Chapter 2 - THE BURNING HOSPITAL MENU
The silence in the dining room was absolute, broken only by the soft rustle of Vanessa’s red satin gown as she took a slow step backward.
Fifty wealthy guests sat frozen, their eyes fixed on the small, folded hospital menu trembling in Luca’s hand.
Luca Moretti didn't raise his voice. He didn't blink. The devastating grief that had just poured out of him was instantly locked away, replaced by the terrifying, ruthless calculation that had made him the most feared man in Chicago.
"Answer the question, Vanessa," Luca commanded.
His voice was a low rumble, but it carried to every corner of the vast room.
Vanessa’s flawless smile was gone, her perfectly manicured fingers clutching her designer evening bag like a shield.
"Luca, darling, you know Ben," Vanessa started, her voice tight, desperately trying to inject a note of patronizing sympathy. "He was heavily medicated. End-stage heart failure causes delirium. He didn't know what he was writing."
"Do not talk about his heart," Nina whispered fiercely, stepping out from behind her brother. "He was completely lucid."
Vanessa’s eyes flashed with venom before she forced them back to Luca. "I simply told Ben that the stress of his illness was taking a toll on you, Luca. I told him we were busy planning the wedding and that I would handle the arrangements so you wouldn't be burdened."
Luca’s dark eyes narrowed. "You told a dying man that his existence was a burden to me?"
"I was protecting you!" Vanessa cried, playing the victim. "You run an empire! You can't drop everything every time Nina needs her hand held!"
"Nina is my blood," Luca stated, stepping toward his fiancée. "Ben was my brother. You are a guest in this house."
The words hung in the air, a lethal demotion.
Vanessa’s face went pale. "I am your fiancée."
"Not anymore."
Luca didn't shout the words. He stated them as a simple, undeniable fact.
A collective gasp echoed around the dining table.
Vanessa’s mouth opened and closed. She looked around at the guests, seeking support, but no one met her eyes. In the world Luca inhabited, breaking an engagement publicly wasn't just a breakup; it was an execution of social standing.
"You're calling off the wedding?" Vanessa whispered, her voice finally breaking. "Over a misunderstanding with a dead mechanic?"
The room temperature seemed to drop ten degrees.
Luca moved so fast I barely saw it.
He didn't hit her. He didn't touch her. But he closed the distance between them in a split second, towering over her, his eyes burning with an unholy fire.
"If you ever speak his name again," Luca breathed, his voice a deadly, quiet hiss, "I will ensure your family’s businesses are dismantled piece by piece before the sun comes up."
Vanessa stumbled backward, pure terror finally cracking her composed facade.
"Rachel," Luca ordered without looking at me.
"Yes, sir," I answered quickly, my heart pounding.
"Escort Miss Bellini to the front gates. Have her things packed and sent to her father’s house in the morning."
"Luca, you can't do this!" Vanessa shrieked, her entitlement roaring back to life. "My father controls the shipping ports! If you humiliate me tonight, you break the syndicate truce!"
Luca didn't care. He turned his back on her, returning to his sister’s side.
"The dinner is over," Luca announced to the room.
I walked toward Vanessa, keeping my distance. "Please, Miss Bellini. Let's go."
Vanessa glared at me, her eyes filled with a promise of retribution. She snatched her coat from the coat check girl in the hallway and stormed out the front doors, the heavy oak slamming shut behind her.
The guests filed out in uncomfortable silence. Within ten minutes, the grand dining room was empty, save for Luca, Nina, and me.
Nina collapsed into a chair, the adrenaline leaving her body, replaced by crushing exhaustion.
Luca knelt beside her, resting his head on her knee, holding her hand.
I began quietly clearing the plates, wanting to give them privacy, but Luca stopped me.
"Leave it, Rachel," he said softly, standing up. "Pour us three glasses of bourbon."
I hesitated. "Sir, I'm working."
"You're the only one who didn't lie to me tonight," Luca replied, his dark eyes meeting mine with profound gratitude. "Pour the glass."
I walked to the bar cart, my hands shaking slightly, and poured the amber liquid. I handed a glass to Nina, then one to Luca, and kept the third.
We stood in the quiet ruins of the engagement dinner.
Luca raised his glass, looking at his sister.
"To Ben," Luca whispered, his voice cracking.
"To Ben," Nina echoed, tears slipping down her cheeks.
I raised my glass, taking a burning sip.
Luca pulled the blue silk tie from his jacket pocket, laying it gently on the table next to the folded hospital menu.
"Nina," Luca said softly, his brow furrowing as he looked at Ben's final words. "There's something wrong here."
Nina looked up, wiping her eyes. "What do you mean?"
"Vanessa is a narcissist," Luca stated bluntly. "She's greedy, and she's manipulative. But she's also incredibly calculating."
He picked up the hospital menu.
"She wouldn't risk her position as my wife just because she didn't like sharing my attention," Luca reasoned, his mind shifting into the analytical gear that made him a billionaire. "She went to the hospital to confront Ben specifically. She intercepted your phone calls. She actively isolated you from me."
"Why?" Nina asked, her voice trembling.
"Because Ben knew something," Luca realized, the dark truth settling over the room. "He knew something Vanessa couldn't afford for him to tell me. And she went to that hospital room to make sure he took it to his grave."
Nina’s eyes widened in horror. "But Ben was just a mechanic. He didn't know anything about your business."
"He didn't have to," Luca said. "He just had to see something he wasn't supposed to."
Luca turned to me.
"Rachel, you clean the master suite. Have you noticed Vanessa moving any files? Hiding anything?"
I thought back over the last few weeks.
"No, sir," I answered honestly. "But..."
"But what?" Luca pressed gently.
"A few weeks ago, Ben came to the house to fix the plumbing in the guest bathroom because the contractor canceled," I recalled. "Vanessa was furious he was here. She said he was tracking dirt everywhere."
Nina nodded. "I remember. He complained about her yelling at him when he got home."
"Where was he working?" Luca asked.
"The guest bathroom," I repeated. "Right next to Vanessa’s private home office."
Luca went perfectly still.
"Did he go inside her office?" Luca asked.
"I don't know, sir," I admitted. "I was in the kitchen."
Luca looked at the blue tie on the table.
"Ben borrowed this tie for your wedding," Luca said to Nina, his mind racing. "He kept it for four years."
"He said it was his lucky tie," Nina smiled sadly.
"Ben never kept secrets from you, Nina," Luca said, his eyes narrowing. "If he found something in Vanessa’s office, he wouldn't just hide it. He would have left a clue. Something only we would understand."
Luca picked up the blue silk tie. He ran his fingers over the thick fabric.
He stopped.
He frowned, pressing his thumb against the wide end of the tie.
"There's something inside the lining," Luca whispered.
My heart hammered against my ribs.
Luca pulled a small pocketknife from his trousers. He carefully sliced the stitching at the bottom of the tie.
He reached inside the silk.
He pulled out a small, folded piece of thick, heavy parchment paper.
It wasn't a note from Ben.
It was a bank receipt.
Luca unfolded it. The color completely drained from his face.
"Oh my god," Luca breathed, his voice hollow.
"What is it, Luca?" Nina panicked, standing up.
Luca turned the receipt around so we could see it.
It was a wire transfer receipt from an offshore account in the Cayman Islands.
The transfer was for five million dollars.
The recipient was a shell company owned by the Bellini family.
But it was the sender's name that made the room spin.
The money had been wired from an account belonging to the rival Russian syndicate.
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"Vanessa’s family didn't just break the truce," Luca whispered, the devastating reality of a full-scale mafia war crashing down on us. "They sold our shipping routes to the Russians."
And Ben Carter had died knowing the woman Luca was about to marry was a traitor.
