Chapter 4 - The Interrogation Room and the Confession of a Monster
Downstairs in the master drawing room, the atmosphere of festive celebration had been replaced by a heavy, suffocating dread. Don Silvio Ricci paced nervously near the grand piano, cigar in hand, while Valentina sat on a velvet settee, nervously smoothing her designer dress, though a defiant smirk still lingered on her lips.
"Luca, this is entirely ridiculous," Don Silvio protested as the heavy double doors swung open with a resounding crash. "We are your guests—your future family! To lock us in here like common criminals because of some missing kitchen maid is an insult to—"
He stopped talking.
Luca Ferretti walked into the room alone, but he carried an aura of such absolute, terrifying destruction that even Don Silvio took an involuntary step back. Luca’s shirt was damp and torn, his knuckles stained with dried blood from digging in the snow, and his winter-ocean eyes burned with a cold, nuclear fury.
"Where is she?" Valentina sneered, trying to mask her panic behind a wall of aristocratic disdain. "Did the little rat freeze to death outside? Good. Thieves don't belong in—"
*CRACK.*
The sound of Luca’s palm striking Valentina’s cheek echoed off the vaulted ceilings like a gunshot. The force of the blow knocked her sideways off the settee, sending her crashing onto the Persian rug, her diamond earrings scattering across the floor.
Don Silvio roared, pulling a silver-plated revolver from his waistband. "You insolent bastard! You strike my daughter?"
Before Silvio could level the barrel, Dante and four elite Ferretti enforcers burst through the doors, their submachine guns instantly raised, locking thirty rounds directly onto Don Silvio and his bodyguards.
"Drop the piece, Silvio," Luca said quietly, his voice dangerously soft. "Unless you want your brains painted across your daughter’s designer rug."
Silvio’s hand trembled. He looked at Dante’s unwavering guns, then at Luca’s dead-eyed stare, and slowly let the revolver slide from his fingers, clattering onto the floor. "Have you lost your mind, Luca? Over a maid? A collateral debtor?"
"She is not a maid," Luca said, stepping forward until he stood over Valentina, who was clutching her red cheek and sobbing in genuine terror. "She is my world. And your precious daughter just tried to murder her."
"I didn't try to murder her!" Valentina shrieked from the floor, her makeup smeared with tears. "She was a thief! She stole my grandmother's ring! I only told the guards to put her outside to teach her respect!"
"Your grandmother's ring," Luca repeated, his voice dripping with venom. He reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a small, velvet-lined box, tossing it carelessly onto the coffee table. Inside sat the three-carat diamond heirloom ring. "Dante found this ten minutes ago. Where? Right where you dropped it, Valentina—pushed deep down between the cushions of the guest wing sofa where you hid it before staging your little performance."
Valentina’s face drained of every drop of blood. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. "I... I forgot... I didn't mean..."
"You threw a dying, feverish girl into a minus-thirty-degree blizzard in a cotton dress," Luca whispered, leaning down until his face was inches from hers. "You told her that if she came back, you'd have her father hacked into pieces. You played god with a life in my house."
He straightened up, adjusting his cuffs with cold, mechanical precision.
"Dante. Take Don Silvio and his guards down to the sub-level armory. Tie them to the chairs."
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"Luca, wait!" Silvio shouted as Dante’s men grabbed his arms. "You can't do this! The families have an alliance! The syndicate council will—"
"The syndicate council can burn in hell," Luca interrupted without looking back. "And as for Valentina..." He turned his cold gaze toward the sobbing woman on the floor. "Pack your bags, Miss Ricci. You’re leaving this estate tonight. Walk down the mountain in the blizzard, just like you made Ella do. If you survive the night, consider yourself lucky. If you don't... well, the snow is very deep this time of year."
