Rage exploded through me so fiercely I couldn’t breathe.
This man murdered my mother.
And Luca had protected me from him all along.
Suddenly, gunfire erupted outside.
The SUV swerved violently.
One of Bennett’s guards screamed.
Then another vehicle slammed into us from the side hard enough to flip the SUV completely.
Metal shrieked.
Glass exploded.
When the vehicle finally stopped moving, smoke filled the air.
The door ripped open.
Luca stood there covered in blood and rain.
His eyes found mine instantly.
Bennett grabbed a hidden gun and aimed directly at Luca’s chest.
Everything happened too fast.
I lunged forward instinctively.
The gun fired.
Pain exploded through my shoulder.
Luca caught me before I hit the ground.
For the first time since meeting him, his composure shattered completely.
“Stay with me,” he whispered desperately, pressing his hand against the wound.
“Claire, look at me.”
Sirens echoed in the distance.
Bennett tried to flee but Luca’s men dragged him back screaming.
And then the final truth emerged.
Not from Luca.
From Bennett himself.
“You stupid girl,” he spat at me.
“You still don’t understand? Luca can’t inherit the empire without you alive.”
I looked weakly toward Luca.
Bennett laughed bitterly.
“His father changed the will years ago. Everything goes to the woman he wronged… and her bloodline.”
Silence fell.
I stared at Luca in shock.
All this time, I thought he protected me because he loved me.
But Bennett’s words poisoned everything.
Was I only valuable because of money?
Luca saw the fear in my eyes instantly.
Then he did something nobody expected.
He pulled a lighter from his pocket.
Along with a thick envelope of legal documents.
Inheritance papers.
Bank records.
The entire empire.
Without hesitation, Luca set everything on fire.
Rain hissed against the flames while billions of dollars turned to ash between his fingers.
“I would burn every dollar on earth before choosing money over you,” he said quietly.
Tears blurred my vision.
And for the first time in my life, I finally understood the truth.
The most dangerous man in New York hadn’t saved me for power.
He saved me because he loved me before he even knew how to stop himself.
Six months later, Senator Bennett sat in federal prison while the DeMarco empire collapsed under federal investigation.
Luca disappeared from public life completely.
Most people assumed he fled.
They were wrong.
Every morning, he stood beside me in our little restaurant overlooking the water in Maine, wearing plain black sweaters instead of thousand-dollar suits.
Sometimes customers recognized him.
Sometimes they whispered.
But every evening, he still looked at me the same way he did the night I spilled martinis on his suit.
Like one accidental word had changed his entire life.
And honestly?
It had changed mine too.
