Chapter 3 - THE BLOOD DEBT AND THE SILVER LOCKET
The silence in the dining room was absolute, broken only by the ragged, terrified breathing of the guests pressed against the walls.
"Moscow."
Luca said the word as if tasting something rotten. He stared at the man pinned to the floor, processing the sheer, staggering evil of the statement.
"You're lying!" Vanessa shrieked, her voice echoing shrilly in the vast room. She lunged forward, pointing a trembling finger at the man on the floor. "He's trying to save himself! Luca, you know my family! We would never do business with the Russians!"
Luca didn't look at her. He kept his eyes fixed on the man beneath Marco’s knee.
"Why would the Bratva want my ten-year-old daughter?" Luca asked, his voice deadly quiet.
The man let out a wet cough. "They don't want the kid. They want you. But you're untouchable in Chicago. So they bought your weak link." He jerked his chin toward Vanessa. "She owes them two million dollars in gambling debts. She couldn't pay. So she offered them a trade. The Moretti heir, delivered directly to their territory, in exchange for her life."
I felt the blood drain from my face.
She had sold a little girl to pay off a casino debt.
I looked at Sophie. The ten-year-old was burying her face in her grandfather's chest, her small hands clutching his suit jacket. Frank was signing frantically, trying to understand what was happening.
I took a step forward, ignoring the guns and the screaming, and quickly signed to Frank.
Stay with her. Keep her eyes covered. Do not let her look at Vanessa.
Frank nodded tightly, wrapping his arms around the little girl and turning her away from the center of the room.
Luca turned to Vanessa.
Vanessa backed up until she hit the wall again. The beautiful, confident woman who had mocked my apron twenty minutes ago was gone. In her place was a cornered, terrified animal.
"Luca, please," she begged, tears streaming down her pale cheeks. "It wasn't my debt! It was my father's! He used my name! They told me if I didn't give them Sophie, they would kill me and my whole family! I was trying to survive!"
"By sacrificing my child," Luca said. The emotion was entirely gone from his voice.
"You can have another child!" Vanessa cried desperately. "We can have a child! We're getting married!"
The collective gasp from the guests was audible. The sheer depravity of her defense sickened everyone in the room.
Luca stared at her for three long seconds.
Then, he turned his back on her.
"Marco," Luca said quietly.
"Boss," Marco replied, still pressing his knee into the man on the floor.
"Clear the room," Luca ordered. "Take the guests to the west wing parlor. Nobody leaves the estate until I clear them. Take these two men to the basement."
"And her?" Marco asked, nodding toward Vanessa.
Luca didn't look back. "Put her in my study. Lock the door. She makes no calls."
"No!" Vanessa screamed as two of Luca's guards stepped forward and grabbed her by the arms. "Luca, you can't do this! I am your fiancée!"
She thrashed against them, but it was useless. They dragged her out of the dining room, her red satin gown snagging and tearing on the edge of a chair.
Within two minutes, the dining room was completely empty, save for Luca, Marco, Frank, Sophie, and me.
Luca stood at the head of the long, wrecked banquet table. He looked exhausted. The powerful mafia boss looked like a man who had just watched his entire world fracture.
He slowly walked over to Frank and Sophie.
He knelt down on the ruined Persian rug.
"Sophie," Luca said softly.
The little girl peeked out from her grandfather's jacket. Her face was pale and streaked with tears.
"Daddy?" she whimpered.
"I am so sorry, baby," Luca whispered, his voice cracking. He reached out and gently cupped her cheek. "I didn't know. I swear to you, I didn't know."
"Are the bad men going to take me?" she asked, her lip trembling.
"No," Luca said fiercely, pulling her into a tight embrace. "Nobody is ever taking you away from me. I promise."
I watched them, tears blurring my vision. Frank placed a gentle, comforting hand on Luca's shoulder.
Luca pulled back and looked at the older, deaf man.
"Frank," Luca signed clumsily, speaking aloud at the same time. "I failed her. I let that woman into our home."
Frank shook his head quickly. He signed a rapid sequence.
I stepped forward to translate.
"He says you didn't fail her, Mr. Moretti," I said softly. "He says Vanessa was a snake, and snakes know how to hide their scales. But he wants to know what you are going to do now."
Luca stood up. The grief in his eyes was replaced by a cold, terrifying resolve.
"I am going to find out exactly how deep the poison goes," Luca said.
He turned to me. "Rachel."
I stood up straight. "Yes, sir."
"You protected my daughter tonight," Luca said, his dark eyes locking onto mine. "You spoke up when you had everything to lose. You are no longer a maid in this house."
I blinked, stunned. "Sir?"
"You are now Sophie's personal guardian and interpreter for Frank," Luca said firmly. "Your salary is tripled. You answer to no one but me. If Vanessa's family ever tries to retaliate, you will be under my direct protection."
I gasped, covering my mouth with both hands. "Mr. Moretti... thank you. But I... I don't know if I can..."
"I trust you," Luca interrupted quietly. "My daughter trusts you. Please."
I looked at Sophie. The little girl gave me a small, hopeful smile.
"I accept, sir," I nodded, wiping my eyes.
"Good," Luca said. He turned to Marco. "Take Frank and Sophie to the safe room in the east wing. Put four guards on the door. Nobody goes in or out."
"On it, Boss," Marco said. He gently guided Frank and Sophie out of the dining room.
Luca and I were alone amidst the scattered crystal glasses and cold plates of food.
"Mr. Moretti," I said hesitantly. "What are you going to do about Vanessa?"
Luca looked at the closed doors of his study down the hall.
"I am going to ask her why she lied about her father's debt," Luca said coldly.
I frowned. "Lied?"
Luca walked over to the spot where Marco had tackled the man. He knelt down and picked something up off the floor.
It had fallen out of the man's jacket during the struggle.
Luca held it up.
It was a small, silver locket. It was tarnished and dented, hanging from a broken chain.
I gasped.
I recognized that locket. I had seen it in the master bedroom just yesterday, sitting on Vanessa's vanity.
"Vanessa told me this locket belonged to her great-grandmother," Luca said softly, his thumb tracing the engraved initials on the silver casing. "She said it was her most prized possession. She never took it off."
"But... if she prized it, why would a Russian courier have it?" I asked, my blood running cold.
Luca popped the locket open.
He didn't look at the picture inside. He held it out so I could see.
I leaned in.
It wasn't a picture of Vanessa's family.
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It was a picture of Claire. Luca's dead wife. Sophie's mother.
"Because," Luca whispered, his voice trembling with a rage I had never heard before, "Vanessa didn't just sell my daughter today. She’s the one who killed my wife four years ago."
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