Chapter 2 - The Matriarch’s Trap
The silence in the grand ballroom was so absolute that the distant hum of the estate’s HVAC system sounded like a rising storm.
Celina’s calculated composure fractured instantly. Her face went slack as she looked from Marianne to the lines of staff holding Ellie’s packed boxes. She hadn't expected the matriarch to intervene so openly, let alone expose her cruel intentions in front of the city’s most influential elites.
Realizing her carefully constructed facade was crumbling, Celina’s desperation took over. Her expression changed from shock to sudden, vicious rage. She suddenly lunged forward toward the sobbing toddler on the floor, her hand raised as if to strike the child away.
“Little brat!” Celina shrieked, losing all aristocratic pretense. “You ruined my night—!”
She never reached her.
A shadow moved with terrifying, predatory speed across the marble. Luciano Vescari crossed the distance in two massive strides. His hand caught Celina’s wrist mid-air with a grip like a hydraulic press, the bone-crushing pressure making her gasp in agony.
With a brutal, effortless twist of his arm, Luciano tore her away from his daughter, hurling her backward with such force that she stumbled across the slick floor and crashed hard onto the velvet engagement sofa.
Her crystal champagne glass, resting on the side table, shattered beside her, sending sparkling shards across the rug.
Ellie whimpered, cowering slightly, but Luciano immediately dropped to one knee, scooping his daughter into his arms and pressing her small face against his broad shoulder.
“You’re safe, angel. Daddy’s right here. You are never leaving this house,” Luciano murmured fiercely, kissing the top of her dark curls before standing up, holding her securely against his chest.
He turned his slate-gray eyes toward the sofa where Celina was nursing her bruised wrist, gasping for air against the cushions.
Slowly, deliberately, Luciano raised his left hand, caught the large, five-carat canary diamond engagement ring on Celina’s finger, pulled it free, and held it in his palm.
“Two bodyguards,” Luciano commanded, his voice dropping into a sub-zero baritone that vibrated through the floorboards.
Two massive men in tailored suits stepped forward from the perimeter of the room.
“Take the boxes from the staff,” Luciano ordered.
The bodyguards took the cardboard boxes containing Ellie’s belongings. But instead of returning them upstairs to the nursery, they walked straight across the ballroom and placed every single box neatly beside Celina on the engagement sofa.
Luciano walked over, stopping two feet from the sofa, and dropped the brilliant diamond ring right on top of her designer luggage.
“It’s true that someone will have to leave today,” Luciano said, his voice entirely devoid of human warmth.
May you like
Celina went deathly pale. She stared up at him, her mouth opening and closing as the terrifying reality of her ruined future settled upon her. “Luciano... you can’t do this. My father—your political alliances—we were supposed to be—!”
“Our engagement is terminated,” Luciano interrupted, turning his back on her. “And by morning, your family’s political standing in this city will be a historical footnote. Get out of my house.”
