Chapter 2 - The Fracture of the Dynasty
The silence that followed was suffocating. The fountain in the center of the conservatory burbled softly, a grotesque, cheerful sound against the tension threatening to shatter the glass walls.
Bianca stared at him, her lips parted, her manicured hands frozen over her stomach. "What did you say?"
"You heard me," Dominic said, taking a slow, measured step toward her. He did not shout; he never shouted. His hands rested easily in his trouser pockets, the picture of casual elegance, but the air around him crackled with lethal intent. "Take off the ring."
"You are breaking our engagement over a maid?!" Bianca’s voice pitched upward, cracking on the edge of hysteria. "My father signed the terminal lease agreements yesterday! We merge the ports next week! You cannot humiliate the Moretti family like this over an old woman's senile delusions and a clumsy servant who doesn't know her place!"
"My mother built the empire you are currently trying to carve up with your father," Dominic said, stopping three inches from Bianca. He looked down at her with a cold, clinical detachment that made her take an involuntary step backward until her spine met the cold glass of the conservatory wall. "She bled for this name while your father was still running numbers out of a butcher shop in Queens. You were invited into this house as an equal. You were granted the honor of carrying my family's legacy."
He reached out, his hand wrapping around Bianca’s slender wrist with the steady, inescapable grip of an iron vice. With his other hand, he caught the massive emerald-cut diamond ring, twisting it slowly.
Bianca winced, tears of genuine pain and humiliation welling in her eyes as the platinum scraped over her knuckle.
"You brought violence under my roof," Dominic whispered, bringing the ring up to the light, where Skylar’s blood still gleamed like fresh varnish against the facet. "And worse... you dared to raise your hand against the woman who gave me life."
He released her wrist. The ring disappeared into his pocket.
"Get out of my house, Bianca."
"My father will destroy you for this!" she spat, wiping a furious tear from her cheek, her face contorting into an ugly, venomous mask. "He will pull the shipping contracts! He will leak your offshore accounts to the federal task force! You’ll be ruined by sunrise!"
"Let him try," Dominic said softly. He turned his back on her, dismissing her existence as easily as one might brush away a dead leaf. "Matteo."
The second guard stepped forward, his expression carved from stone.
"Escort Miss Moretti to her town car. She takes nothing that was purchased on a Rossi ledger. Her bags will be dropped at her father’s estate by morning. If she attempts to enter this property again, shoot her tires out and throw her into the road."
"Dominic, no!" Bianca screamed as Matteo’s heavy hand clamped down onto her upper arm, hauling her backward toward the double doors. "You can't do this! You need my father! You need us!"
Her shrieks echoed down the long marble corridor, growing fainter and fainter until the heavy oak doors of the foyer slammed shut, cutting off her voice entirely.
The room was left with only the sound of Carmela’s quiet weeping and the steady hiss of the rain.
Dominic turned back to where Skylar was still kneeling on the floor.
He didn't look at the blood on the marble. He didn't look at the broken antique table. He walked over, bent down, and before Skylar could even comprehend what was happening, his arms slid beneath her knees and behind her back.
"Mr. Rossi, please—no!" Skylar cried out in absolute mortification, trying to scramble backward. "I’m too heavy! I'll ruin your suit—I'm getting blood everywhere—"
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Dominic hoisted her off the floor in one smooth, unhurried motion, holding all two hundred and forty pounds of her against his chest as if she weighed no more than a bundle of silk. He didn't grunt. He didn't strain. He simply pulled her securely against his body, her face inches from his throat, the warmth of his chest seeping through the thin linen of her uniform.
"Be quiet, Skylar," he murmured, carrying her toward the conservatory doors. "You've bled enough for this family tonight. Let me carry the rest."
