Chapter 38 - The Price of a Crown
Vanessa stepped behind the desk, setting a leather-bound folio before Antonio. Her eyes flicked toward me, brimming with sick anticipation.
"You think this began twenty years ago, Luca?" Antonio mused, opening the folder. "You think Vanessa's family betrayed you on a whim? No, my boy. Every move on this board was choreographed before you ever took your first lover."
Antonio slid a yellowed, faded document across the polished mahogany. On it was a faded black-and-white hospital record, stamped with the seal of the city's oldest private asylum.
"What is that?" Luca demanded, not taking his eyes off his father.
"Look at it, Sophie," Antonio commanded, his gaze shifting directly to me. A predator looking at an insect. "Tell him what it is."
My heart hammered against my ribs. Reluctantly, I stepped forward and looked down at the paper.
At the top of the page was a patient intake form dated twenty-two years ago.
*Patient Name: Elena Ward.*
*Diagnosis: Induced Psychological Trauma / Unlawful Detention.*
*Child Delivered: Female Infant.*
*Custody Transferred To: Antonio Moretti.*
The breath evaporated from my lungs. The room seemed to tilt violently beneath my boots.
*Elena Ward.* That was my mother’s name. The mother who had supposedly died in childbirth in a public clinic, leaving me to be raised in state orphanages until I was assigned as domestic staff to the Moretti outer estates.
"No..." I whispered, backing away, my hands trembling. "No, that's impossible."
"Nothing is impossible when you own the judges, the doctors, and the police," Antonio purred. "Your father was Julian Ward, Luca's godfather. The only man in the Commission who held the override keys to the global Moretti trust accounts. When Julian refused to hand them over to me twenty-two years ago, I had him liquidated. But the vault required biometrics. Bloodline verification."
Antonio looked at me, his eyes gleaming with triumphant cruelty.
"I didn't put you in Luca's estate as a maid by accident, Sophie. I had you placed there. You were the failsafe. The blood key to unlock the five billion dollars Julian hid before I gutted him."
I looked at Luca. He was staring at me, his amber eyes wide, horrified, reeling as the foundations of reality crumbled beneath us.
"She was never a coincidence, Luca," Vanessa mocked, walking over and resting her hand on Antonio’s shoulder. "Her entire life was engineered to bring her into your path. Antonio needed her close. And you... you foolish, pathetic boy... you fell in love with the key."
"Shut up," Luca choked out. "Shut up!"
"And now," Antonio said, rising from his chair like a looming specter of death, "the countdown is almost over. In ten minutes, the international banking window opens. Sophie will place her palm on this scanner..."
He slapped a biometric slate onto the desk.
May you like
"...and transfer Julian’s hidden billions into my private accounts. And then, Luca... I will let you choose which woman dies first. Your mother... or your little pet."
***
