THE MAFIA BOSS’S FIANCÉE TRIED TO ERASE HIS PAST, BUT THE JANITOR HELD THE KEY TO HIS EMPIRE

The betrayal hit the room like a physical shockwave.

Luca stood rigid, his eyes locked on his head of security. The man he had trusted to guard his life, his home, and his family’s legacy was holding a gun to my father’s head.

“How much did he pay you, Marco?” Luca asked. His voice wasn’t angry. It was terrifyingly empty.

Marco, the security chief, swallowed hard, avoiding Luca’s gaze. “Three million, Boss. And a guarantee that when Bellini takes over the harbor, I run the docks. It’s just business.”

“Business,” Luca repeated softly.

Vanessa stepped forward, placing the silver tray with the legal documents and the black ink pad onto a glass coffee table. She looked at me, a cruel, satisfied smile on her lips.

“I told you that you were fired, Emma,” Vanessa said. “You should have just taken your little paycheck and disappeared.”

“You’re a monster,” I spat, clutching my father’s hand. He was trembling violently, his eyes darting frantically between the gun behind him and the documents on the table.

Marcus Bellini sighed, setting his scotch down. “Let’s skip the melodrama. The gala downstairs requires my presence for a toast in ten minutes. Luca, you are going to stand exactly where you are. Emma, you are going to take your father’s thumb, press it into that ink pad, and stamp the bottom line of this trust transfer document.”

“I’ll die before I help you steal that money,” I said, glaring at him.

Bellini pulled a small, silver remote from his pocket. He clicked a button.

A large flat-screen TV on the wall flickered to life.

It showed live security footage of a dark basement room. Mr. Callahan was sitting in a chair, holding his cane, unaware of the camera. Standing right behind the old man, holding a silenced pistol, was another one of Bellini’s men.

My breath caught in my throat.

“You see, Emma,” Bellini said smoothly, “I don’t need to threaten you with your father’s life. He’s already dying from the poison we gave him. But Walter Callahan? He has a few good years left. You refuse to ink that paper, and the old man in the basement gets a bullet in the back of his head on live television.”

Luca’s jaw clenched so hard I thought his teeth would shatter.

“You’re a coward, Marcus,” Luca said. “Using old men and women to do your dirty work.”

“I’m a pragmatist,” Bellini corrected. “Now. Ink the paper, Emma.”

I looked at my father. He shook his head frantically, letting out a strained groan. He was telling me no. He was willing to let Mr. Callahan die to keep Bellini from winning.

But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let the sweet old man who had protected Luca’s family be murdered because of us.

I slowly stood up. My legs felt like lead. I walked over to the glass table.

Vanessa watched me with a victorious smirk. “Good girl.”

I picked up the black ink pad. I looked at the legal document. It transferred full executive control of the thirty-million-dollar trust to the Bellini Holding Corporation.

I walked back to my father’s wheelchair. Tears were streaming down his face.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” I whispered.

I took his paralyzed left hand. It was cold. I gently pressed his thumb into the dark ink.

Bellini checked his gold watch. “Hurry up.”

I moved my father’s hand toward the document on the tray.

But as I leaned over the glass table, I made eye contact with Luca.

Luca wasn’t looking at the document. He was looking at the reflection in the floor-to-ceiling windows behind Bellini.

He gave me a microscopic nod.

I didn’t press my father’s thumb onto the paper.

Instead, I violently shoved the heavy glass coffee table forward.

The edge of the table slammed hard into Bellini’s shins. The billionaire cried out, stumbling backward and dropping the remote control.

At that exact second, Luca spun on his heel, not toward Bellini, but toward Marco, the traitorous security chief.

Luca grabbed the barrel of Marco’s gun, forcing it upward just as it fired. The bullet shattered the massive chandelier above us, raining crystal shards down onto the room.

Luca didn’t stop. He drove his elbow backward, shattering Marco’s nose. The security chief dropped the gun, collapsing in a heap of blood and tailored suit fabric.

Vanessa screamed, diving behind the leather sofa.

Bellini scrambled to his feet, pulling a small silver pistol from his jacket. He aimed wildly at Luca.

But before he could pull the trigger, the penthouse doors burst open with explosive force.

A dozen men in dark tactical gear flooded the room, their weapons raised.

“FBI! Drop the weapon! Drop it now!”

Bellini froze, his eyes darting frantically around the room. He slowly lowered his gun, his face turning an ashen grey.

A tall man in a trench coat stepped through the tactical agents. He held up a gold badge.

“Marcus Bellini, you’re under arrest for extortion, kidnapping, and the attempted murder of Arthur Reed.”

Vanessa peeked over the sofa, her face pale with horror. “Daddy?”

I stared in shock. I looked at Luca, who was calmly brushing off his tuxedo jacket.

“How?” I gasped. “How did they get here?”

Luca smiled softly. “I told you, Emma. I made a phone call in the basement. I didn’t just call the board of directors. I called the FBI director. I sent them a digital copy of the microfilm from my scanner an hour ago.”

“But the video of Mr. Callahan!” I cried, pointing at the TV screen.

Luca walked over to the television. He picked up the remote Bellini had dropped and hit a button. The image on the screen didn’t change.

“It’s a still photograph, Emma,” Luca said. “A loop. I had my loyal men move Walter to a secure safehouse the minute we left my office. I knew Marco was dirty. I fed him fake information so Bellini would think he had the upper hand, drawing Bellini here to this room, with the forged documents, in front of the feds.”

The FBI agents moved in, slapping handcuffs on a stunned Marcus Bellini.

“This is a mistake!” Bellini shouted, his arrogant facade completely crumbling. “I own half the judges in this city! You can’t touch me!”

“You owned them with money you stole from a trust fund, Marcus,” Luca said quietly, stepping right up to the older man. “And now, thanks to Arthur’s records, that money is frozen. You have nothing.”

Vanessa stood up, tears ruining her makeup. She reached out toward Luca. “Luca, please! I didn’t know he was going to kill anyone! You have to help me!”

Luca looked at his former fiancée with absolute pity.

“The woman I choose to marry,” Luca said, his voice echoing in the quiet room, “must respect people who have nothing she wants. You failed my father’s test, Vanessa. Goodbye.”

The agents led Bellini and a sobbing Vanessa out of the penthouse.

The room suddenly fell quiet.

I dropped to my knees beside my father. He was staring at the doorway where Bellini had just disappeared, a look of profound, overwhelming relief washing over his paralyzed features.

He looked at me, then up at Luca.

With immense effort, my father raised his good right hand, reaching out to the man who had just saved his life.