Chapter 4 - A Contract Signed in Blood and Debt
Before I could process Gabriel's words, the heavy study doors swung open. A woman in a tailored emerald silk gown stepped into the room, her high heels clicking sharply against the marble entryway.
She had porcelain skin, dark raven hair piled in an intricate updo, and emerald eyes that flicked dismissively over me before landing on Gabriel.
"Gabriel, darling," she breathed, rushing forward with an elegant sob. "I heard the commotion from the west wing! They said Harrison was dragged into the basement and that you were screaming! Are you alright?"
It was Julianna Moretti—Vincenzo Moretti's younger sister and Gabriel’s betrothed, an arranged alliance meant to seal the truce between New York's two most powerful families.
Gabriel did not move to embrace her. His posture remained rigid, his expression an impenetrable mask of stone.
"I am alive, Julianna," Gabriel said flatly. "No thanks to your brother's medical recommendations."
Julianna stopped mid-stride, her painted lips parting in surprise. Then her gaze dropped to the desk, noticing the steel basin and the check lying beside my hand. Her eyes narrowed into slits of venom.
"Why is the cleaning girl sitting at your personal desk?" she sneered, her voice losing its melodic warmth. "Carmine, have the staff lost all sense of decorum? Clear this trash out of here."
"The 'trash' just saved my life, Julianna," Gabriel responded, his tone dangerously quiet. "While the physician your brother hand-picked was systematically rotting my flesh from the bone."
Julianna's breath hitched for a microsecond—so brief that only someone watching her every twitch would notice. But I had spent my entire life observing wealthy patrons from the shadows. I saw the sudden tightening of her knuckles around her leather clutch.
"That’s... that’s absurd," Julianna stammered, attempting a forced laugh. "Harrison Cole has an impeccable reputation! If there was a complication, it was an accident! You cannot believe the paranoid ramblings of a girl who scrubs baseboards!"
Gabriel stood up. He towered over everyone in the room, his broad shoulders casting a long shadow across the antique rugs. The sheer aura of power he commanded made Julianna take an involuntary step backward.
"Elena stays," Gabriel commanded. "She will occupy the suite adjacent to mine. She will eat at my table. And anyone who looks at her with disrespect will answer directly to me."
Julianna’s face turned scarlet with indignation. "You humiliate me? In front of your subordinates? We are to be married in three weeks!"
"The wedding is suspended," Gabriel said without hesitation.
May you like
Julianna gasped, tears of rage springing to her eyes. "My brother will not tolerate this insult, Gabriel!"
"Tell Vincenzo," Gabriel said, stepping closer to her, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper, "that I am sending Dr. Cole back to him tonight in six separate boxes. And tell him that if he wants my crown, he’ll have to come take it himself."
