Chapter 9 - THE AFTERMATH OF THE STORM
The flashing red and blue lights faded as the police cruisers drove down the long driveway.
Inside the dining room, forty guests stood in stunned, breathless silence. Nobody knew what to say. Nobody knew how to leave.
Luca stood in the center of the room, looking at the empty space where his fiancé and his business partner had just been arrested for the murder of his wife.
He looked broken. A man who had just had his entire reality shattered and rebuilt in the span of thirty minutes.
Teresa walked slowly to the head of the table. She picked up a silver spoon and tapped it against a crystal water glass.
Clink. Clink.
“Thank you all for coming,” the seventy-eight-year-old matriarch said, her voice carrying the unmistakable authority of the Moretti family. “The engagement party is over. Please, see yourselves out.”
Nobody argued.
Within five minutes, the mansion was completely empty of outsiders.
Only the family remained. Luca, Teresa, Sofia, little Mia, Elena the nurse, and me.
Marcus, the disgraced security guard, still stood by the kitchen doors, his head hanging low in shame.
Luca turned to him.
“Leave, Marcus.”
Marcus looked up, tears in his eyes. “Luca, I am so sorry. I swear on my life—”
“Leave,” Luca repeated, his voice dangerously quiet. “Before I kill you myself.”
Marcus nodded once, swallowed hard, and walked out the back door into the night.
Sofia collapsed into a chair, burying her face in her hands. The guilt of her confession—the truth about the car accident that started this entire tragic chain of events—was clearly crushing her.
Luca walked over to his sister.
For a long moment, he just stood there. Then, he slowly reached out and placed a hand on the back of her head.
“You were nineteen, Sofia,” Luca whispered. “You made a terrible, cowardly mistake. But you did not kill Catherine. Vanessa did. Do not carry her sin.”
Sofia looked up, her eyes red and swollen. “I let her take the blame, Luca. I let Catherine carry my guilt for ten years.”
“And she did it because she loved you,” Teresa said, walking over to her children. “Catherine chose to protect you. She was the strongest woman I ever knew. We will honor her by never letting another lie into this house.”
Mia let go of my apron and ran to her father.
Luca dropped to his knees and pulled his daughter into a desperate, crushing hug. He buried his face in her small shoulder, finally allowing himself to cry.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” Luca sobbed. “I’m so sorry I brought that woman into our home. I’m so sorry I didn't listen to you.”
Mia patted her father’s back.
“It’s okay, Daddy,” the little girl said softly. “Hannah kept me safe.”
Luca looked up, his tear-streaked face turning toward me.
I suddenly felt very out of place. I was just a maid. A twenty-five-year-old girl struggling to pay for her mother’s medical care. I shouldn't be witnessing this private family grief.
I took off my white apron and folded it over a chair.
“I should go,” I murmured, keeping my eyes on the floor. “I’ll pack my things upstairs.”
“Hannah.”
I stopped.
Luca stood up, holding Mia in his arms. He walked over to me.
“Vanessa fired you,” Luca said gently. “But she is no longer the lady of this house.”
I looked up.
“You stood between a murderer and my daughter,” Luca said, his voice thick with emotion. “You slapped a psychopath to protect a child that isn't even yours. You believed my mother when everyone else thought she was crazy.”
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He reached out and gently touched my shoulder.
“You are not packing your bags. You are staying. If you want to.”
