Chapter 5 - THE BURN CELL PHONE
The revelation struck Luca like a physical blow.
He staggered back, his eyes locked on the cracked silver watch in his daughter’s hand.
For twenty years, Luca had mourned his wife, believing a freak winter storm had taken her.
He had leaned on Dominic. Trusted him. Placed the family’s entire defense network in his hands.
And all this time, the architect of his grief had been sitting across from him at the dinner table.
Dominic didn’t try to deny it anymore.
The mask slipped completely, revealing the cold, calculating predator beneath.
He adjusted his suit jacket and wiped a drop of blood from his chin.
“She was going to take you to the FBI, Luca,” Dominic said smoothly. “She found the offshore accounts. She was packing bags the night of the crash. You were blind with love. I protected this family.”
“You murdered my wife!” Luca bellowed, lunging forward.
Before Luca’s hands could reach him, Dominic kicked backward, smashing his heel into the control panel by the front door.
An ear-piercing alarm instantly blared through the mansion.
The heavy steel security shutters slammed down over the windows and doors, plunging the foyer into flashing red emergency light.
“Lockdown protocol,” Dominic shouted over the siren. “Only I have the override code!”
He pulled a small, black burn phone from his jacket.
“If you touch me, Luca, I press send. And Marcus dumps Matteo in the river.”
Luca froze in his tracks.
His massive chest heaved, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles were white.
But he didn’t move.
He couldn't risk his grandson.
“That’s better,” Dominic sneered. He held up the phone. “Now, here is how this works. You are going to sign over the ports and the downtown territory to me. Tonight. Then you and your daughter will get on a plane to Italy, and you will never return. If you do that, Matteo gets dropped off at an orphanage unharmed.”
Isabella let out a broken sob, dropping to the floor and burying her face in Leo’s blue coat.
“And if I refuse?” Luca asked, his voice dead and hollow.
“Then you lose another generation.” Dominic tapped the screen of the phone, his thumb hovering over the call button. “Make your choice, brother. You have five minutes to get the paperwork from your safe.”
Dominic backed slowly toward the main staircase, putting distance between himself and Luca.
He kept his eyes locked on his brother, the burn phone raised like a shield.
He didn’t look at me.
I was just a maid. Part of the furniture. Invisible.
I was standing near the shattered mirror on the floor.
My thumb was still throbbing, wrapped in a bloody paper towel.
My father’s medical bills were waiting at home. I needed this job. I needed to stay out of it.
But I looked at Isabella, weeping on the floor.
I looked at the little boy in the blue coat, terrified and clinging to his mother.
No family should be broken like this.
I looked down at the jagged shards of mirror glass near my feet.
I slowly reached down and picked up the largest, heaviest piece.
Dominic reached the bottom step of the staircase.
“Five minutes, Luca. Tick tock.”
I stepped out from the shadows behind him.
I didn’t say a word.
I swung the heavy piece of mirror glass as hard as I could, bringing the blunt, heavy backing down across Dominic’s wrist.
Crack.
Dominic screamed in agony.
His fingers snapped open.
The black burn phone flew from his hand, sliding across the polished marble floor.
I dove for it.
My knees slammed into the marble, bruising instantly, but my fingers closed around the plastic phone.
“You stupid bitch!” Dominic roared, clutching his broken wrist.
He lunged for me, kicking me hard in the ribs.
The breath exploded from my lungs. I curled into a ball, but I didn't let go of the phone.
Before Dominic could kick me again, Luca was there.
He didn't grab Dominic's throat this time.
He grabbed his brother by the lapels of his expensive suit and threw him entirely through the wooden banister of the staircase.
Wood splintered. Dominic crashed to the floor, unmoving.
Luca was breathing heavily. He looked down at me, extending a massive hand.
He pulled me to my feet.
“Are you alright, Emma?” he asked.
I nodded, coughing, clutching my bruised ribs. I handed him the black burn phone.
“I’ve got it.”
Luca took the phone.
He looked at the screen.
Then, a cold, terrible realization washed over his face.
“It’s locked,” Luca said.
I froze. “What?”
“It requires a passcode,” Luca said, his thumbs frantically hitting the screen. “Dominic locked the screen. Without the code, we can't call Marcus. We can't track the GPS.”
We turned to look at Dominic, unconscious in the splintered wood.
Then, Isabella stood up.
She wiped her tears. She walked over to her uncle’s unconscious body.
She reached into his inner jacket pocket and pulled out his thick leather wallet.
“He didn’t just lock the phone,” Isabella said, opening the wallet. “He locked us in.”
She pulled out a keycard. “This override card only works if swiped from the outside guardhouse. We are trapped in this mansion until morning.”
“Then we beat the code out of him when he wakes up,” Luca growled.
Isabella shook her head. She pulled something else from the wallet.
It wasn't a credit card or cash.
It was a faded, folded piece of paper.
She opened it.
“Dad,” Isabella whispered, her voice filled with a new, distinct kind of horror.
She held the paper out to Luca.
I leaned in to see.
It was a birth certificate.
Isabella’s name was on it.
May you like
But under "Mother," it didn't say Luca's late wife.
It said Vanessa Bellini.
