Chapter 7
The silence in the kitchen was heavier than anything I had ever felt.
The photograph of Antonio and my grandmother, young and hopelessly in love, rested on the cheap formica table next to the stack of unpaid bills.
Luca stared at the picture. His father—the ruthless billionaire, the stoic patriarch who rarely smiled—looked vibrant, soft, and entirely devoted to the woman whose hand he was holding.
“He never stopped loving her,” my mother said quietly. “Even after she couldn’t come to America. Even after she married my father out of shame. Antonio wrote to her in secret for years.”
Michael sat on the edge of a kitchen chair, clutching his rosary. “If he loved her... why didn't he save her, too? Why did he only take me?”
My mother reached into the wooden box. She pulled out one of the yellowed carbon-copy papers.
“Because she wouldn’t let him,” my mother said, handing the paper to Luca.
Luca read the document out loud. His voice shook.
“I, Rosa Carter, relinquish all parental rights of my son, Michael, to Antonio Moretti. In exchange, Antonio Moretti will deposit ten thousand dollars into a trust for my daughter, Sarah, to ensure she escapes her father’s household.”
I covered my mouth.
Ten thousand dollars. It wasn't blood money. It was escape money. My grandmother had traded her beloved son to the only man she trusted, to buy her daughter a ticket out of hell.
“She told my father Michael died in the fire so he wouldn't go looking for him,” my mother wept. “She used the ten grand to pack us up in the middle of the night and move us to Chicago. But she never stopped mourning you, Mikey. Never.”
Michael closed his eyes. The hatred he had been carrying for his father and for his biological mother evaporated in a single heartbeat, replaced by an overwhelming, crushing gratitude. He hadn't been sold for a gambling debt. He had been rescued by a man who loved his mother enough to raise her son as his own.
Luca lowered the paper. He looked at me, realizing that if my grandmother was Rosa, and she had used that money to save my mother... I wouldn't exist without Antonio's intervention. Our lives were woven together in ways none of us could have imagined.
But as Luca stared at the document, his expression suddenly shifted. The softness faded, replaced by a sharp, lethal clarity.
“Wait,” Luca said. “If Dominic Bellini isn’t your father... then why did Dominic show up tonight claiming he was?”
We all froze.
“Dominic said he found you and sold you to Antonio to clear a mafia debt,” Luca muttered, piecing it together. “He told Vanessa that Michael was his illegitimate son.”
“He lied,” Michael said. “To protect himself.”
“Protect himself from what?” I asked.
Luca looked back at the wooden box. He dug through the remaining papers. He pulled out a folded police report from Naples, dated 1978. It was the report my grandmother had filed when she was assaulted.
Luca read the name of the attacker aloud.
Domenico Bellinacci.
My blood turned to ice.
“Bellinacci,” Luca whispered. “Bellini.”
He looked up at us, his eyes wide with horrifying realization.
“Dominic Bellini changed his name when he came to Chicago,” Luca said. “He isn’t the mafia debt collector. He’s the man who assaulted your mother. He is your biological father.”
My mother gasped and grabbed the edge of the sink.
Vanessa’s father was the monster my grandmother had fled. He was the man who had beaten Michael as a child. He was my grandfather.
“Dominic didn't find you and sell you to Antonio,” Luca said, his voice rising in anger. “Antonio tracked Dominic down in Chicago. Antonio paid Dominic off to leave Rosa alone forever. Dominic spun the story to Vanessa to make himself look like a victim of Antonio’s ruthless business tactics, instead of admitting he was an abusive monster who beat his own child!”
Suddenly, Luca’s phone began to vibrate violently in his pocket.
He pulled it out. The caller ID flashed: MARCUS.
Luca answered it on speakerphone. “Marcus, what is it?”
“Boss,” Marcus’s voice cracked with panic over the speaker. “You need to get back to the office tower downtown. Now.”
“I told you to wait at the car,” Luca barked.
“I’m at the tower, sir. Security tripped the silent alarm on the executive floor. Dominic Bellini is up there.”
Luca’s face drained of color. “What is he doing there?”
“Sir... Vanessa used her fiancée override code to let him into your private office. They’re trying to crack the safe. The commercial real estate deeds are in there.”
Dominic wasn't just trying to hide his past. He knew the wedding was off. He knew his blackmail scheme had failed. So he was using his daughter to rob Luca blind before the truth came out.
Luca hung up the phone. He looked at Michael.
“Let’s go,” Luca said.
Michael stood up. He looked at my mother, hesitating.
My mother reached out and hugged him fiercely. “Go,” she whispered. “Go get him.”
Luca turned to me. “Emily, stay here. You’re safe here.”
“No,” I said, stepping forward. I grabbed my coat off the hook by the door. “That man assaulted my grandmother. He beat my uncle. And he humiliated me in front of fifty people tonight. I’m going with you.”
Luca looked at my fierce expression. A tiny, proud smile ghosted across his lips.
“Then let’s go,” he said.
We ran down the stairs and piled back into the SUV. Luca drove this time. He slammed his foot on the gas, tearing through the quiet streets of the South Side, heading straight for the glowing skyline of downtown Chicago.
I sat in the passenger seat, clutching the photo of Antonio and Rosa.
For the first time in my life, I wasn't just the maid in the background. I was part of the story. And we were about to end Dominic Bellini once and for all.
As we pulled up to the towering glass skyscraper of Moretti Enterprises, Luca killed the engine. He reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a heavy steel lockbox.
He opened it, revealing a matte black pistol.
May you like
He racked the slide, shoving it into his waistband, and looked at Michael.
“He wants to play the monster?” Luca said coldly. “Let’s show him what happens when he wakes up the devil.”
