Chapter 8 - THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY
Vanessa Bellini sat at the head of the long dining table, fuming.
The forty guests had been sitting in uncomfortable silence for hours. The lamb had gone cold. The champagne had gone flat. Security guards stood at every exit, refusing to let anyone leave.
When the double mahogany doors finally swung open, the entire room collectively held its breath.
Luca walked in. He had removed his overcoat, but his white shirt was still unbuttoned, his sleeves rolled up, revealing the dark tattoos climbing his forearms. He did not look like a businessman hosting a gala. He looked like the monster the underworld feared.
“Luca, finally!” Vanessa stood up, her red dress swishing. “This is completely unacceptable. You cannot hold my guests hostage over some maid's domestic dispute!”
Luca walked slowly to his seat at the head of the table. He didn't sit down.
He looked at the forty guests. Politicians, judges, mafia bosses, and socialites.
“I apologize for the delay,” Luca said, his voice echoing in the cavernous room. “But there has been a slight change to the evening's entertainment.”
He signaled to the door.
Marco walked in. He was dragging a terrified, bruised Helen by the back of her shirt. He threw her to the floor at Vanessa’s feet.
Vanessa’s face lost every drop of color. She stumbled backward, her heel catching on the rug.
“What is the meaning of this?” Vanessa’s father, a prominent senator, demanded, standing up. “Who is this woman?”
“Senator,” Luca said smoothly. “Allow me to introduce Helen. Your daughter’s personal nurse, nanny, and accomplice to kidnapping.”
Gasps erupted around the table.
Vanessa’s hands began to shake violently. “Luca, darling, I have no idea what you’re talking about. This woman is crazy.”
“Is she?” Luca reached into his pocket and pulled out the empty white ceramic urn. He slammed it onto the mahogany table. It sounded like a gunshot.
“Three years ago, my maid, Rachel, gave birth to a healthy baby girl at St. Catherine’s,” Luca said, his voice rising in power. “You needed a child, Vanessa. You knew you could never give me an heir. So, you paid this woman, disguised as a nurse, to tell Rachel her baby was dead. You gave a grieving mother a ceramic pot full of rocks, and you stole her daughter.”
“Lies!” Vanessa shrieked, tears ruining her perfect makeup. “She’s a liar! You’re taking the word of a peasant over your future wife?”
“I'm not taking anyone's word,” Luca said quietly.
He looked toward the door.
I walked into the dining room. I was still wearing my maid's uniform, stained with blood and dirt. But I wasn't carrying a serving tray.
I was holding Mia.
The little girl buried her face in my shoulder, intimidated by the crowd.
The resemblance was undeniable. The dark curly hair. The exact shape of the eyes. Every woman in the room covered her mouth.
Vanessa stared at the child, her mouth opening and closing like a suffocating fish.
“You locked her in a summer house for three years,” I said, my voice shaking with pure, unadulterated hatred. “You let me weep over a piece of pottery while you played house with my child. You let my husband bleed on the street tonight.”
“She was mine!” Vanessa suddenly screamed, the facade shattering completely. She slammed her hands on the table, glaring at me. “You are nothing! You are a maid who scrubs my floors! That child was going to be the heir to the Moretti empire! I gave her a better life than you ever could in your pathetic little apartment!”
The silence that followed her confession was deafening.
Her father sat down slowly, burying his face in his hands, realizing his political career and his life were completely over.
Luca walked around the table. He stopped right in front of Vanessa.
“The wedding is cancelled,” Luca said softly.
He turned to his security team.
“Call the police. Give them Helen’s confession. Give them the financial records of the Bellini payoffs.”
Vanessa panicked. “Luca, please! You can't send me to prison! My father—”
“Your father is going to prison with you,” Luca interrupted. He leaned in, his dark eyes locking onto hers. “And Vanessa? When you are sitting in a concrete cell, I want you to remember that the maid you abused is the only reason you are still breathing. Because if Rachel hadn't asked me to show mercy, I would have drowned you in the lake myself.”
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Vanessa collapsed to her knees, sobbing hysterically as the police sirens began wailing in the distance.
I held Mia tighter, turning my back on the woman who had ruined my life, and walked out of the room.
