Chapter 3 - The Gathering of the Wolves
Now, standing in the grand foyer six weeks later, the reality of that contract reached its breaking point.
Vanessa Thorne was not just a senior vice president at Meridian Capital; she was the daughter of Arthur Thorne, Luca’s uncle’s primary financial backer. For three years, Vanessa had operated under the explicit assumption that she would eventually become the next Mrs. Castellano, securing the ultimate merger between Meridian Capital and the Castellano shipping empire.
Nora’s sudden, quiet arrival as Luca’s legally registered wife had sent shockwaves through the syndicate’s upper echelons.
“Luca... you can't be serious,” Vanessa stammered, her hands trembling as she smoothed down her pristine silk blouse. She looked around at the twelve executives, who were watching the scene with wide, terrified eyes. “She’s a nobody! She was hired off a temp agency board six weeks ago! She’s a nanny!”
Luca slowly stood up from the floor, bringing Nora with him. His hand remained firmly anchored on Nora’s waist, pulling her soft frame flush against his side in a clear, undeniable display of absolute ownership.
“Nora is the mistress of this house,” Luca said, his voice echoing off the high ceilings like a funeral knell. “She holds the legal, social, and private title of my wife. Which means that what you just did, Vanessa, was not a personal dispute.”
He stepped forward, leaving Nora with Leo for a single brief second.
Vanessa took two steps back until her shoulders struck the heavy mahogany frame of the entrance mirror. “Luca... we’ve known each other for ten years—”
“You assaulted a Castellano on Castellano ground,” Luca whispered, stopping less than three inches from her face. His dark eyes were utterly void of human mercy. “If you were a man, you would not leave this hallway on your feet.”
Arthur Thorne, Vanessa’s father—a gray-haired man in a ten-thousand-dollar pinstripe suit—hurried forward from the crowd, his face slick with cold sweat.
“Luca, please!” Arthur gasped, putting a defensive hand out. “Vanessa acted rashly! She was concerned about the security of the Merger files! The Castellano sapphires were in the hall safe, and when she saw Nora wearing them—”
“My mother gave those sapphires to Nora three weeks ago,” Luca interrupted coldly, without looking at Arthur. “Because my mother recognized a real woman when she saw one.”
Nora stepped forward, her hand still bleeding slightly into a linen handkerchief Luca had handed her. She looked down at the white plastic access card lying on the marble floor near Vanessa’s feet.
“She wasn't looking at the sapphires, Luca,” Nora said clearly, her tone sharp enough to cut glass.
The room went still again.
Luca turned his head toward his wife. “What do you mean?”
Nora walked past Vanessa, picked up her fallen leather handbag, and then pointed with her uninjured hand to the white access card.
“Miss Thorne was in your private study fifteen minutes ago,” Nora explained calmly, looking directly into Vanessa’s panic-stricken eyes. “She told the security guards she was looking for the guest powder room. But when I went upstairs to check on Leo, I saw her leaving your study with that encryption card in her coat pocket.”
Arthur Thorne gasped. “Nora, that is a absurd accusation!”
“Is it?” Nora pulled her small smartphone from her dress pocket and tapped the screen twice. “When Luca gave me management of the household security two weeks ago, I had the IT team install motion-activated sensors on the private vault door. My phone logged a breach at 4:12 p.m.”
She held the screen up. The high-definition camera feed clearly showed Vanessa Thorne leaning over Luca’s mahogany desk, using a bypass tool to extract the master encryption key for Meridian’s offshore tax ledgers.
“When I confronted her in the hallway,” Nora continued smoothly, “she tried to shove the card into her purse. When I reached for it, she grabbed my wrist and snapped the bracelet to make it look like I was the one stealing.”
Vanessa’s mouth opened and closed like a fish caught out of water. “You... you fat little bitch—”
CRACK.
The sound of Luca’s palm striking the heavy mahogany wall right next to Vanessa’s ear was like a dynamite explosion in the enclosed foyer. Plaster dust rained down on her designer shoulders.
Vanessa shrieked, collapsing onto her knees in total terror.
“Marco,” Luca called out quietly.
From the shadows of the side staircase, Marco Castellano—Luca’s dangerous, scarred lieutenant—stepped into the light, accompanied by three heavily armed security guards.
“Take Arthur and Vanessa to the lower holding office,” Luca ordered, his tone utterly flat. “Seize all their digital devices. Review the encryption logs. If a single byte of data was transferred to my uncle’s network, throw them both into the river.”
May you like
“Luca, no! You can't do this! We are board members!” Arthur screamed as two guards grabbed his arms, dragging him backward across the marble.
“This is my house,” Luca said quietly as the heavy front doors slammed shut behind the weeping Vanessa and her father. “And my wife runs it.”
