Chapter 4 - Unraveling Lies
Sofía’s small hands found her father’s hair, stroking the dark strands just like her mother used to do. "It's okay, Dad. I'm standing. Look at me, Dad. I'm standing."
Luca looked up, his face wet with tears, his eyes burning with an incandescent fury that swung directly toward Vanessa.
Vanessa took two steps backward, her heel catching on the edge of the velvet table runner. "You can't do this to me, Luca! My family’s firm represents thirty percent of Moretti Logistics’ international contracts! If you humiliate me tonight, my father will pull every bill of lading from your terminals in Rotterdam and Singapore!"
"Let him," a sharp voice cut in from the entrance.
The heavy double doors swung open, and an elderly man with a silver cane and an immaculate charcoal three-piece suit walked in. It was Marcus Moretti—Luca’s father, the founder of the global shipping conglomerate, and the patriarch who had stepped back from daily operations three years ago.
"Marcus," Vanessa gasped, her chest seizing.
"I may be retired, Vanessa, but I still hold fifty-one percent of the board voting shares," the old man said, his cane tapping rhythmically against the hardwood floor. "And twenty minutes ago, after Emily discreetly forwarded that very same audio file to my personal line, I instructed our corporate counsel to terminate every single vendor agreement associated with Sterling Maritime."
Marcus stopped beside his granddaughter’s wheelchair. He reached down, his weathered, liver-spotted hand gently patting Sofía’s shoulder.
"You're standing, little bird," Marcus said softly, his voice trembling with pride.
"I can hold it for almost two minutes now, Grandpa," Sofía beamed through her tears.
"Then you will never, ever sit down for a coward again," Marcus answered. He turned his glacial glare toward Vanessa. "Security is waiting in the lobby, Miss Sterling. Your personal belongings have already been removed from the penthouse and placed in three garbage bags on the curb outside. If you are still on this property in three minutes, I will have you arrested for criminal extortion and child endangerment."
Vanessa sneered, dropping all pretense of gentility. "Child endangerment? You have no proof of anything other than a conversation! You think you’ve won, you miserable old fossil? Check your daughter’s blood work from last Tuesday! You think she lost the ability to move her legs purely by accident after that car crash?"
The words hung in the banquet hall like toxic gas.
Luca stood up, his tall frame towering over Vanessa. His hands curled into fists at his sides. "What did you say?"
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Vanessa smiled—a grotesque, deranged smirk that showed too many teeth. "Figure it out yourself, Luca. If I can't have the Moretti fortune, you’ll spend every penny of it watching her rot."
With that, she spun on her heels, gathered the train of her emerald gown in both hands, and bolted through the side exit toward the valet station.
