Chapter 9 - THE PHOTOGRAPH
“Listen to this,” Luca commanded, his voice echoing in the ruined nursery.
He read my father’s letter aloud.
“Luca. If you are reading this, the safe has been opened, which means my time is up. Vanessa Bellini thinks I am returning to take the throne. She is a fool. I only played along to locate my grandson, Leo. By the time you read this, the FBI will have every ledger, every recording, and every offshore account the Bellini family owns. I am destroying them for what they did to our mother.”
Vanessa screamed, a sound of pure terror.
“No! He lied to me! My family’s money—he’s giving it to the feds!”
Luca looked at her with absolute disgust.
“The police are already on their way, Vanessa. Not for me. For you.”
Within minutes, sirens wailed in the distance.
Luca’s security guards hauled a kicking, screaming Vanessa and a bleeding Carlo out of the room.
The silence that followed was heavy but completely pure. The poison had been drained from the house.
Luca knelt down until he was eye-level with Leo.
The little boy looked at him, his blue eyes so much like Luca’s.
“Are you my dad?” Leo asked softly.
Luca’s eyes filled with tears. He nodded.
“I am. And I promise you, nobody will ever lock you away again. This is your home.”
He pulled the boy into a tight, desperate embrace. Leo buried his face in Luca’s neck, his small arms wrapping around his father for the first time.
Then, Luca stood and turned to Rosa.
He took her fragile hands in his.
“Mama Rosa. I am so sorry. You suffered for my family for decades, and tonight, you saved my son. You are not the help. From today on, you sit at the head of my table.”
Rosa wept, kissing Luca’s hands. “Thank you, bambino. Thank you.”
Finally, Luca turned to me.
He looked at me not as a maid, but as family. As his niece.
“Your father sacrificed everything to keep you out of this life, Emma. He is a good man. I will make sure he has the best doctors in the world. He’ll never worry about a bill again.”
I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I collapsed into tears, and Luca pulled me into the hug with Leo.
We walked out of the East Wing together.
In the dining room, the twelve-thousand-dollar engagement cake sat untouched.
Luca walked past it.
He went straight to the side table, picked up Rosa’s homemade apple pie, and cut a large slice.
He handed the first plate to Rosa.
The second to Leo.
And the third to me.
We sat at the grand table, a broken, bizarre, but finally whole family.
The nightmare was over.
But as I took my first bite of pie, my phone buzzed in my apron pocket.
May you like
It was a text from the hospital.
Emma. Your father is awake. And he says he needs to give you the coat.
