Chapter 10 - THE ENGAGEMENT RING
A month had passed since the night at the safe house.
The Moretti estate had changed. The oppressive, silent tension that used to choke the hallways under Vanessa’s reign was gone. There was laughter now—mostly Daniel’s, echoing from the sprawling back gardens where he played soccer with the security detail.
I wasn’t a maid anymore, but adjusting to my new reality was complicated.
Luca had given me a suite in the west wing. My father was receiving top-tier private medical care. I was spending my days tutoring Daniel, helping him bridge the massive gap between his life on the run and his new reality as the heir to an empire.
But my relationship with Luca existed in a delicate, unspoken space.
He was fiercely protective, infinitely gentle with me, but always careful. We shared coffee every morning before he went to the syndicate headquarters. We ate dinner together with Daniel every night. But neither of us had crossed the line drawn in the kitchen the day he gave me Elena’s necklace.
Until a Tuesday afternoon.
I was in Luca’s study, looking for a book Daniel had left behind.
The heavy mahogany desk was immaculate, as always, but something sitting on the corner caught my eye.
A small, velvet box. Open.
Inside sat the massive, six-carat diamond ring Luca had given Vanessa.
I stopped. I stared at the blindingly expensive stone. Why was it sitting out? Vanessa had thrown it at Luca’s feet the night she was exiled, but why had he kept it on his desk?
“It’s a reminder.”
I gasped and spun around.
Luca was leaning against the doorframe, his suit jacket discarded, his tie loosened. He looked exhausted, but his dark eyes were intensely focused on me.
“A reminder of what?” I asked, my heart doing a sudden, nervous flutter.
“Of my blindness,” Luca said, walking slowly into the room. He stopped next to the desk and stared down at the ring. “I was willing to marry a woman I felt nothing for, simply because I thought it was the logical move to protect my empire. I let logic blind me to the monster she was.”
He reached out and snapped the velvet box shut. The sound was sharp.
He picked up the box and tossed it effortlessly into the metal wastebasket next to the desk.
I blinked. “That’s worth a million dollars.”
“It’s worth nothing to me,” Luca said softly. He stepped closer to me. The space between us seemed to evaporate. He smelled of cedar and rain. “I’ve spent the last month trying to give you space, Emily. You’ve been through trauma. You’ve had your whole life upended. I didn’t want to overwhelm you.”
My breath caught in my throat. “I’m not overwhelmed.”
Luca reached up, his large, calloused fingers gently brushing a stray lock of hair behind my ear. His touch sent a jolt of electricity straight to my toes.
“Good,” he murmured, his eyes dropping to my lips. “Because I am entirely out of patience.”
Before I could breathe, before I could think, the heavy oak door of the study swung open violently.
Luca dropped his hand and turned, stepping instinctively in front of me.
Daniel stood in the doorway. He was panting, his face pale, holding a small package wrapped in brown paper.
“This came in the mail,” Daniel said, his voice trembling. “It doesn’t have a stamp. One of the guards found it on the front steps.”
Luca’s posture instantly shifted from a man on the edge of romance to a predator ready for war. He took the package from his son.
“Take Emily to the panic room,” Luca ordered without looking away from the box.
“Luca, what is it?” I asked, fear slicing through the moment.
Luca carefully tore the brown paper.
Inside was a single, pure white rose. The stems had been snapped.
And tucked beneath the petals was a polaroid photograph.
Luca stared at the photo, his jaw locking so tight a muscle ticked in his cheek. He handed the photo to me, pulling his gun from his holster.
I looked at the picture.
It was a photo of me, walking into the hospital to visit my father yesterday. Taken through a sniper’s crosshairs.
May you like
Written on the bottom in red ink were three words.
See you soon.
