Chapter 3 - THE SINS WE INHERIT
Luca’s hand tightened around the silver beads. The metal bit into his palm.
“You were there?” he whispered.
“Drive, Luca! Please!” Mia screamed, pointing behind him.
The kitchen doors burst open. Two of Victor’s men ran into the alley, raising their weapons.
Luca threw himself into the driver’s seat. The SUV’s engine roared to life just as bullets hammered into the bulletproof glass. The heavy vehicle surged forward, smashing through the alley gates and tearing into the slick city streets.
The neon lights of the city blurred past them. Luca’s heart hammered against his ribs. For fifteen years, he had been told his father died of a sudden heart attack in his office. Now, in one night, his bride was an assassin, his dead father’s enforcer was alive, and a random waitress held the only family heirloom that mattered.
He drove them toward the industrial district, pulling the shattered SUV into an abandoned shipping warehouse he owned. He killed the engine. The only sound was the heavy rain drumming against the steel roof.
Luca turned in his seat. He locked the doors.
“Talk,” he commanded. “Now.”
Mia was shivering. She pulled her thin sweater tightly around her shoulders.
“I was sixteen,” she began, her voice shaking. “My mother was the cleaning lady for your father’s office building. I used to help her on weekends. That night, I was emptying the trash in his private study. I heard shouting. I hid in the coat closet.”
Luca stopped breathing. “You saw Victor?”
“I saw Victor. And I saw another man with him.” She looked down at her hands. “Your father didn’t fight back. He just handed Victor a black ledger. Then, Victor shot him in the chest.”
“And the rosary?”
“Before Victor came in, your father knew they were coming,” Mia said softly. “He opened the closet. He gave me the rosary and told me to stay quiet, no matter what I saw. He said it was the only way to keep me alive.”
Luca stared at the dashboard. Everything he had built, everything he had fought for, was built on a lie. Isabella’s betrayal stung, but this—this tore at his soul.
“Why come forward now?” Luca asked. “Fifteen years, Mia. Why tonight?”
Mia reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Her hand was shaking so badly she could barely unlock it. She handed it to him.
On the screen was a photograph of a little boy. He was about six years old, with big brown eyes and a missing front tooth. He was holding a stuffed bear. But he wasn’t smiling. The background was a dark, damp basement room.
“His name is Leo,” Mia choked out, tears finally spilling over her cheeks. “He’s my son. Isabella took him three days ago.”
Luca’s blood turned to ice. “Isabella kidnapped your child?”
“She found out I was asking questions about Victor’s men in the hotel. She figured out who I was. She told me to spike your champagne tonight. If you drank it, I would get Leo back. If I didn’t…” A sob tore from her throat. “She’s going to kill my baby.”
Luca looked at the picture of the terrified little boy. The ice in his veins turned into burning rage.
“You risked your son’s life to warn me?”
Mia looked him dead in the eye. “I risked my son’s life because Isabella is a liar. I knew if you drank that poison, she would kill Leo and me anyway to tie up loose ends. You are the only man in this city strong enough to tear Victor and Isabella apart.”
Luca handed the phone back. He unbuttoned his suit jacket and pulled it off, draping it over Mia’s shivering shoulders. The scent of his cedar cologne wrapped around her.
“Isabella wanted to be a widow,” Luca said, pulling a fresh magazine from the glovebox and slamming it into his pistol. “Let’s show her what a dead man can do.”
Mia grabbed his wrist. “Luca, wait. Look at the timestamp on that photo.”
Luca frowned, leaning closer to the screen.
May you like
The photo of Leo had been taken that morning. But in the background, sitting on a dusty wooden crate, was Isabella’s customized diamond bridal bouquet.
“She didn’t take him to a random basement,” Mia whispered. “She’s holding him somewhere inside your own hotel.”
