Chapter 7 - Shadows of the Past
The world stopped turning.
The quiet in the ballroom became so absolute I could hear the rapid, frantic pounding of my own heart against my ribs.
I turned my head slowly to look at Michael.
His face was a mask of stone. But I saw it—a subtle, microscopic tightening in his jaw, the flash of something dark and painful buried deep within his grey eyes.
"What did you say?" I whispered, my voice barely audible above the hum of the air conditioning.
Don Carmine chuckled, leaning his weight onto his silver cane as he stopped ten feet away from the stage. "Oh, dear girl... did he not tell you? Lorenzo Vance didn't die of cancer in a public hospital. He was poisoned over six months with low-dose thallium."
Carmine pointed a liver-spotted finger directly at Michael.
"Lorenzo was embezzling from my accounts, yes," Carmine continued, his voice dripping with venomous delight. "When I discovered it, I hired Michael to handle the problem. Michael was the one who supplied the toxin to your stepmother, Regina. He paid her ten thousand dollars a month to slip it into your father's evening tea."
My hand slipped out from Michael's elbow. I took a step back, my head spinning, the room tilting violently on its axis.
"Michael?" I whispered, my eyes burning as I searched his face. "Tell me he's lying. Please... tell me he's lying!"
Zach looked up at us, his little face filled with confusion and fear. "Dad? What is the bad man saying?"
Michael didn't look at Carmine. He looked at me, his grey eyes filled with a raw, agonizing truth that shattered my world into a thousand jagged pieces.
"Aurora... listen to me," Michael said softly, reaching his hand out toward me.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" I screamed, backing away until my heel struck the wooden edge of the stage.
Tears blinded my vision. The man who had saved me from the alley. The man who had given me a home. The man whose kiss had stolen my breath just hours ago... was the architect of my father's slow, agonizing death.
"It was a lie," I sobbed, looking between Michael and the smiling face of Don Carmine. "This whole thing... bringing me here... protecting me... it was all guilt! You felt guilty for killing my father!"
"Aurora, no!" Michael growled, taking a fast step toward me.
"Stay back!" I yelled, snatching a heavy glass candle holder from a nearby table, holding it out as a weapon just like I had held the frying pan a week ago.
Don Carmine smirked, raising his hand to signal his men. "You see, Miss Vance? You are sleeping in the bed of the monster who murdered your family. Come with me, child. I will give you the justice you deserve."
Carmine's men moved forward, but before they could reach the stage, Lev and eight Moretti shooters pulled their weapons, aiming them directly at Carmine's skull.
"Nobody moves!" Lev roared.
The ballroom broke into chaos. Guests screamed, ducking behind tables as dozens of weapons were drawn across the room in a massive, Mexican standoff.
Michael ignored the guns pointed at him. He didn't draw his weapon. He kept his eyes fixed entirely on me, taking another slow, careful step forward.
"I didn't kill your father, Aurora," Michael said, his voice deadly steady despite the chaos around us. "Carmine ordered the hit six months ago. I took the contract... so I could swap the thallium for a neutral salt compound to fake his decline and buy Lorenzo time to escape the country."
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I froze, my hand trembling as I held the candle holder. "What?"
"Lorenzo isn't dead, Aurora," Michael revealed softly, his voice cutting through the panic of the room like a beacon. "He's alive. Hiding in a safehouse in Maine. And tonight... Carmine walked straight into my trap to prove it."
