THE MAFIA BOSS WATCHED HIS FIANCÉE TAKE A FORK OUT OF A 76-YEAR-OLD WOMAN'S SHAKING HAND AT HIS ENGAGEMENT DINNER—THEN SHE SAID, “SHE ASKED TO EAT IN THE KITCHEN,” BEFORE HE EVEN ASKED WHY THE OLD WOMAN WAS CRYING OVER A PLATE SHE HADN'T TOUCHED.

Luca stared at the red wax seal.

His thumb traced the faint imprint of his mother’s signet ring pressed into the wax. He hadn't seen her handwriting in almost thirty years.

The dining room was quiet, save for the soft scratch of Leo’s crayons on the paper.

"She wrote this right before she died?" Luca asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Agnes nodded slowly. "She was very weak. Dr. Vance was keeping her heavily sedated. But there was a morning when his nurse was late, and the medication wore off enough for her to sit up."

Agnes folded her hands in her lap, the gold and emerald bracelet catching the light.

"She asked me for a pen and paper. She wrote it in a panic, sealed it, and shoved it under her mattress just as the doctor walked in. Later that night, she slipped it to me. She said she didn't trust her husband to give it to you. She only trusted me."

Luca swallowed hard.

He carefully broke the wax seal.

The paper inside was thin and fragile. The handwriting was erratic, wildly different from the elegant script she usually possessed. It was the writing of a woman fighting through a chemical fog.

Luca began to read silently.

As his eyes moved across the page, I watched the muscles in his jaw tighten.

A single tear escaped his eye and rolled down his cheek. He didn't wipe it away.

When he finished, he slowly lowered the paper to the table.

He didn't speak for a long time.

"What did she say, Uncle Luca?" Leo asked, looking up from his drawing.

Luca looked at the little boy. Then he looked at Agnes.

"She knew," Luca said, his voice breaking. "She knew Vance was killing her."

Agnes gasped, covering her mouth. "Oh, dear God."

Luca picked up the letter and began to read aloud, his voice steady but heavy with grief.

"My dearest Luca. If you are reading this, Agnes has kept her promise. I do not have much time. I can feel the medicine taking my heart. I know it is Vance. I know my husband owes the Bellinis a debt he cannot pay, and I am the price of his weakness."

I felt sick to my stomach. Luca’s father had known. He had let his wife be poisoned to save his criminal empire.

Luca continued reading.

"I am not angry, my brave boy. I am only sad that I will not see you grow into the man I know you will become. Do not seek revenge for me. Revenge is a poison that will eat your soul just as surely as this medicine is eating my heart."

Luca paused, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

"I leave you with Agnes. Listen to her. She has a purer heart than anyone in this dark world we live in. And remember this, Luca: Blood makes you a Moretti, but loyalty makes you a family. Choose your family carefully. Do not marry for power. Do not marry for peace. Marry someone who looks at the broken pieces of the world and tries to put them back together."

The room was completely silent.

Luca folded the letter and pressed it to his lips.

He looked across the table at Agnes.

"She knew you would protect me," he said.

"And I did," Agnes whispered, wiping her own tears. "I tried my best, sweetheart."

"You did more than try," Luca said.

He stood up from the table and walked over to the large fireplace. He grabbed a heavy iron poker and stoked the dying embers.

Then, he did something that shocked me.

He reached into his suit jacket and pulled out the thick stack of Bellini banking records and the deed to the warehouse clinic—the only proof he had of Vanessa and Vance's crimes.

He tossed them directly into the fire.

"Mr. Moretti!" I gasped, jumping up. "What are you doing? That's your leverage! That's how you put them in prison!"

Luca watched the papers catch fire, the edges curling and blackening into ash.

"My mother asked me not to seek revenge," Luca said quietly. "If I hand those over to the police, there will be a war. The Bellini syndicate will retaliate. Violence will spill into the streets. And Leo will grow up looking over his shoulder, just like I did."

He turned away from the flames.

"Vanessa and Vance are stripped of their money and their power. They are banished from this city. They will spend the rest of their lives looking over their own shoulders. That is punishment enough."

He walked back to the table and knelt beside Leo’s chair.

"No more secrets," Luca said to the boy. "No more hiding. You are my son now, Leo. Not my nephew. My son."

Leo threw his arms around Luca’s neck. "Can I stay here forever?"

"Forever," Luca promised.

Luca stood up and looked at me.

"Natalie."

"Yes, sir?"

"You're not a housemaid anymore."

I blinked, confused. "Sir?"

"You risked your life for this family," Luca said. "You're smart, you're brave, and you have a good heart. Leo needs a permanent tutor and a manager for his affairs. Someone I trust completely. The salary is six times what you make now, with full medical benefits for your mother."

My legs felt weak. I had to grab the back of my chair to keep from falling.

"I... I don't know what to say."

"Say yes," Agnes chimed in, smiling through her tears. "Because heaven knows I can't chase this boy around the gardens anymore with these hands."

"Yes," I breathed, crying freely now. "Yes. Thank you."

Luca smiled.

It was the first time I realized how truly handsome he was when he wasn't carrying the weight of a mafia empire on his shoulders.

"Good," he said.