Chapter 5 - SINS OF THE FATHER
The silence in the dining room was suffocating.
My father.
The man who had abandoned me a decade ago was standing outside this mansion, threatening to blow it up.
“Why?” I whispered, tears spilling hot and fast down my cheeks. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because Charles owes me money, sweetie,” my father’s voice crackled through the phone. “And Moretti owes me a life. Open the door.”
The call disconnected.
I looked up at Luca. His face was unreadable in the moonlight, but his gun was still firmly pressed against Charles’s throat.
“Your father,” Luca said slowly, “is Elias?”
I shook my head violently. “No! My father’s name is Arthur Brooks! He was a mechanic! He abandoned us when I was in high school!”
Charles let out a pathetic, wet laugh.
“He lied to you, Hannah,” Charles sneered, coughing as Luca’s grip tightened. “He never abandoned you. He went to prison. He was Elias’s right-hand man.”
The floor seemed to tilt beneath me.
All those years. All those lonely nights crying, wondering why I wasn't good enough for my father to stay.
“Why did you marry me?” I asked Charles, my voice completely hollow. “If you knew who he was… why me?”
“Because your father hid two million dollars in offshore accounts before he went inside,” Charles spat, clutching at Luca’s wrist. “He put it all in a trust under your name. A trust that only transferred to your spouse if you died or… if you were deemed mentally unfit to care for your child.”
Vanessa gasped.
The pieces slammed together with sickening clarity.
The gaslighting. The emotional abuse. The way Charles convinced the judge I was unstable during the divorce. He had systematically destroyed my life, stolen my daughter, and hidden her away—all to legally drain my hidden inheritance.
“You monster,” I whispered.
“I needed the money!” Charles cried. “Your father got out on parole last month. He found out I spent the trust. He told me to bring Lily here tonight, to get inside Moretti’s house, or he’d kill me!”
Luca absorbed the information with terrifying calm.
He didn't yell. He didn't panic.
He simply reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a heavy, intricately engraved silver pocket watch.
He tossed it onto Charles’s chest.
Charles looked down at it, and for the first time tonight, all the color completely vanished from his face.
“Where did you get that?” Charles whispered, his eyes wide with absolute horror.
“Your father’s watch,” Luca said smoothly. “He pawned it when he was struggling to pay his gambling debts ten years ago. I bought it. I also bought his debts.”
Luca leaned in close, his voice a lethal hum.
“Did Elias really think I wouldn't know who his inside man was? I’ve owned your family for a decade, Charles. I knew you were coming. I just didn't know you were bringing her.”
Luca looked at me, his eyes softening for a fraction of a second, before hardening again.
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“We have five minutes before the police arrive,” Luca said. “But we aren't waiting.”
He turned to his security guard. “Open the front doors.”
