Chapter 2 - the shadow over the table
The heavy silence in the grand ballroom was suffocating. Luca stood up slowly to his full height, his broad frame casting a tall, menacing shadow over the marble floor. His dark eyes burned with an icy, lethal intensity as the recorded voice of his uncle echoed in his mind.
Dr. Clare Benton stepped forward, gently placing a hand on Sophia's shoulder as the little girl sat back in her pink wheelchair, her small hand refusing to let go of Hannah's fingers.
"Luca," Clare said softly, her intelligent blue eyes steady and calm. "Sophia hasn't taken a step in three years. Her paralysis was never entirely neurological... it was rooted in trauma."
Luca looked down at Hannah, who was still kneeling on the floor, surrounded by broken glass. "Get up, Hannah."
Hannah swallowed hard, standing up on her black heels, smoothing her server skirt with trembling hands. "Mr. Moretti... I never wanted any money. I just... I promised Sophia in the hospital that night that I would find her again."
"You saved my daughter's life," Luca said, his deep, gravelly voice carrying an absolute, unshakeable weight. "And someone in my family paid you off and threatened you."
He turned to his chief of security, Marcus, who was standing behind him in a dark suit. "Bring the car to the private entrance. Ms. Carter is coming with us to Lake Shore Drive."
Hannah gasped softly, taking a step back. "Mr. Moretti, I have a shift... I have a job—"
"Your shift is over, Hannah," Luca growled gently, reaching out to touch his daughter's curly hair. "And as long as you live in Chicago, you will never work as a waitress again."
Ten minutes later, a convoy of three black armored SUVs pulled out of the Drake Hotel driveway, cutting through the rainy Chicago night toward the massive Moretti estate overlooking Lake Michigan.
Inside the rear seat of the lead vehicle, seven-year-old Sophia sat between Luca and Hannah, her head resting peacefully against Hannah's arm, fast asleep for the first time in months without her nightly sedative.
Luca sat across from them, his dark dress shirt unbuttoned at the collar, revealing his dark chest tattoos under the passing streetlights. He stared at Hannah with an intense, unyielding gaze.
"My uncle Dominic told me three years ago that the person who pulled Sophia from the river was an anonymous male bystander who vanished before security arrived," Luca revealed softly.
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Hannah looked into his dark eyes, her soft brown hair slightly disheveled. "He came to my apartment two days after the crash, Mr. Moretti. He gave me a five-thousand-dollar envelope and told me if I ever spoke to the press or tried to see Sophia again... my family would disappear."
Luca’s jaw set like iron, a muscle twitching in his cheek. "Dominic didn't just hide you from me, Hannah. He kept my daughter isolated for three years."
