Chapter 9 - Down on His Knees
By late afternoon, the iron security gates of the Moretti estate slid open automatically as Julian’s silver sports car sped up the winding driveway and came to a screeching halt in the courtyard. Julian flung the car door open, his hair disheveled, his expensive suit wrinkled, and his face soaked in sweat. He slammed the car door shut and stormed toward the massive double doors of the mansion, hammering his fists against the wood with frantic desperation. “Open the door! Clara! Moretti! I know you’re in there! You can’t hide behind your hired thugs!” Julian screamed, his voice cracking with hysteria. The heavy oak doors swung open smoothly, revealing not a group of armed thugs, but Luka Moretti standing calmly in the grand foyer, holding a cup of espresso. Behind him, standing on the sweeping staircase with a cashmere wrap over her shoulders and our baby sleeping peacefully in a bassinet beside her, was me. I looked down at my ex-husband, feeling no anger, no sadness—only a cold, profound detachment. Julian stopped dead in his tracks at the foot of the stairs, his eyes darting between Luka and me. The sheer humiliation of seeing me standing in a multi-million-dollar estate while he was wearing a ruined suit and facing federal ruin broke whatever fragile ego he had left. “Clara... Clara, baby, please,” Julian stammered, his voice dropping into a pathetic, trembling whine as he took a stumbling step forward. “There’s been a massive misunderstanding. The pressure at the firm... Chloe was just a distraction, I swear to God! I love you! You’re my wife, that’s my daughter! Please, tell this maniac to call off his lawyers, we can fix this, we can go home—” “Your home?” Luka interrupted, his voice cutting through the foyer like a razor blade. Luka stepped forward, placing himself between Julian and the stairs, towering over the broken lawyer with an aura of absolute dominance. “You don’t own a home anymore, Julian. Moretti Holdings foreclosed on your penthouse thirty minutes ago. Your firm is facing federal indictment for corporate fraud and extortion. And as for your wife and daughter...” Luka paused, leaning in close so that Julian could hear every single word. “They never belonged to a coward like you.” Julian fell to his knees on the marble floor, his hands gripping the hem of Luka’s trousers in a desperate, pathetic display of total defeat. Tears streamed down Julian’s face as he looked up at me, his voice choked with sobs. “Clara... please. Please don’t let him do this. I’ll give you everything. Just... please don’t open the last envelope.”
