Chapter 8 - Vittorio’s Last Promise
Nora placed the envelope on Luca’s desk.
“Where did you get this?”
“My father’s old attorney.”
“Why now?”
“He was instructed to deliver it only after Dominic was formally charged.”
Luca stared at Vittorio’s handwriting.
TO LUCA AND NORA—WHEN YOU FINALLY CHOOSE EACH OTHER.
“That old man was unbelievably confident,” Luca muttered.
Nora sat opposite him.
“Open it.”
Inside was not another corporate secret.
It was a deed.
Vittorio had purchased the Bellamy Community Center twelve years earlier after the nonprofit nearly lost its building.
He never told Nora.
Instead, he held the property through an anonymous charitable trust.
A second document transferred ownership permanently to a new foundation jointly controlled by Nora and Luca.
There was also a letter.
Nora read aloud.
Vittorio admitted that Samuel Bellamy had changed him.
Years earlier, Samuel forced him to confront the human cost of decisions he considered merely financial.
Vittorio had spent the remainder of his life trying, imperfectly, to correct those failures.
Then came the final paragraph.
Nora stopped reading.
“What?”
Luca asked.
She handed it to him.
He read.
Luca, power will teach you that people stay because they fear losing something. Nora will teach you that the people worth keeping stay only when they are free to leave.
His throat tightened.
Nora watched him.
“He knew you.”
“Unfortunately.”
“He believed in you.”
Luca folded the letter.
“I’m not sure I deserved it.”
“That’s not how belief works.”
He looked at her.
There were a thousand things he wanted to say.
Instead:
“Can I take you to dinner?”
“You already have dinner tomorrow.”
“I’m confirming.”
Nora smiled.
“Yes.”
Their second beginning was slow.
Painfully slow, from Luca’s perspective.
He courted his own wife.
He took Nora to a neighborhood Italian restaurant instead of a private club.
She made him wait forty minutes for a table because she refused to let him use his name.
He attended a Bellamy Foundation fundraiser and spent three hours serving food.
He met Nora’s friends.
They hated him.
Especially Mia Carter, Nora’s college roommate.
“You humiliated my best friend in front of two hundred people.”
“I did.”
“I don’t like you.”
“Understandable.”
“If you hurt her again—”
“Mia,” Nora interrupted.
“No, I have a speech.”
Luca listened to the entire speech.
Nora laughed so hard she cried.
In return, Nora entered Luca’s world voluntarily.
She attended board meetings.
She challenged executives.
She reorganized the employee pension protections.
Within two months, employees who had initially viewed her as Luca’s ceremonial wife began requesting her presence at negotiations.
The press noticed.
Headlines changed.
UNWANTED BRIDE BECOMES MORETTI’S SECRET WEAPON.
Nora hated that one.
“I’m nobody’s weapon.”
Luca kissed her temple.
“I’m terrified of you.”
“Better.”
They began sharing the estate again.
Separate rooms initially.
Then increasingly pointless separate rooms.
One evening Nora found Luca standing in the ballroom where they had held a small family dinner.
He was staring at nothing.
“What?”
“I keep thinking about our wedding.”
“Dangerous hobby.”
“I wish I could erase it.”
Nora joined him.
“I don’t.”
He looked surprised.
“It happened.”
“I hurt you.”
“Yes.”
“I hate that.”
“So do I.”
“Then why wouldn’t you erase it?”
“Because if we erase every terrible thing we do, we never have to become better than the people who did them.”
Luca took her hand.
“I love you.”
This time Nora did not look frightened.
She squeezed his fingers.
“I know.”
“That is not the traditional response.”
“I’m building suspense.”
“Nora.”
She smiled.
“I love you too.”
Luca kissed her.
There was no audience.
Exactly how both preferred it.
Six months after the wedding, Dominic Moretti pleaded guilty.
Evidence recovered during the investigation established that he had ordered Samuel Bellamy intimidated but not killed.
Samuel’s death had indeed been caused by an undiagnosed cardiac condition.
The truth did not give Nora her father back.
But it ended five years of wondering.
Celeste left Chicago after testifying.
Before leaving, she requested a meeting with Nora.
They met in a hotel café.
Celeste looked different without the performance of perfection.
“I was cruel to you.”
“Yes.”
“I thought if Luca saw you as beneath him, he would eventually come back to me.”
Nora stirred her coffee.
“And?”
“He looked at you differently from the first night.”
Nora frowned.
“He humiliated me.”
“I know.”
“But after you answered him?”
Celeste smiled sadly.
“He never looked at me again.”
Nora said nothing.
Celeste stood.
“I’m sorry.”
Nora did not offer easy absolution.
But she accepted the apology.
That evening she returned home.
Home.
She realized she had started calling the Moretti estate that without thinking.
Luca was waiting in Vittorio’s study.
“What did Celeste want?”
“To apologize.”
“And?”
“I didn’t kill her.”
“Successful afternoon.”
Nora laughed.
Then she noticed Luca was nervous.
Luca Moretti was never nervous.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“Luca.”
He reached into his pocket.
Nora immediately held up a hand.
“No.”
He froze.
“If that is an engagement ring, I swear—”
“We’re already married.”
“Exactly.”
“It isn’t.”
He removed a small velvet box.
Inside was a wedding ring.
Simple.
Elegant.
Nothing like the enormous diamond he had placed on her finger during their first ceremony.
“I bought the first ring because people expected a Moretti bride to wear something impressive,” he said.
Nora looked at him.
“This one?”
“I bought because I know you.”
Inside the band were five engraved words.
NOT PAPERWORK. NOT OBLIGATION. CHOICE.
Nora’s eyes filled.
Luca took her hand.
“I don’t want another wedding.”
“Good.”
“I want another promise.”
He removed his own wedding band.
“I married you because I thought I had no alternative.”
Nora swallowed.
“I know.”
“I was wrong.”
He slid the new ring onto her finger.
“I had alternatives. I just didn’t understand that the best thing Vittorio ever gave me wasn’t his company.”
Nora cried then.
Luca wiped away her tears.
“You’re ruining my reputation,” she whispered.
“You survived marrying me. Your reputation is indestructible.”
May you like
She laughed through the tears.
Then she kissed him.
