Chapter 3 - THE EXPULSION
Through the thick oak doors of the study, the sounds from the ground floor were muffled, but the tension was palpable. The distant sound of furniture flipping, shattering glass, and Antonio Bellini’s booming roars echoed up the marble stairwell.
I sat on the floor with Isabella, wrapping my apron around her trembling shoulders. To keep her mind off the nightmare unfolding below, I pulled an old photo album from one of the lower shelves.
“Look here, Bella,” I murmured softly, pointing to a black-and-white picture of a younger Luca holding a baby wrapped in pink lace. “Look how small you were. And look at your mother’s smile.”
Isabella traced the photograph with a tiny, delicate finger. “Mommy really loved me, didn't she, Emily? She didn't want to leave me.”
“She loved you more than the whole world,” I assured her, kissing the top of her dark curls. “She fought with everything she had to protect you. And your daddy will never let anyone hurt you again.”
Half an hour passed before the heavy lock on the outside of the doors rattled.
I instantly stood up, putting Isabella behind me and picking up a heavy brass bookend from the desk.
The door swung open.
Luca stood in the frame. His tailored jacket was gone. The sleeves of his crisp white dress shirt were rolled up to his forearms, revealing the intricate ink that mapped his ascent to power. His knuckles were bruised, and a speck of crimson dotted his collar, but his breathing was steady.
Behind him stood Roberto Ferraro, holding an encrypted silver hard drive.
Luca’s eyes fell upon the brass bookend in my hand. A faint, humorless smirk touched the corner of his lips before vanishing. “You can put that down, Emily. The house is secure.”
“Where is Vanessa?” I asked, lowering the makeshift weapon.
“Vanessa and her father have been removed from my property,” Luca replied flatly. “The Bellini syndicate has twenty-four hours to surrender all territory east of the river and leave Illinois. If Antonio or Vanessa are seen within fifty miles of this city after midnight tomorrow, they will be hunted down like vermin.”
“Luca,” Roberto spoke up, his voice grim. “Antonio will not leave quietly. You just humiliated the second most powerful family in the state in front of the entire underworld aristocracy. They will go to the Falcone family in New York. They will seek an alliance to wage war.”
“Let them,” Luca snapped, stepping fully into the room. He walked straight over to Isabella, dropping to one knee. He reached out and gently cupped her cheek with his uninjured hand. “Bella. The bad people are gone. They are never coming back inside our home.”
Isabella threw her arms around his neck, burying her face into his shoulder. Luca closed his eyes, wrapping his large arms around her small frame, holding her with a fierce, desperate tenderness that made my throat tighten. This was a man who ruled thousands with an iron fist, yet holding his daughter seemed to be the only thing keeping him tethered to his humanity.
After a long moment, Luca looked up at me over Isabella’s shoulder. His piercing dark gaze held mine with an intensity that made the breath catch in my chest.
“Emily,” he said.
“Yes, Mr. Moretti?”
“Your mother’s medical debt,” he said casually, as if discussing the weather. “The six hundred thousand dollars owed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital for her chemotherapy.”
My eyes widened in shock. “How... how do you know about that?”
“I do background checks on everyone who sleeps under my roof,” Luca said calmly. “I know why you took this job. I know you were working eighty hours a week between this estate and an industrial laundry in Cicero to pay off the bank before they foreclosed on her house.”
Heat flooded my cheeks. “I never let it interfere with my duties here, sir.”
“I know you didn't,” Luca said, rising to his feet while keeping Isabella perched securely on his hip. “Thirty minutes ago, my finance director cleared the entire balance with the hospital. The mortgage on your mother’s home in Oak Park has been paid in full. The deed is being transferred directly to her name tomorrow morning.”
The room seemed to spin around me. “Mr. Moretti... no. I can't accept that. That’s—that’s a fortune! I haven't done anything to earn—”
“You saved my daughter’s life tonight,” Luca interrupted, his voice dropping into a deep, unyielding register. “Vanessa had been poisoning her. If Isabella had stayed under her care for another six months, she would have suffered the same organ failure that killed Elena. You stood up to Vanessa when fifty made men and five capos sat on their hands in cowardice. You faced down a loaded gun for my child.”
He stepped closer, standing so near I could smell the faint scent of cedarwood, expensive tobacco, and the crisp autumn wind clinging to his shirt.
“You are no longer a maid in this house, Emily Carter,” Luca said softly, his dark eyes searching mine with a look that made my pulse race. “From this night forward, you are Isabella’s personal guardian and the estate’s mistress of the household. You answer only to me. You will live in the family suites on the third floor. And anyone who looks at you with disrespect will answer to my barrel.”
“Luca...” I breathed, using his first name without realizing it.
He didn't correct me. Instead, a spark of something raw and dangerous flickered in his dark eyes. “Is that acceptable to you, Emily?”
Before I could answer, Isabella reached out from her father’s arms and grabbed my hand. “Please, Emily. Stay with us. Don't leave me.”
Looking at the little girl’s pleading eyes, and then at the dark, powerful man who was looking at me as if I were the only anchor in his stormy world, I swallowed hard and nodded.
“I'll stay,” I whispered.
May you like
Luca’s fingers brushed lightly against mine as he took Isabella’s hand, his touch searing through my skin like an electric shock. “Good,” he murmured. “Because war is coming, Emily. And I need someone I can trust with my life.”
***
