Chapter 7 - The Red Dress
The gunshot was deafening in the enclosed ballroom. Richard Vale stumbled backward, his hands clutching his chest, a look of profound shock on his face before he collapsed onto the marble floor. Chaos erupted. A hundred men pushed away from their tables, shouting, hands reaching for concealed weapons. But nobody fired. The confusion was absolute. "Nobody move!" Luca roared, raising his weapon, his commanding voice cutting through the panic. The captains froze, caught between their loyalty to the boss and the sudden violence at the head table. I stood frozen behind Luca, my ears ringing, staring at Richard’s motionless body. Vanessa had just murdered him in front of the entire Chicago syndicate. "Why did you do that?" Donato yelled at Vanessa, genuine shock on his face. He clearly hadn't expected her to pull a gun. "He was our financial backer!" "He was a liability!" Vanessa screamed back, her perfect composure entirely shattered. She kept her small silver gun raised, pointing it wildly between Luca and her own uncle. "He was going to confess! He left a paper trail a mile long with the Falcone deposits. I had to silence him!" "You're a fool, Vanessa," Luca said, his voice deadly calm. He stepped forward, shielding me with his body. "You think killing the middleman saves you? I have the list. I have the bank receipts. I know you and Donato have been selling our routes to the Falcones." Murmurs broke out among the captains. The men who had sworn loyalty to the Moretti family were looking at Donato with sudden, dangerous suspicion. Treason was the one unforgivable sin. Donato realized he was losing the room. "He's lying!" Donato shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Luca. "My nephew is weak! He’s trying to frame me to cover his own incompetence. He let a maid humiliate a respected guest in our home, and now he brings her here to insult our intelligence! Look at him! Protecting a servant over his own blood!" "She is blood!" I shouted. I didn't plan it. The words just tore out of my throat. I stepped out from behind Luca, ignoring his warning hand. I walked forward, my chin high, staring directly into the eyes of the man trying to destroy my protector. The ballroom went completely silent again. "My name is Emma Sullivan," I said, my voice echoing off the high ceilings. "My mother is Helen Bellini. Carmine Bellini’s younger sister. Which makes me the direct, legitimate heir to the Bellini seat at this table." A collective gasp swept through the older captains who remembered Carmine. They looked at my face, my pale blue eyes, recognizing the undeniable family resemblance. "It's a lie!" Vanessa shrieked, her face twisting in ugly desperation. "She’s a nobody! A maid! I am the only Bellini!" "Margaret told us everything, Vanessa," I said, looking at my cousin with pure disgust. "Your own mother came to warn us because she was disgusted by what you’ve become. You tried to sell my nineteen-year-old sister tonight to pay off a debt to the Falcones. You are a traitor to this city, and you are a disgrace to your name." The captains began to murmur angrily, glaring at Vanessa and Donato. The tide had completely turned. Donato saw his empire crumbling. He reached inside his suit jacket, pulling his own weapon. "Kill them!" Donato ordered his personal guards. But the guards didn't move. Luca’s loyalists had already drawn their weapons, aiming them directly at Donato and Vanessa. The head table was entirely surrounded. "It's over, Uncle," Luca said, aiming his gun squarely at Donato’s chest. "Drop the weapon. You will face the commission for treason. And you, Vanessa, will spend the rest of your life in a concrete cell." Donato looked around the room. He saw the cold, unforgiving eyes of the men he had tried to betray. He slowly lowered his gun, tossing it onto the table in defeat. But Vanessa wasn't finished. She let out a primal scream of rage. She didn't aim at Luca. She knew he was wearing a vest. She aimed the silver derringer directly at my face. "If I can't have the empire, neither can you!" Vanessa screamed, her finger tightening on the trigger. Time seemed to slow down. I couldn't move. I just stared at the dark barrel of the gun. Luca moved faster than humanly possible. He threw himself across the space between us, wrapping his arms around me and violently twisting our bodies away from the line of fire. The gun fired. The sound cracked like a whip. I felt the rush of air past my ear, and then a heavy thud as Luca and I crashed to the marble floor together. Before Vanessa could fire a second time, three of Luca’s captains tackled her, wrestling the gun from her hand and pinning her to the ground. She thrashed and screamed, a broken, defeated monster. I gasped for air, pushing myself up from the floor. "Luca?" I panicked, grabbing his shoulders. "Luca, are you hit?" He groaned, rolling onto his back. He winced, rubbing his shoulder, but there was no blood. The bullet had missed us both, shattering a champagne fountain behind us. "I'm fine," he breathed heavily, looking up at me. His dark eyes scanned my face frantically. "Are you hurt, Emma?" "No," I choked out, tears of relief flooding my eyes. "You saved me." He sat up, pulling me tightly against his chest in front of a hundred silent mobsters. He buried his face in my neck, breathing in my scent, holding me as if I were the most precious thing in the world. "Always," he whispered into my hair. The police sirens began to wail in the distance. The Grand Hotel staff had finally called the authorities after the first gunshot. Luca stood up, pulling me with him. He looked at the captains. "Donato and Vanessa are handed over to the police for the murder of Richard Vale," Luca ordered, his voice echoing with absolute authority. "The Falcone problem will be handled internally. This family is purged of its poison tonight." The men nodded respectfully, stepping aside to let us pass. As we walked toward the elevator, leaving the ruined banquet hall behind, I noticed something shining on the floor near where Vanessa had been standing. I stooped down and picked it up. It was a heavy gold keycard. "What is that?" Luca asked, looking down at my hand. "It's the keycard Vanessa dropped when she was tackled," I said, flipping it over. Written in black marker on the back was a single address. Pier 42. Storage Unit 7. Answer one, open two. Vanessa hadn't just been selling routes. She was hiding something massive at the docks. "Luca," I said, showing him the card. "We need to go to Pier 42."
