Chapter 7 - The Bride Who Lost Everything
One week.
That was all the time Anthony needed.
Or all the time we thought he needed.
Luca canceled every public appearance.
The wedding was officially postponed.
But the media had already begun asking questions.
Why had the Moretti-Bellini wedding disappeared from every social calendar?
Why had Vanessa stopped appearing in public?
Why had several Bellini companies frozen their accounts?
Luca refused to comment.
I returned to the mansion because I had nowhere else to go.
But I was no longer a maid.
He offered me a position managing the family charitable foundation.
I almost refused.
"I don't know how to run a foundation."
"You know how to read people."
"That isn't accounting."
"It's more useful."
I smiled.
"Maybe."
For the first time, I had a room of my own.
My own schedule.
My own key.
My own decisions.
And strangely, that frightened me more than being ordered around.
One afternoon, Luca found me in the library.
"You haven't eaten."
"I'm working."
"That's not an answer."
I looked up.
"Do you always monitor everyone?"
"Only the people I care about."
The words hung between us.
I looked away.
He sat across from me.
"Emily."
"Yes?"
"I know everything you've lost."
I swallowed.
"But you don't know what I want."
"Then tell me."
I looked at him.
"I want a life where nobody can decide my future for me."
"Then that's what you'll have."
"And if I want something you don't?"
He smiled faintly.
"Then I'll learn to accept it."
My heart skipped.
It was dangerous.
Not because Luca was dangerous.
But because I was beginning to see the man behind the reputation.
The man who quietly checked whether his employees had eaten.
The man who remembered my favorite coffee.
The man who paid my hospital bill without putting his name on it.
The man who never once touched me without asking.
I was falling for him.
And I hated how much I liked it.
Then Gabriel returned.
He arrived with a new piece of evidence.
"Anthony is planning to leave the country."
Luca frowned.
"When?"
"Tomorrow night."
"How?"
"Private cargo flight."
"Where?"
"Switzerland."
Daniel entered the room.
"We found the flight plan."
Luca stood.
"Then we stop him."
Gabriel shook his head.
"There's a problem."
"What?"
"Anthony isn't running."
He looked at me.
"He's going after Emily."
My heart dropped.
"Why?"
"Because he believes she has the original ledger."
I looked at my father's notebook.
"But he has copies."
"Not of everything."
Gabriel's face was grim.
"Your father hid one final page."
"Where?"
Gabriel looked at Luca.
"With his daughter."
I frowned.
"What?"
Gabriel pointed toward the notebook.
"Look at the binding."
Luca took it.
Inside the leather spine was a tiny envelope.
My father's final note.
Only four words.
TRUST THE MAN BESIDE YOU.
I stared at Luca.
He looked at me.
Neither of us spoke.
Then a loud crash came from downstairs.
Daniel ran.
"Luca!"
Gunfire erupted.
Luca pulled me behind him.
"Stay here."
"No."
"Emily."
"I'm not hiding anymore."
He looked at me.
"Then stay close."
We moved together.
The attackers had entered through the kitchen.
Security intercepted them.
In the chaos, Vanessa appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
She was holding a gun.
Everyone froze.
She aimed.
Not at me.
At one of the attackers.
She fired.
The man dropped.
Luca stared at her.
"Vanessa."
She lowered the weapon.
"He was going to kill Emily."
"Why help her?"
Vanessa looked at me.
"Because she deserves the life I tried to steal from her."
The police arrived minutes later.
Vanessa surrendered.
She gave them everything.
Names.
Accounts.
Locations.
And one final secret.
"Anthony has been using my brother for years."
Gabriel looked at her.
"What?"
She stared at him.
"Matteo isn't the only Moretti who helped him."
Luca's expression hardened.
"Who else?"
May you like
Vanessa whispered a name.
"My father."
