Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Finally Told Luca the Truth
Her name was Isabella Conti.
Luca hadn't seen her in fourteen years.
She didn't come to reclaim him.
She came to apologize.
"I never rejected you because of your size," she told him.
Luca stood across the library from her.
I remained beside him.
"I know about the money."
"It wasn't only money."
She looked at Vittorio.
"He told us Luca would eventually become dangerous."
Vittorio said nothing.
"He showed us documents. Medical reports. Stories about his father. He convinced every woman that marrying Luca meant losing her freedom."
Luca's jaw tightened.
"Why?"
"Because he needed you unmarried."
Vittorio finally spoke.
"Your father was sentimental."
Luca looked at him.
"My father understood loyalty."
"Your father gave forty million dollars away."
"To people we owed."
Vittorio smiled.
"And that's why he died with principles instead of power."
Luca's hand tightened around mine.
But he remained calm.
No shouting.
No threats.
He didn't need them.
"What are the paternity records?" I asked.
Isabella handed Luca the folder.
He opened it.
Then frowned.
They weren't Luca's.
They were Vittorio's.
A DNA test proved Vittorio was not Luca's father's biological brother.
He had no legitimate claim to the family trust.
Everything he'd built his plan around was worthless.
Vittorio's face changed.
"You think a piece of paper changes anything?"
Bell answered.
"It changes everything."
The trustees had already been informed.
The records had been verified independently.
Vittorio's challenge collapsed before it began.
But there was still one question.
"Why Sophia?" Luca asked.
Bell smiled faintly.
"Your father met her once."
I stared.
"What?"
"You were six."
My father remembered.
A charity event.
Luca had been seventeen.
I had been six.
I'd dropped an entire plate of cupcakes.
Apparently teenage Luca had helped me pick them up.
I didn't remember.
Luca didn't either.
But his father had.
Years later, when preparing contingency plans for the trust, he'd chosen the Bennett family because he trusted my grandfather and father.
Not because he expected Luca to marry me specifically.
The contract had merely created the possibility.
Bell activated it when Vittorio returned.
He had gambled that I would agree.
More importantly, he gambled that Luca would let me decide for myself.
He had been right.
By midnight, the trustees voted.
Vittorio lost every claim.
The hidden fund was protected.
My father's debt was restructured independently of my marriage.
For the first time, I was free.
Completely free.
That should have been the happiest moment of my life.
Instead, Luca disappeared.
I found him outside on the terrace overlooking Lake Como.
"You left."
"You should too."
My heart sank.
"What?"
"The debt is gone."
"I know."
"You don't need this marriage anymore."
I stared at him.
After everything, he still believed the same thing.
That once a woman had the freedom to leave him, she would.
"Luca."
"I won't hold you here."
"I know."
"I'll sign whatever you want."
"I know."
He looked at me.
"Then why are you still standing there?"
I walked toward him.
"Because you're an idiot."
He blinked.
Possibly nobody had called Luca Moretti an idiot in twenty years.
I continued.
"I crossed an ocean. Married you. uncovered a seventeen-year family conspiracy, discovered a forty-million-dollar trust, met your supposedly dead uncle, and baked you a wedding cake."
"Sophia—"
"And you still think I'm waiting for a taxi?"
His expression softened.
"The arrangement is over."
"Good."
"The debt can't keep you here."
"Good."
"You can choose."
I stepped closer.
"Exactly."
Then I took his hand.
"And I'm choosing."
His eyes dropped to our joined hands.
Then returned to mine.
"Me?"
I smiled.
"You."
He kissed me.
Not like a Mafia boss.
Not like a man claiming something he'd won.
Like a man who had spent years expecting every open door to close.
And had finally realized one wasn't going to.
But our story wasn't finished.
Because the following morning, when I entered the kitchen, there was an envelope waiting beside the wedding cake.
Inside was a handwritten letter from Luca's father.
And across the front were three words:
May you like
FOR LUCA'S BRIDE.
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