Chapter 4 - The Truth on the Snow
The snow fell silently around the perimeter as twenty Moretti soldiers disarmed the remaining Sinclair operatives, forcing them to their knees on the frozen driveway.
Luca walked slowly down the stone steps of the terrace, his dark coat dusted with white powder, his handgun held loosely at his side. Marco walked half a step behind him, holding a thick leather folder containing the encrypted financial records.
Arthur Sinclair stood trembling in the freezing cold. “Luca... listen to me! This was a mistake! My security team received a report that an armed group was holding you hostage at your estate—"
“Save your breath, Arthur,” Luca said quietly, stopping five feet from the older man. “Your daughter’s offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands were unsealed an hour ago.”
Vanessa’s head snapped up, her face draining of every drop of color.
“You paid my uncle Dominic four million dollars in 2020,” Luca said, his gray eyes locking onto Vanessa with lethal intensity. “You fabricated the photos. You intercepted Elena’s calls. You threatened the life of an unborn child.”
“Luca, please!” Vanessa shrieked, taking a step forward, her voice high and panicked. “I did it for us! Elena Rossi was a nobody! A waitress! She would have ruined your reputation in the syndicate! She would have destroyed everything your father built!”
“My father loved my mother because she was pure,” Luca said, his voice dropping into a deadly whisper. “He hated the syndicate. He spent his entire life trying to protect us from people like you.”
Vanessa’s eyes welled with furious tears. “You were going to marry me tonight!”
“I was going to enter a business transaction with your family tonight,” Luca corrected coldly. “I never loved you, Vanessa. I never touched you. Because every time I looked at you... I was thinking of her.”
He turned his head slightly toward Marco.
“Seize every asset owned by the Sinclair Corporation in New York,” Luca commanded. “Hand all evidence of their fraud, money laundering, and illegal wiretaps directly to the U.S. Attorney’s office at seven o'clock this morning. By noon, the Sinclair name will no longer exist in this city.”
Arthur Sinclair collapsed onto his knees in the snow, weeping silently as his life’s work crumbled into dust.
Vanessa stared at Luca with pure, toxic hatred. “You think you can just bring her back? You think she’ll ever trust you after what your family did to her? She’ll leave you again, Luca! She belongs to a different world!”
Luca looked down at Vanessa with icy disdain.
May you like
“Then I will leave my world for hers,” Luca said.
He turned his back on them, walking back toward the warmth of the estate as the federal authorities and Moretti security forces swept in to haul the Sinclairs away into the dark, cold night.
