Chapter 5 - The Groom Who Lied for the Wrong Reason
I hated Adrian more after the call.
That surprised me.
Part of me should have been relieved.
The humiliation had been staged to protect me.
The affair with Vanessa was fake.
The pregnancy was fake.
Maybe even the destruction of my business had been part of some desperate attempt to push me away.
But protection without consent can still be cruelty.
Adrian had decided I could not handle the truth.
So he dismantled my life instead.
Lucian understood that.
“He made choices for you,” he said.
“Yes.”
“To keep you alive.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re still angry.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
I looked at him.
“You enjoy this.”
“No. I understand it.”
We sat in the study until dawn.
For the first time, Lucian told me the full story of Matteo.
His younger brother had been softer.
That was the word Lucian used.
Not weak.
Softer.
He loved people too quickly.
Trusted too easily.
After their father died, Lucian took control of the Moretti organization and tried to separate legal businesses from criminal operations.
Matteo supported him.
Then he discovered Charles Vale had been using city pension money, charity accounts, and mob-connected construction contracts to wash millions.
Matteo wanted to expose everything.
Lucian told him to wait.
“I thought I was protecting him.”
“What did he say?”
“That waiting protects powerful people.”
I looked down.
“He sounds like my father.”
“Yes.”
Three weeks later, Matteo was dead.
Lucian had carried guilt ever since.
“You didn’t kill him.”
“I delayed him.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“It feels similar at three in the morning.”
I understood that too well.
By noon, Adrian sent another message.
Not to me.
To Lucian.
One address.
One time.
Come alone.
Lucian laughed when he read it.
“He thinks I’m an idiot.”
“Are you going?”
“Yes.”
“So maybe he’s partially correct.”
He looked at me.
“You are staying.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“No.”
We compromised.
Which meant I went, but stayed in a surveillance van two blocks away with Marco.
Adrian chose an underground parking garage.
Lucian entered alone.
We listened through his microphone.
Adrian arrived five minutes late.
“You brought people.”
Lucian said, “You invited Lucian Moretti alone. That was unrealistic.”
Adrian exhaled.
“My father knows Elena has the original ledgers.”
“How?”
“He always knew her father kept something.”
“Then why not take them?”
“He couldn’t find them.”
“And now?”
“He knows she did.”
I looked at Marco.
“How?”
Marco shook his head.
Adrian continued.
“There’s someone inside your house.”
Lucian went silent.
My blood chilled.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“My father never gives me complete names.”
“Convenient.”
“He calls them Anchor.”
Marco looked at me.
A code name.
Lucian said, “What does Anchor know?”
“Movements. Visitors. Security rotation.”
That meant someone close.
Very close.
Adrian continued.
“My father is planning to take Elena tonight.”
Lucian’s voice changed.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why are we talking?”
“Because I know who handles the vehicles.”
A name.
Peter Solano.
Marco swore.
One of Moretti’s longest-serving drivers.
Lucian asked, “Proof?”
Adrian handed him a phone.
Photos.
Payments.
Messages.
Enough.
Then tires squealed.
Gunfire cracked through the garage.
Marco moved instantly.
“Ambush.”
The van doors opened.
Moretti men rushed out.
I stayed down.
Through the microphone, I heard Lucian shout.
Then Adrian yelled.
Then static.
My hands went cold.
“Marco!”
“Stay here!”
I ignored him.
I know.
Stupid.
But I heard Lucian groan through the mic.
I ran.
The parking garage smelled like oil and gunpowder.
A black SUV crashed against a concrete pillar.
Adrian crouched behind it.
Lucian was twenty feet away, one hand pressed to his upper arm.
Blood.
Not much.
Enough.
I ran toward him.
His face went furious.
“What are you doing?”
“Bleeding less than you.”
“Get down!”
A shot hit concrete.
Lucian pulled me behind a column with his good arm.
“Do you ever listen?”
“Not when people are injured.”
“That is becoming a serious problem.”
Adrian crawled toward us.
“I didn’t set this up.”
Lucian glared.
“I know.”
“How?”
“They were shooting at you too.”
Fair point.
Marco’s men secured the garage.
Two attackers escaped.
One was captured.
Peter Solano.
The Moretti driver.
Anchor.
Lucian stared at him for a long time.
Peter lowered his head.
“Boss.”
“How long?”
“Three years.”
Lucian’s expression didn’t move.
“Why?”
“My daughter.”
He swallowed.
“Vale paid for her surgery.”
Lucian’s jaw tightened.
“And you repaid him by selling my family.”
Peter looked ashamed.
“I gave routes. Nothing else.”
“You gave him Matteo’s route?”
Silence.
That was answer enough.
Lucian went completely still.
I touched his hand.
Not to calm him.
To remind him he had choices.
He looked at me.
Then stepped away from Peter.
“Turn him over to federal authorities.”
Marco stared.
“Boss?”
“Now.”
Peter began crying.
Lucian walked away.
In the car, I bandaged his arm.
“You wanted to kill him.”
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Lucian looked out the window.
“Because Matteo wanted us to become something else.”
That was the first moment I believed Lucian might actually escape the world everyone had built around him.
Adrian sat across from us.
He looked terrible.
Wedding-perfect polish gone.
“You owe Elena an apology,” Lucian said.
Adrian looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
I laughed.
He flinched.
“That’s it?”
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth.”
His face tightened.
“I loved you.”
My heart did not move.
That surprised me.
“I did,” he continued. “But my father said if I married you, he’d kill you.”
“So you destroyed me.”
“I thought if you hated me, you’d leave.”
“You took my clients.”
“My father did.”
“You controlled my apartment.”
“He did.”
“You let me think Vanessa was pregnant.”
“That was Vanessa’s idea.”
I stared at him.
“Coward.”
He closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
That answer made me angrier.
Because it was true.
Lucian said nothing.
Adrian looked at me again.
“You deserve better.”
I almost smiled.
“Finally, something we agree on.”
Then Marco’s phone rang.
He listened.
His face changed.
“What?”
“Our people searched Peter’s communications.”
“And?”
“There’s a kidnapping order.”
Lucian straightened.
“For Elena?”
Marco shook his head.
“For Adrian.”
We all looked at him.
Adrian went pale.
“Why?”
Marco turned the phone around.
Message from Charles Vale.
MY SON HAS BECOME A LIABILITY.
REMOVE HIM BEFORE HE TALKS.
Adrian stared at the screen.
For the first time, he looked younger than I had ever seen him.
Not a groom.
May you like
Not an executive.
Just a son discovering his father had finally priced his life.
