Chapter 4 - The Unmasking of Victoria
The silence inside the grand foyer was thick enough to suffocate a man.
Victoria’s champagne glass slipped from her fingers, crashing onto the marble floor, shattering into a hundred glittering shards, spilling amber liquid across the white stone.
"What... what did you just say?" Victoria whispered, her voice cracking, her face turning as pale as an ash sheet.
"I said I was picking up my son, Victoria," Dante repeated, taking three slow, deliberate steps toward the staircase. "Leo. Three years old. Dark hair. Gray eyes. My biological heir."
Victoria took a sharp step backward, clutching the mahogany banister. "She's lying... Elena is lying! She's trying to ruin us! That bastard child isn't yours! She slept with someone in Europe—"
BANG.
Dante’s fist struck the solid oak banister two inches from Victoria's hand, the wood cracking under the immense force of his strike.
Victoria shrieked, backing into the corner of the stairs, trembling violently as Dante leaned over her, his face inches from hers, his eyes flashing with a dark, primal rage that made her hyperventilate.
"Speak about my son like that again," Dante whispered, every word dropping like a razor-sharp blade, "and I will personally deliver you to the Falcone family in a wooden crate."
"Dante... please..." Victoria sobbed, dropping her polished act, her hands shaking as she pressed herself against the wall. "I did it for the family! The council would have split the territory! We needed the Carter accounts to keep the Eastern docks!"
"You didn't do it for the family, Victoria," a clear, strong voice echoed from the front entrance.
The double doors opened wide.
I walked into the grand foyer, wearing my dark winter coat, my posture straight, my head held high, flanked by Marco and Ciro.
Victoria looked past Dante, her eyes widening in pure, unadulterated venom as she saw me standing under the chandelier of the home she had claimed as hers for three years.
"Elena..." Victoria hissed, her voice dripping with toxic hatred. "You ungrateful little bitch! I saved our family! I took the debt so you could run off to Switzerland and live your soft, comfortable life!"
"You didn't save anyone, Victoria," I said, walking to the center of the foyer, stopping beside Dante. "You stole my mother's inheritance. You forged father's signature to transfer thirty million dollars into private accounts in Grand Cayman. And three weeks ago, you offered the Falcone syndicate fifty percent of our family's shipping lines if they helped you eliminate my son's existence."
Victoria went completely white. Her eyes darted frantically toward the side hallway, looking for an escape route.
"Looking for your security team, Victoria?" Dante asked smoothly, pulling a satellite phone from his pocket. "They were disarmed five minutes ago. And your accounts in Grand Cayman? Frozen by federal court order twenty minutes ago."
At that moment, two heavy black sedans pulled up the driveway, their red and blue lights flashing against the estate windows.
Four federal officers from the Financial Crimes Division, accompanied by two senior Moretti council elders, stepped through the open front doors.
Senior Council Elder Matteo—a silver-haired man who had served Dante's father for forty years—walked into the foyer, holding a thick legal folder.
"Victoria Carter-Moretti," Elder Matteo announced, his deep voice carrying absolute authority. "Under Section 4 of the Moretti Family Charter, you are hereby stripped of all marital titles, removed from the family trust, and remanded into federal custody for Grand Larceny, Corporate Fraud, and Treason against the Syndicate."
Victoria looked at Dante, then looked at me, weeping hysterically as two federal agents stepped up the stairs, snapping heavy steel handcuffs onto her wrists.
"Dante! Please! You loved me once!" Victoria shrieked, her voice echoing frantically through the house as she was led down the marble stairs. "Elena! Tell them! I'm your sister!"
I looked at my sister—the woman who had stolen my happiness, lied to my face, and tried to destroy my child.
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"You ceased to be my sister the day you targeted my son, Victoria," I said cleanly.
I turned my back on her as the agents led her out into the dark night, closing the heavy oak doors behind them forever.
