Chapter 9 - The Return to the Estate and the Trap is Set
The golden light of dawn was just beginning to pierce through the thick morning fog over Lake Michigan when the Lamborghini pulled back through the iron security gates of the Moretti estate.
Bruno had been safely transferred to the estate's private veterinary clinic an hour prior, where Dr. Patterson and her medical staff were administering intravenous fluids, warm blankets, and his vital arthritis medication.
Luca walked through the front entrance of the mansion at 6:30 a.m., his expression an unreadable mask of absolute, chilling composure.
The twenty-six high-society guests had long since departed, leaving the cavernous dining hall smelling faintly of stale champagne and expensive perfume.
Vanessa Bellini sat alone at the massive mahogany dining table, wearing a silk morning robe and sipping a cup of artisanal coffee while scrolling through her tablet.
She looked up as Luca entered the room, her practiced, dazzling smile instantly plastering across her face.
"Good morning, darling," she greeted him smoothly, her voice carrying a slightly defensive, probing edge.
"You disappeared rather abruptly last night right in the middle of dessert. Everyone was asking where the groom had vanished to."
Luca did not answer immediately.
He pulled out the chair directly opposite her at the head of the table, sat down with deliberate slowness, and rested his hands flat on the polished wood.
"There was an urgent family matter that required my personal attention, Vanessa," Luca replied evenly, his voice devoid of any emotional inflection.
Vanessa’s smile wavered for a fraction of a second, her green eyes darting quickly across his expression to gauge his mood.
"Oh? A business crisis at the shipping ports?" she asked innocently, taking another sip of her coffee.
"Nothing to do with shipping," Luca said, leaning forward slightly.
"It concerned the kennels."
The coffee cup froze halfway to Vanessa’s lips.
A sudden, micro-expression of panic flashed across her meticulously maintained features before she quickly forced it back beneath a mask of playful annoyance.
"The kennels? Honestly, Luca, are we still talking about that stupid old dog? I thought we agreed he was better off in a quiet, professional boarding facility during our wedding week."
Luca stared at her without blinking, the silence stretching between them like a tightrope over an abyss.
"He wasn't sent to a boarding facility, Vanessa."
Vanessa’s chest rose and fell in a sharp, shallow breath, her fingers tightening around the porcelain handle of her cup.
"Then where on earth did the transport service take him? You're acting as if something dramatic happened."
Luca reached inside his suit jacket and pulled out a folded sheaf of official county intake documents, slamming them down onto the table with a sharp, echoing snap.
The papers slid across the polished mahogany until they rested directly beside her coffee cup.
Vanessa looked down at the documents, her face draining of all color in a matter of seconds.
"What... what is this?" she whispered, her voice losing its melodic composure.
"That," Luca said, his voice dropping into a lethal, quiet whisper that made the air in the room feel instantly heavy, "is the owner-surrender paperwork filed at the Gary municipal animal shelter yesterday afternoon."
"Complete with my forged signature, a fraudulent claim of canine aggression, and a scheduled euthanasia appointment for midnight."
Vanessa stood up so violently that her chair tipped backward and crashed loudly against the hardwood floor.
"This is absurd!" she shrieked, her voice pitching up into a shrill defense.
"Someone is trying to frame me! Some disgruntled staff member—probably that clumsy little maid, Emma—forged those papers and blamed them on me out of spite!"
Luca remained perfectly seated, watching her frantic panic with the cold detachment of a predator observing a trapped animal.
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"Emma was upstairs in the medical suite having her torn shoulder bandaged while you were busy arranging a death sentence for a fourteen-year-old dog behind my back," Luca stated coldly.
"And more importantly, Vanessa... the transport driver identified you by name, and your personal credit card was billed for the transaction."
