The maid’s hand was badly burned, yet she risked her job to stop the engagement cake from being cut—and what was hidden inside changed everything. / Chapter 15 / 49

Chapter 15 - The Reckoning at Midnight

By midnight, the basement had been swept clean by Luca’s cleanup crews, the bodies vanished into unmarked vans, and the Drake Hotel gala concluded without a single guest on the upper floors realizing that blood had been spilled beneath their dancing shoes.

Back at the Moretti estate, the rain had turned into a relentless downpour.

Lily sat on the leather sofa in Luca’s private study, wrapped in an oversized cashmere blanket. A cup of hot chamomile tea sat untouched on the mahogany coffee table before her. Luca had stripped off his tuxedo jacket, rolled his white dress sleeves up to his elbows, and was kneeling on the Persian rug in front of her, carefully cleaning her scarred hand with an antiseptic wipe.

His touch was impossibly gentle for a man whose hands were built for violence.

"Kozlov made a mistake," Luca said, his voice quiet, vibrating with restrained fury. "He assumed because Aurelia was captured, my attention would be divided. He didn't expect you to see through the handwriting on the order slip."

"I spent three years working in bakeries where every order slip determined whether we made rent or went under," Lily said softly, watching his fingers wrap a fresh, clean strip of sterile linen around her palm. "You learn to notice details when mistakes mean starvation."

Luca stopped. He held her hand between both of his, lifting his gaze to meet hers. "You shouldn't have had to live like that, Lily. And you shouldn't have had to pull a trigger tonight."

"I did what had to be done," she replied, her eyes searching his face. "Just like I did when I stopped Aurelia from cutting that cake. I knew who you were, Luca. Everyone in this city knows the name Moretti. But when I saw that knife, and I knew what she had put inside the layers... I couldn't let evil win just because it was wearing an expensive dress."

"And tonight?" Luca asked, his voice barely above a murmur. "Why did you save me tonight?"

Lily looked down at their joined hands—the hardened mafia boss and the maid with the burned skin. "Because you saw me. In a world full of people who treat women like me as furniture, you looked at my scar and saw strength. I don't let people destroy what I protect."

Luca leaned forward, closing the distance between them until his breath warmed her lips. "Then protect me, Lily. Stay beside me. Not just as the director of the foundation. Not just as my partner in business."