Chapter 5 - THE BRACELET
“Gone,” Luca repeated, the word tasting like ash in his mouth.
He stared at the radio in his hand for a fraction of a second before clipping it back to his belt.
He looked at Emma. She had entirely stopped crying. The terror in her eyes had hardened into something else. Something raw, desperate, and dangerous.
The blood of the Romano family was waking up.
“She’s going to the airport,” Emma said, her voice eerily steady. “St. Jude’s is in Vermont. It’s a two-hour flight. If she has a private charter waiting—”
“She doesn’t have a charter,” Luca interrupted, his mind working in overdrive. “My father controls the family aviation accounts. He’s downstairs. He wouldn’t let her take a plane without his authorization, and he wouldn’t authorize it while he’s standing in front of the mayor playing host.”
“Then where is she going?”
Luca walked over to his desk and grabbed his keys. “She’s not going to Vermont tonight. She’s going to secure her insurance policy.”
“Insurance policy?”
“You,” Luca said, pointing at her. “She needs you to take the fall for my murder. But you ran. You weren’t in your room. She realized the timeline was compromised. If she can’t frame you with the knife tonight, she needs leverage to force you into a confession tomorrow.”
Emma grabbed her left arm, her nails digging into her sleeve. “She’s going to send someone else to get Lily.”
“Yes.”
Luca pulled his phone out and dialed his head of private aviation.
“It’s Luca. Have the Gulfstream prepped and fueled in twenty minutes. I need a security detail of four men on board, heavily armed. Destination is Burlington, Vermont.”
He hung up and dialed another number.
“Marco. Get the SUV to the back door. Now.”
Luca turned to Emma. “Come with me.”
Emma didn’t hesitate. She grabbed her duffel bag and followed him out of the study.
They rushed down the back staircase, bypassing the grand foyer where the last of the engagement guests were saying their goodbyes. They burst through the kitchen doors and out into the crisp, freezing Chicago night.
A black armored Cadillac Escalade was idling on the cobblestone driveway. Marco was behind the wheel.
Luca opened the back door. “Get in.”
Emma climbed in, pulling her bag onto her lap. Luca slid in beside her and slammed the door.
“Where to, boss?” Marco asked, looking in the rearview mirror.
“Vanessa’s townhouse,” Luca said. “Step on it.”
The heavy SUV tore out of the estate gates, tires screaming against the asphalt.
Inside the quiet, dark cabin, the adrenaline masked the pain in Emma’s hand for a few minutes. But as the car hit a pothole, she gasped, instinctively cradling her right palm against her chest.
Luca noticed.
He reached up and turned on the overhead reading light.
“Let me see it,” he said.
Emma hesitated, then slowly uncurled her arm. The white gauze was completely soaked through with dark, drying blood.
Luca opened a compartment in the center console and pulled out a first-aid kit. He didn’t ask for permission. He gently took her wrist in his large, warm hand.
For a mafia boss, his touch was surprisingly careful.
He unwound the ruined gauze. Emma flinched as the fabric peeled away from the deep, straight slice across her palm.
“It needs stitches,” Luca muttered, his jaw tight. He pulled a bottle of antiseptic from the kit. “This is going to burn.”
“I’m used to it,” Emma said quietly.
Luca paused, looking up at her. “What does that mean?”
Emma looked out the tinted window at the passing city lights. “My mother died when I was nineteen. I’ve been working housekeeping jobs ever since to keep Lily in that school. I’ve burned my hands on industrial irons, cut them on broken porcelain, scrubbed floors until my knuckles bled. A knife cut is just a different kind of pain.”
Luca poured the antiseptic over the wound. Emma hissed, her whole body tensing, but she didn’t pull away.
Luca quickly wrapped a fresh, tight layer of medical gauze around her hand.
“You’re not a maid anymore, Emma,” he said quietly as he taped the bandage off.
She looked at him. “What am I, then? An heiress to a dead family?”
“The Romano family isn’t completely dead,” Luca corrected. “Not if you’re breathing.”
Before Emma could respond, Marco slammed on the brakes.
The SUV swerved to a halt in front of a sleek, ultra-modern townhouse in the Gold Coast neighborhood. Vanessa’s private residence.
“Wait here,” Luca ordered Emma.
He drew his weapon and stepped out of the car. Marco followed him, weapon drawn.
They approached the heavy glass front door. Luca didn’t bother checking if it was locked. He raised his foot and kicked the lock cylinder inward with a deafening crack. The door swung open.
They cleared the ground floor in seconds. Empty.
Luca moved silently up the glass staircase to the master bedroom.
The room was in chaos. Drawers were pulled out. A jewelry box was overturned on the vanity. Designer clothes were strewn across the white carpet.
Vanessa had come here to pack. Fast.
“She’s gone, boss,” Marco said, checking the walk-in closet. “Looks like she grabbed a go-bag and bolted.”
Luca walked over to the vanity. He stared at the overturned velvet jewelry box. Diamonds, pearls, and gold chains spilled across the glass surface.
But one item sat perfectly placed in the center of the vanity, completely separate from the mess.
It was a heavy gold charm bracelet.
Luca picked it up. It felt heavy. Cold.
He stared at the single, large gold charm dangling from the links.
It was an eagle clutching a serpent.
Luca’s blood turned to ice.
He knew that crest. Every boss in the country knew that crest.
It didn’t belong to the Bellini family.
It belonged to the Falcone family. The most ruthless, bloodthirsty cartel in New York. The same cartel that had wiped out the Romano family twenty years ago.
Luca walked quickly back down the stairs and out to the SUV. He slid into the backseat.
“Drive,” Luca barked at Marco. “Back to the estate.”
Emma looked at the expression on his face. “What did you find?”
Luca held up the gold bracelet.
Emma gasped. Her left hand flew to her mouth.
“You recognize this,” Luca stated, watching her closely.
“Yes,” Emma breathed, her eyes wide with shock. “That crest… it was stamped on the wax seal of the letter.”
“What letter?”
“The letter my mother left me before she died,” Emma said, her voice shaking. “She said if anyone with that crest ever found me, I had to run. They were the ones who killed my father.”
Luca stared at the eagle and the serpent.
A massive, terrifying truth finally clicked into place.
“Vanessa isn’t loyal to my father,” Luca said slowly. “She never was.”
Emma lowered her hand. “I don’t understand.”
“My father thought he was using Vanessa to overthrow me,” Luca explained, his voice growing dangerously quiet. “He thought she was his pawn. But he was wrong.”
Luca turned to Emma, his eyes dark with realization.
“Vanessa works for the Falcones. She infiltrated my family to tear it apart from the inside. She used my father’s greed against him.”
Luca leaned closer, holding the bracelet.
“And they didn’t just want to frame you for my murder, Emma. They wanted to expose you.”
Emma’s breath hitched. “Expose me?”
“Yes,” Luca said. “They wanted the police to find the lost Romano heir standing over my dead body. They wanted my syndicate to execute you in retaliation.”
A ringing silence filled the car.
Emma looked down at the bracelet, then up at Luca.
“Mr. Moretti,” she whispered. “If Vanessa works for the people who killed my family…”
Luca nodded slowly.
May you like
“Then she isn’t going after Lily for leverage,” he finished, the horrific reality sinking in.
“She’s going after her to finish the bloodline.”
