble. The teacup rattled against the saucer.
“Luca, please,” she whispered, tears instantly filling her eyes. “Let me explain.”
“Explain what?” Luca asked, leaning over the table, planting his hands on the glass. “Explain that you’ve been financing the people who murdered Emily’s husband? Explain that you let Vanessa treat my staff like garbage because you were terrified she’d expose your thirty-year-old affair?”
Eleanor covered her mouth, sobbing. “I did it to protect you! If the commission found out about Carlo, they would have killed you, Luca! You were my baby. I couldn't let them take you.”
“You didn't protect me,” Luca said, his voice finally breaking with sorrow. “You sold me. You let Vanessa manipulate me into an engagement. You were going to let me marry a woman who hated a little girl, just to keep your secret.”
“I’m sorry,” Eleanor wept, reaching out for his hand.
Luca pulled away.
“Pack your bags, Mother,” Luca said coldly. “You’re leaving Chicago today. I’m putting you on a plane to our villa in Tuscany. And you are never coming back.”
Eleanor let out a broken wail, burying her face in her hands.
I stood near the door, my heart aching for the destruction of this family, but knowing it was necessary.
Suddenly, the heavy oak doors behind me were shoved open.
Vince, Luca’s head bodyguard, burst into the room. His face was bruised, and he was bleeding from a cut above his eye.
“Boss,” Vince gasped, out of breath.
Luca spun around. “What happened to you?”
“It’s Vanessa,” Vince said, his voice filled with panic. “She didn't run. She came here. She brought five men.”
My stomach dropped to the floor.
“Where are they?” Luca demanded, drawing his gun instantly.
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Vince looked at me, sheer terror in his eyes.
“They breached the East Suite, Emily. They took Sophie.”
