THE ENGAGEMENT CAKE

I stared at the torn photograph in my hand.

The image of a young, devastated Vanessa in a hospital gown didn't make me feel pity. It only magnified the cold, calculated evil of what she was doing now. She was stealing another woman's child to mask her own secret, willing to let innocent people freeze to death to secure her lie.

"You can't marry her, Luca," I said, the words slipping out before I could stop myself.

He turned away from the window. The penthouse was dimly lit, casting sharp shadows across his face.

"If I don't stand at that altar tomorrow, Anna and the baby die," he stated, his voice flat. "The Vitiello family has fifty heavily armed men guarding that shipping yard. If I send my soldiers in by force, it will be a bloodbath. And in the chaos, they will kill the hostages."

"But if you sign those merger documents, you give her everything," I argued, stepping closer. "She takes your family's money, pays off her father's debts, and she becomes untouchable. She'll have no reason to keep Anna alive after that."

Luca ran a hand through his dark hair, the weight of the empire crushing his shoulders.

"I know," he whispered.

For a moment, he just looked at me. I was still wearing my torn maid's uniform, my hair falling out of its neat bun, a silk handkerchief wrapped around my burned hand. I didn't belong in this world of billions of dollars and blood feuds.

But I understood family.

"What if we don't send soldiers?" I asked softly.

Luca frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The shipping yard," I said, my mind racing. "You said your family owns it. Who cleans it? Who does the maintenance?"

"We have contracted union workers. Janitors, mechanics."

I looked down at my uniform. "Vanessa doesn't look at the help, Luca. To her, we're invisible. The woman from the bakery delivered a six-thousand-dollar cake right under her nose, and Vanessa only noticed when the woman tried to speak."

Luca’s eyes narrowed as he followed my logic. "You're saying we sneak in."

"I'm saying the Vitiello guards are looking for Moretti hitmen in black SUVs," I corrected. "They aren't looking for a janitor pushing a trash cart. I can get inside."

"Absolutely not," Luca said instantly, his voice a low growl. "I am not sending a civilian—a mother—into a cartel stronghold."

"I'm already in it!" I fired back, my fear transforming into anger. "She sent a man to my home tonight! She terrorized my six-year-old son! My sister is bleeding in your guest room!"

I stepped right up to him, my chin tilted up to meet his gaze.

"I am not sitting in a tower while she holds a baby hostage in a freezer. Let me help you."

For a long moment, the air between us crackled with tension. Luca looked down at me, his chest rising and falling.

"You're terrified," he observed softly.

"Terrified," I agreed, my voice shaking slightly. "But I know how to disappear in plain sight. Give me a mechanic's uniform. I'll find Container 4B. I'll get them out while you stall her at the altar."

Luca reached out. His fingers gently traced the line of my jaw, brushing a stray tear from my cheek. The touch sent a jolt of electricity straight to my heart.

"If they catch you, Lily... they will kill you."

"Then you better make sure she doesn't check her phone during the wedding," I whispered.

At 6:00 AM the next morning, the penthouse was buzzing.

Daniel, the security chief, had acquired blueprints of the Polaris shipping yard. He laid them out on the kitchen island.

"Container 4B is in Sector 7," Daniel explained, pointing a thick finger at the map. "It's the deep-freeze sector. Meat imports. The temperature inside those boxes is regulated at negative ten degrees."

I shivered, pulling the heavy, navy-blue mechanic's coveralls over my clothes.

"Daniel will drive you in an outsourced laundry van," Luca said. He was already dressed in his wedding tuxedo. He looked breathtakingly handsome, and completely lethal.

"You have a two-hour window," Luca continued, handing me a small earpiece. "The ceremony starts at two o'clock. The moment I say 'I do,' the merger is complete. If you don't have them out by then, I have to assume the worst."

"I'll find them," I promised.

Before I could turn toward the door, Luca caught my hand—my good hand.

He pressed something cold and heavy into my palm.

I looked down.

It was a beautiful, vintage emerald bracelet. The stones caught the morning light, sparkling with deep, rich greens.

"What is this?" I asked.

"It was my mother's," Luca said, his voice thick with emotion. "She wore it every day. When she died, it was the only thing I kept."

He looked into my eyes.

"Keep it with you. As a promise. That you are coming back to me."

My breath hitched. I clasped the bracelet around my wrist, hiding it beneath the long sleeve of the coveralls.

"I'll bring your family home, Luca," I said.