Chapter 7
The dinner guests, realizing they had witnessed a catastrophic internal implosion of the Moretti leadership, began murmuring among themselves, hastily grabbing their coats and making quiet, hurried exits toward the front doors. Within ten minutes, the grand dining room was entirely empty of outsiders, save for the silent waitstaff clearing away untouched plates of venison and crystal champagne flutes. Gabriel stood near the center of the room, the white carnation still resting in his massive palm. He looked down at Lily, who had wandered over to a nearby gold chair, curiously touching the velvet upholstery with a finger. "Rachel," Gabriel said, his voice dropping into a register of profound, solemn earnestness. "Pack your things. You and Lily are moving out of the staff quarters tonight." Rachel froze, her protective instincts instantly flaring back to life like a caged tigress. She took a protective step toward her daughter. "If you think I'm staying here as your mistress, Mr. Moretti, or as some charity case tucked away in a guest wing, you don't know me at all. Daniel raised me to be proud, and I will take my daughter and walk right out those iron gates right now before I let—" "You're not staying as a charity case," Gabriel interrupted, stepping closer with his hands raised in a placating gesture, palms open. "And you damn well aren't staying as staff. This is Daniel's house as much as it is mine. He poured the foundation of this estate with me when we were twenty-two years old, before the syndicates, before the blood, before the gold. You and Lily belong here by right of blood and brotherhood." Rachel stared at him, her chest heaving as she processed his words. "Rightful ownership doesn't mean much in your world, Gabriel. Men like you take whatever you want and rewrite the laws to fit your crimes." "Then let me rewrite the law for you," Gabriel urged softly, taking another step forward until he was close enough for her to catch the rich, familiar scent of cedar and expensive bourbon. "Stay. Let me give Lily the life her father would have fought to provide. Let me protect you the way I failed to protect Daniel." Lily suddenly tugged on the hem of Rachel’s black dress, holding up the white carnation. "Mommy, can we stay? The big man has a lot of cake in the kitchen, and I want some chocolate." Gabriel let out a sudden, deep, booming laugh—a sound so foreign to the austere halls of the Moretti estate that it startled even the hovering waitstaff. The dark, terrifying mafia boss vanished entirely, replaced by a man who looked at a little girl with a shattered, bleeding heart finally finding its missing piece. Rachel looked down at her daughter, then back at Gabriel. The fierce, defensive walls around her heart didn't crumble all at once, but for the first time in five years, she felt the icy grip of survival loosen its hold.
