Chapter 4 - The Poisoned Vault
Arthur Bellini froze, his hand still hovering inside his coat. He slowly raised both hands into the air, his face mottled with purple rage.
“You’re making a catastrophic mistake, Luca. Our families control sixty percent of the eastern seaboard’s shipping routes. If you break this engagement and move against me, the Commission will wipe you off the map.”
“The Commission only respects power and profit, Arthur,” Luca replied coldly. “And as of midnight tonight, your logistics company is completely insolvent.”
Luca spun his computer monitor around so both Bellinis could see the glowing screen.
“For six months, I wondered why Vanessa was so desperate to rush this wedding. Why she insisted on signing the joint-asset merger before the ceremony rather than after,” Luca explained, his voice slicing through the room like a scalpel. “Then my cyber team ran a trace on the offshore accounts Vanessa used to deposit the auction proceeds from Hart & Wells.”
Vanessa began to tremble violently. “Luca, please... let me explain—”
“Those auction proceeds weren’t for spending money,” Luca cut her off. “They were being used to pay interest on a forty-million-dollar debt your father owes to the Bratva syndicate in South Florida.”
Arthur’s jaw dropped. “How did you—”
“You used your daughter to infiltrate my estate,” Luca said, standing up to his full height. “You had her systematically search my mother’s private archives for the offshore account keys my father hid before his death. You wanted to bleed the Moretti empire dry from the inside out to save your own pathetic skin.”
“I love you, Luca!” Vanessa screamed, tears of genuine terror finally streaking her flawless makeup. “I did what my father ordered! I had no choice! He was going to let the Russians kill us!”
Luca looked at her with utter, unadulterated disgust.
“You shoved an innocent, defenseless woman into an oak trunk and cracked her ribs today just to hide your petty theft. You threatened to ruin her family. You don’t know what love is, Vanessa. You only know survival at the expense of everyone around you.”
Luca nodded to his men.
“Disarm Arthur. Take their phones, their jewelry, and their car keys. Escort Miss Bellini to the south guest cottage under twenty-four-hour armed guard. Put Arthur in the wine cellar holding cells.”
“You can’t keep me locked up in your house!” Arthur roared as two burly guards wrenched his arms behind his back and clicked heavy steel handcuffs around his wrists. “I have men across the city! When I don’t report in at dawn, they’ll come through these gates with heavy artillery!”
Luca walked over to Arthur, leaning in until their noses were inches apart.
“Let them come,” Luca whispered. “Because someone is waiting for them at the gates. Someone who has been waiting five years to settle a score.”
Luca stepped back and waved his hand. The guards dragged Arthur Bellini out of the room, his muffled curses echoing down the marble hallway until the heavy cellar doors slammed shut below.
Vanessa dropped to her knees on the carpet, sobbing hysterically and clutching at Luca’s trouser legs. “Luca, please! Have mercy! I’ll give everything back! I’ll tell you everything my father planned!”
“You’ll tell Daniel everything in the morning,” Luca said coldly, pulling his leg away from her grasp without looking down. “Take her away.”
Two guards hauled Vanessa to her feet and marched her out through the service exit toward the guarded cottage.
When the study fell completely silent again, Luca let out a long, ragged exhale. He turned toward the private elevator that led up to the fourth-floor penthouse suites.
May you like
There was only one person in the entire estate he trusted right now.
And she was currently nursing bruised ribs three floors above him.
