Chapter 6 - The War Room
Forty-five minutes later, I found myself standing on the 60th floor of Moretti Global Tower in downtown Chicago.
The floor-to-ceiling glass windows offered a sweeping view of Lake Michigan, but the atmosphere inside the executive board room was suffocating. Luca sat at the head of a massive mahogany table, flanked by four senior public relations strategists, three corporate defense attorneys, and his chief of security, Mark Ramos.
When the heavy frosted-glass doors opened and I walked in, Luca stood up instantly, dismissing his entire team with a single sharp hand gesture.
"Out. All of you. Give us ten minutes."
The executives gathered their laptops and filed out silently, closing the doors behind them.
Luca walked around the long table, stopping three feet away from me. He looked rested compared to last night, wearing a tailored charcoal suit, but the intense, hyper-focused energy radiating from him was terrifying.
"Did Arthur explain the situation?" Luca asked directly.
"Evelyn is trying to destroy my life," I said, my voice shaking with raw fury. "She's bringing my kids into the mud!"
"She thinks she is," Luca corrected, his dark eyes flashing with a cold, lethal promise that reminded me why the business world feared him. "Harrison Shaw—Evelyn’s father—thinks he can use his newspaper chain to bully me into ignoring my children. He thinks I care more about Moretti Global’s stock price than my own blood."
"Do you?" I challenged, leaning forward. "Because five years ago, you cared more about your corporate image and legacy than our marriage!"
Luca stepped closer, his shadow falling over me, his voice dropping into a fierce, low murmur. "Five years ago, I was an arrogant fool who thought power was everything. But I spent the last three weeks staring at medical results, realizing that the only true mistake of my life was letting you walk out that door. I will not lose my children, Nia. And I will not let Evelyn or her father touch a hair on their heads."
"So what do we do?" I asked, hating how natural it felt to stand beside him in a crisis again.
"We go on the offensive," Luca said smoothly, pulling a tablet from the table and handing it to me. "I am calling a press conference for three o'clock today. I am publicly declaring Leo and Maya as my legitimate children and sole heirs to Moretti Global."
I stared at him in utter disbelief. "Luca! That will put a giant target on their backs!"
"No," Luca countered, his jaw tightening with absolute authority. "Hiding them made them vulnerable. Bringing them into the light under the full protection of my empire makes them untouchable. But I need you to stand beside me on that stage, Nia."
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"And if I refuse?"
Luca looked at me, his gaze softening into something painful and tender. "If you refuse, I will step down as CEO today, abandon the company, and spend every dollar I have protecting you from the sidelines. But I would rather fight beside you."
