Chapter 5 - THE DEADLY CONNECTION
The tea cup slipped from my fingers, shattering against the hardwood floor.
Warm liquid splashed across my bare feet, but I didn't feel it. The only thing existing in my world was the leather-bound notebook in Dominic’s hand.
“What did you say?” I whispered, my voice trembling violently.
Dominic picked up the shattered porcelain pieces with calm precision, throwing them into a trash bin before turning back to me.
“Your husband, David Vance, wasn't killed by a drunk driver, Clara,” Dominic said gravely. “He was an accountant for a logistics firm that Juliet used to launder money from her foundation. David discovered the discrepancies three weeks before his death. He was going to the District Attorney.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks, hot and bitter. For three long years, I had blamed cruel fate. I had blamed the universe for taking my husband, leaving me alone with a newborn baby, bankrupting us with medical debts, and forcing me to scrub the floors of the very people who had ordered his execution.
It hadn't been fate.
It had been Juliet Duca.
“Where is the driver?” I choked out, my hands curling into tight fists.
“Dead,” Dominic replied plainly. “Juliet tied up that loose end two years ago. But the man who ordered the hit... the man who managed her off-the-books enforcement... is still alive.”
“Who?”
“Vincent Moretti,” Dominic revealed. “The head of the rival family she was trying to merge with tonight. He’s the one who provided the hitmen.”
The door to the inner room opened, and a doctor stepped out, wiping his hands on a towel.
“He’s awake,” the doctor announced. “The bullet missed the kidney by a millimeter. He’s weak, but he’s asking for Clara.”
I brushed past Dominic and walked into the recovery room.
Lorenzo lay in the center of the room, intravenous lines attached to his arms, a heart monitor humming softly beside his bed. His skin was still pale, but the deadly gray tone was gone, replaced by the natural color of a man who refused to die.
He looked up as I entered, his dark eyes softening instantly.
“Clara,” he murmured, his voice rough from the anesthesia. “Are you alright?”
I stood at the foot of his bed, holding the manila envelope against my chest. “You knew, didn't you?”
Lorenzo’s expression grew serious. He didn't try to deny it. He didn't try to make excuses.
“I found out three weeks ago,” Lorenzo confessed softly. “My intelligence team was auditing Juliet’s past accounts. When I saw David Vance’s name, I realized who you were. Why a former medical student with top marks was scrubbing my baseboards for eighteen dollars an hour.”
“Why didn't you tell me?” I demanded, tears streaming down my face. “You let me clean her rooms! You let me iron the clothes of the woman who murdered my husband!”
“Because I needed proof before I struck,” Lorenzo said, his voice laced with genuine remorse. “If I told you, you would have confronted her. And Juliet would have had you killed just like she killed David. I was building the case to tear her and Moretti down legally and internally. Tonight... tonight was supposed to be the trap.”
“And it backfired,” I said.
“It backfired because Marco betrayed me,” Lorenzo admitted. “But it doesn't change the outcome. Moretti thinks I’m dead or dying. Tomorrow morning, he’s meeting with Juliet’s remaining loyalists at the Grand Hotel in Manhattan to finalize the takeover.”
I stepped closer to his bed, leaning over the metal railing, my eyes burning with a fierce, terrifying resolve.
“You’re going to stop him,” I said.
“No,” Lorenzo replied, reaching out to gently cover my hand with his. “*We* are going to stop him.”
“How?”
Lorenzo’s lips curved into a cold, dangerous smile—the smile of a king about to reclaim his throne.
“You still have that live cloud stream on your phone, don't you?”
I looked down at my phone. The recording of Juliet confessing to the entire plot—including her partnership with Moretti—was saved safely on three secure servers.
“I do,” I said.
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“Then tomorrow,” Lorenzo declared, “we don't just take back my family’s empire. We give your husband the justice he deserves.”
***
