Chapter 6 - THE MOTHER WHO WANTED TO KILL HER OWN
The wind howled through the pines, but the sound was nothing compared to the roaring silence that followed Victoria’s words.
Isabella ordered the hit on her own daughter.
Dominic stumbled backward, staring at the gold bracelet half-buried in the snow. I recognized it. It was a custom piece Dominic wore in old photographs.
“You’re lying,” Dominic whispered, but there was no conviction in his voice. He looked like a man drowning.
“Look at the inscription, Dominic,” Victoria gasped, clutching her bleeding abdomen. “Look at it!”
Dominic knelt down with trembling hands and picked up the heavy gold chain. He turned it over. Engraved on the inside were the words: To my partner in blood. — I.
“She was working with the Lucchese family,” Victoria coughed, shivering violently. “She wanted out of her marriage to you, but with a pre-nup, she’d get nothing. If Sophie died... the trust fund reverted to Isabella. She paid Marco to arrange the hit. I found out. That’s why I locked her up. I was trying to protect you.”
I looked down at Sophie. The little girl was staring blankly at the snow, her small hands gripping the pockets of her blue coat.
“This makes no sense,” I said fiercely, stepping forward. “If Victoria was protecting you, why did she lie about Isabella being dead? Why fake a car crash? Why pretend to love you and try to marry you?”
Victoria glared at me, her glamorous facade completely shattered. “Because I wanted his empire, you stupid maid. I wanted the money. But Isabella wanted him destroyed.”
Suddenly, the crunching of boots on snow echoed from the darkness behind us.
Dominic whipped around, raising his gun, but stopped dead.
Standing ten yards away, illuminated by the pale moonlight, was a woman. She looked gaunt, her dark hair chopped short, her clothes ragged. But her eyes were unmistakable.
It was Isabella.
She wasn't running away. She held a hunting rifle, aimed squarely at Dominic’s chest.
“Hello, husband,” Isabella said, her voice rough and cracked from disuse.
Sophie gasped and took a step forward. “Mommy?”
Isabella’s eyes flicked to the little girl, but there was no maternal warmth in them. No tears. Just a cold, calculating stare. “Hello, Sophie.”
Dominic stepped directly in front of his daughter, shielding her with his body. “Is it true, Isabella? Did you try to have our daughter killed?”
Isabella didn't lower the rifle. “I was twenty-two when you bought me from my father to clear his debts, Dominic. You trapped me in a golden cage. I wanted freedom. The trust fund was my only ticket out.”
I felt physically sick. The woman who had lovingly sewn three blue stars into her daughter's coat was standing here admitting to ordering a hit on her.
“What about the stars?” I blurted out, unable to stop myself. “You sewed the stars in her coat. To guide her safely home.”
Isabella let out a harsh, bitter laugh. “I didn't sew those stars. Marco did. He’s a soft-hearted fool. He couldn't go through with the hit on the kid, so he staged the car crash instead to help me disappear. But Victoria intercepted us.”
My heart shattered for Sophie. She had clung to those stitches for three years, believing they were a symbol of her mother’s love. I looked down at the little girl. She was perfectly still, staring at the woman she had mourned every single night.
“Put the gun down, Isabella,” Dominic said, his voice cracking. “I won’t let you hurt her again.”
Isabella’s finger tightened on the trigger. “I don't want the kid anymore, Dominic. I just want the offshore account codes. Give them to me, and I walk away forever.”
Before Dominic could speak, a massive explosion shook the ground beneath our feet.
Fire erupted from the cabin behind us, lighting the snow-covered woods in a brilliant, terrifying orange glow. The force of the blast knocked us all to the ground.
Through the ringing in my ears, I heard Isabella scream. She wasn't screaming because of the blast.
She was screaming because someone had just stepped out of the burning cabin, holding a detonator.
It was a man I recognized from the photographs on the mansion walls.
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It was Dominic’s father. The man who had supposedly died of a heart attack five years ago.
TITLE: "THE GHOST OF THE MORETTI EMPIRE"
