177 The Mafia Boss Caught Me Bleeding in His Mansion—Then His Fiancee Forced Me to Spy, Not Knowing He Handed Me the Exact Weapon to Destroy Her

The room seemed to tilt slightly on its axis.

Mateo—the warm, steady presence in the Moretti kitchen—was the half-brother of the federal prosecutor trying to put Luca away for life. And Luca knew.

"If Luca knows," I said, my voice barely above a whisper, "why is Mateo still cooking in his kitchen? Why hasn't Luca gotten rid of him?"

Salvatore walked over to the mahogany desk, resting his palms on the polished wood. A thin, weary smile touched his lips. "Because in Luca’s world, a known enemy inside your house is much safer than an unknown enemy outside it. Luca feeds Mateo carefully curated information—half-truths, legal gray areas, minor infractions—that keep the federal government chasing ghosts while the real operations continue unbothered."

"And Vanessa?" I asked, the pieces finally snapping together in a horrifying picture. "Where does she fit into this?"

"Vanessa thinks she's saving our family name by partnering with Vance," Salvatore said, his voice dropping into a tone of genuine paternal grief. "She thinks that if she hands over Project Vanguard—which contains Mateo’s complete dossier and federal witness agreements—she can force Luca into a corner where he has to hand over twenty percent of Moretti Holdings to us just to keep the federal hounds at bay. She doesn't realize she's walking into a slaughterhouse."

I stared at the older man, realizing the staggering depth of the deception surrounding me. "You're letting her do it."

"I'm letting her learn a very hard lesson about power," Salvatore corrected coldly. "Unless someone intervenes and shows her the board before she makes her final move."

He opened the top drawer of his desk, pulled out a small, encrypted flash drive, and laid it on the blotter.

"What is that?" I asked.

"That is the unredacted version of Project Vanguard," Salvatore said. "The one containing the financial records that prove Luca didn't just run illegal cargo—he laundered money through Bellini Logistics with my explicit, documented approval four years ago. If Vanessa hands this to Marcus Vance, it doesn't just destroy Luca. It destroys us both."

He looked straight into my eyes, the weight of his years pressing down on him.

"Vanessa expects you to bring her the folder from the bottom drawer. It's a decoy file I placed there knowing she would send you to retrieve it. I want you to take this flash drive instead. Give it to Luca Moretti today."

"Why would I do that?" I asked, backing away slightly. "That makes me a double agent for a war I never asked to be in."

"Because, Olivia," Salvatore said softly, stepping around the desk, "Luca already knows you have the micro-recorder Vanessa gave you last night. He's waiting to see what you choose to do with it. If you give him this flash drive, you prove whose side you're really on. And if you don't..."