Page 86 of Beautiful Vows

“Is that why you tried to kill me?” Dante hisses.

The room erupts into chaos. Dominic and Antonio draw their weapons, ordering Eduardo to back down. His bodyguards surge forward but are quickly restrained by Dominic and Antonio’s men.

“Everyone out!” Dominic yells.

The room empties as the bodyguards leave, and the atmosphere becomes charged with an intense, crackling tension.

“It wasn’t me,” Eduardo says, swaying his gun in Dante’s direction. “I offered you my position. Why would I try to kill you?”

“You’re cornered Eduardo, be brave, be a leader and admit it,” Dominic hisses.

He laughs.

“But the death of Aurora Moretti is still on your hands.” Antonio’s voice cuts through the music still playing through the speakers. “You can’t deny that. You gloated too much over the years.”

“It was a Syndicate decision. Not mine alone.” Eduardo’s face twists with rage, and he swings his gun towards Antonio.

“The fuck it was. You and Rossi planned it.” A shot rings out, deafening in the enclosed space.

“You shot me.” Eduardo stumbles, his gun clatters on the table as he holds his shoulder and glares at Antonio. “You bastard. You actually shot me. I’m going to...”

“What are you going to do?” This time, Antonio levels his gun at Eduardo’s heart, his voice cold.

“You won’t get away with killing me. My family will hunt you.” He looks all around the empty room, still hoping for some help, but the man has helped no one in his life. He probably should have realized his demise was going to happen the moment they took him away from the prying crowd.

“Let them hunt me. I’ll kill anyone who tries to set foot in Australia. But first, it’s time I paid you back for the hurt you caused me. For planning to kill my daughter. And for the death of the woman I loved.”

“Your daughter? Francesca?” Eduardo says. His voice coated in confusion.

Antonio holds the gun to his heart and says, “No. Aurelia Moretti. My daughter with Aurora Moretti.” A few gasps come from the door.

Dominic twists around. He doesn’t need to say anything. The door slams as the eavesdroppers flee.

Antonio continues, “And this is something I have wanted to do since I had to hide her.”

I rush behind Eduardo, lift my skirt, and remove the knife strapped to my thigh. “I think I have the biggest right to kill him,” I say, my voice steady despite the churning inside me. “After all, she was my mother. And it was he who hired an assassin to kill me.”

Eduardo’s eyes widen in shock as I crouch beside him, pressing the knife against his throat and watch as a trickle of blood dribbles from the non-life threatening cut. “You were prepared to kill me for marrying Dante de Luca. But I’m so much more than that, Mr. Gallo. My name is Aurelia Moretti.”

“You!” The revelation jolts his body like a physical blow. Another dribble of blood skitters down his throat.

I smile. “And I set out to kill every head of the Syndicate, but a change of guard may be all that's needed once you’re dead.”

“I’ll go to Italy. I’ll leave you in peace,” he begs.

I smile at his sudden fear. “I prefer an eye for an eye,” I whisper.

“You don’t have to do this.” Antonio tries to intervene, but I stand firm.

“I do.”

Suddenly, the doors slam, and a familiar voice fills the room. “You don’t, but I do.”

My father, Fredrico Rossi, strides in, his gun trained on Eduardo.

The shock of his appearance momentarily stuns me, before I ask, “What are you doing here?”

“Move back.” He kisses my temple gently. “Something I should have done decades ago, my brave girl.”

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