Chapter 5 - THE DYING DECLARATION
The cassette tape looked old and fragile.
A faded pink label with cursive handwriting reading *For Luca*.
“Where did you find this?” I whispered.
“In the false bottom of my late wife’s jewelry box,” Luca replied.
His voice cracked slightly.
“The hitman in the basement confessed that Vanessa paid him to cut the brake lines two years ago.”
Oliver stared at the tape.
“Mommy knew?”
“She suspected someone was trying to hurt her,” Luca said gently.
“She recorded this right before she picked you up from preschool that day.”
Luca pressed play on a small portable player he had brought upstairs.
Static hissed through the small speakers.
Then, a soft, sweet voice filled the bedroom.
*“Luca, if you're hearing this, I didn't make it home.”*
Oliver started crying silently, tears streaming down his cheeks.
*“Vanessa has been threatening me. She wants my place in your life. She wants your empire.”*
The tape clicked and whined.
*“If anything happens to me, look at the Bellini family accounts. They funded the garage where our car was serviced.”*
Luca clicked stop.
The room plunged into a heavy, suffocating quiet.
“She knew all along,” Luca muttered, his jaw clenched so tight muscles bulged.
“And I brought that monster into my home. Into my son's life.”
He looked at me, his eyes dark and vulnerable.
“You protected him tonight, Emily.”
“I just did what any decent person would do,” I said softly.
“No,” Luca stood up and walked closer to me.
“Most people would have walked away. You stayed.”
His hand brushed against mine.
An electric spark shot up my arm.
I pulled my hand back quickly, blushing.
“I care about Oliver, Mr. Moretti.”
“Call me Luca,” he said.
Before I could answer, a loud explosion rocked the estate.
Glass shattered downstairs.
Alarms wailed across the property.
Luca’s phone buzzed violently in his pocket.
He pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and cursed under his breath.
“They've breached the front gates,” Luca growled.
May you like
“Who?” I asked.
“The Bellini family. They've come to get their daughter—or silence her for good.”
